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True
or False? Termites from a particularly voracious
strain, their little pinchers salivating at the
prospect of dining on your home, are hitching rides
in cheap brands of Gulf Coast mulch delivered to the
shelves of popular big box home improvement outlets
in your neighborhood. What's more, the Gulf States,
anxious to rid the area of hurricane debris, are
shipping infected mulch out of state. False. It's
another one of those bogus emailed missives making
the rounds, buoyed by the fears of the uninformed.
Too often among the uninformed are professionals,
whose word is often respected as fact, but who are
much too quick with the forward-email trigger finger
when they should know better. Add to the list of
"urban legends" a Formosan termite scare
that is costing government agencies and others time
and money spent putting down unsubstantiated rumors.
The scare comes at a critical time when attention
shouldn't be diverted from the very real perils in
the recovering Gulf Coast region. "The email is
not accurate and doesn't even mention the
quarantines this department put in place last fall
to keep Formosan termites from spreading," said
commissioner of Louisiana's Agriculture and Forestry
Department, Bob Odom in the latest official
statement designed to quash the unfounded story.
"The Louisiana Department of Agriculture and
Forestry issued quarantines following the 2005
hurricanes for woody debris in Cameron, Calcasieu,
Jefferson, Jefferson Davis, Orleans, Plaquemines,
St. Bernard, St. Charles, St. John, St. Tammany,
Tangipahoa and Washington parishes. Woody debris
cannot be moved out of these areas without first
submitting a plan for treatment to the
department," he added. "I've had my people
out looking into these claims to make sure there are
no violations of the quarantine. I've also had our
invasive pest expert contact the stores mentioned in
the email and we've yet to find any validity to the
claims in the email," Odom said. He added that
the Internet is being used to spread hysteria about
a nonexistent problem and advised that anyone who
truly knows of quarantine violations should report
it to the department at (225) 925-3763, via email,
or by other methods available on the department's
website. It's true that vegetative and other debris
is being mulched throughout the Gulf Coast region
following the hurricanes of 2005, but only under
strict governmental controls including the
quarantines and long time programs like the Formosan
Termite Initiative which Louisiana and the region
has conducted for years to guard against the spread
of an insect that likes second, third and fourth
helpings of cellulose. The efforts are one of the
many reasons rebuilding can't commence as quickly as
some may wish. The quarantine specifically says,
"The movement of any wood or cellulose material
from the named parishes is prohibited unless either
(1) such wood or cellulose material has been
fumigated or otherwise treated for Formosan termites
and is approved for movement by the Commissioner or
his designee(s), or (2) the Commissioner or his
designee(s) gives written authorizations for
untreated wood or cellulose material to be moved
from the named parishes."
It's also true Formosan termites, inadvertently
transported from China to the Gulf Region by
military surplus pickups following World War II, are
bigger eaters than termites considered native to the
United States. Formosan termites can devour a
six-foot section of a two-by-four in a month. Native
termites would take "three to four times as
long," to munch the section into termite
pellets, said Alan L. Morgan, associate professor in
the Entomology Department at Louisiana State
University's Agricultural Center in Baton Rouge,
which offers a host of factual, researched and
documented information about the buggers. Morgan
also said in addition to having bigger appetites,
Formosans create larger colonies and are more
tenacious than native cellulose crunchers.
"They have the ability to get into live trees
and establish colonies there. That's the problem
with the mulch. Trees are blown down and they are
chipping them to get rid of them. Native termites
are never found in trees," Morgan said. But he
was quick to point out exterminating Formosans
requires the same chemicals and methods used to
terminate native termites. "It's more
aggressive control, but the methods are the
same," the professor said, unaware of any
accurate reports that infested mulch left the
region.
"I don't think a large company distributing
mulch is going to basically break the law and go
against the quarantine. I just don't see this being
a big problem, unless someone is going to break the
law," Morgan said. It's easy to dispel the
Formosan termite ruse, and others like it -- with
the same technology typically used to spread them in
this Information Age. First, if it appears too awful
to be true, it probably is. Instead of hitting the
forward button on questionable email, pull a Google.
A "Formosan termites" Google puts the Ag
Center's online termite information center at the
top of the list of links, followed by information
from websites that expose hoaxes, "urban
legends" and rumors designed to dupe.
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