As you may have guessed, I have been inundated with an e-mail chain warning of termites in mulch since day one.  At one point, I received over 150 of them in one day.  Being the Garden Guy in Houston, I guess everybody thought I ought to know!  So, from that perspective, I appreciate the info.

But here's the deal: IT’S AN E-MAIL HOAX – THERE IS NO VALIDITY TO THE CLAIM! And, if you trust me on that, you can go about your business and you don’t even need to read the rest of this missive.

But for those who need a bit more info and like to read about this stuff, let me first lighten the mood a little. With tongue firmly planted in cheek, my first answer to the hundreds of e-mail posts I’ve gotten on this should have been  “… if you listen to my radio program you wouldn’t be buying your mulch from a big box store in the first place, so what are you worried about?” 

Nevertheless, is this possible?  I suppose anything is possible, but it’s not very probable for a hundred reasons.  First, the essence of the termite story was not about trees being mulched up, it was about the re-use of lumber from demolished houses, and their likelihood of harboring termites. I believe this is the link that started the whole e-mail hoax. www.agctr.lsu.edu/termites/

Locally, if you buy mulches from reputable dealers based in Texas who focus only on recycling local products, there isn’t anything to worry about.  For example, Living Earth Technology only uses local recycling debris for their mulches.  Natures Way Resources uses native Texas material as well. Local mulch distributors/makers wouldn’t even have the capacity to take in something from another state, since they have more than they can handle right here.  And quite frankly, even before the e-mail scare, Living Earth and Nature’s Way were the two main sources of mulches I encouraged using anyway.  And their products can never be found at a big box store.  Instead, they are found at independent nurseries and garden centers throughout the Houston area. 

Now let’s add to this discussion an excerpt from the chapter on mulches in my new book Gulf Coast Gardening with Randy Lemmon:

You can always bet that when someone tells a consumer that mulches attract termites, they are usually selling something on the other end of the statement.  It could be another mulch alternative they’re pedaling, or even a termite control.  It’s simply not true that mulches “attract” termites. Yes, termites love cellulose material, but they aren’t attracted to shredded mulches in the first place.  And termites are pretty much already there.  THEY’RE EVERYWHERE.  Bottom Line:  Don’t let anyone convince you that shredded wood mulches are going to attract termites.  They much prefer the white woods that lumber usually comes from; not decomposing shards of what used to be wood, now mixed with composts, or already decomposing on its own.

So, let’s do the math:  Take the claim in the e-mail chain and add to it the actual termite link from above and its information, then factor in the claim in my book.  What this totals up to is one big e-mail hoax, probably by someone who doesn’t want you buying certain mulch that probably has its genesis in Louisiana.  The likelihood of any of that stuff coming here for recycling purposes are SLIM and NONE -- and SLIM is walking out the door as we speak. 

However, with all that said, we are coming up on the typical swarming season for termites.  I think whoever perpetuated this hoax knew this as well.   People are going to see some termites swarming on the siding or eaves of a house. Then, they’ll read the e-mail hoax, do their own math, and come up with the wrong answer.

But if you do see these kinds of termite swarms in the coming weeks, don’t panic. Just call a reputable pest control company like the ones I endorse on Gardenline.   WWW.abcpest.com, for example.

Let me also say that the first thing I do (and you should too) anytime there’s a questionable e-mail claim, is to check out the myth-busting Web site www.snopes.com   And, you guessed it, they already have this claim up on their site.  They just haven’t been so bold to say that the claim is FALSE, just yet.