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Soil, Compost & Mulch

pine bark mulch/termites?

16 years ago

We had a large pine tree cut down and now have a large pile of shredded fresh pine bark mulch. I planned to put it on the beds around the house. Problem, a neighbor told me he read on the internet that pine bark attracts termites due to its fragrance and that it should not be used as mulch, at least not near a building. Has anyone heard of such a thing or had experience using fresh pine bark mulch?

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Comments (3)

digdirt2
16 years ago
Studies done at the University of Iowa and University of Maryland show no correlation between the use of wood mulches of any kind and the presence of termites...unless the termites were already there. ;) They are underground dwellers so using any kind of mulch can indirectly create a cool moist habitat that they would like but wood chipped mulch dries out faster than many others so the risk is considered less with its use than with plastic or gravel.

To prevent problems it is generally recommended that you just be sure that it does not touch the foundation of your house, the siding, or any other wood structures such as deck supports, or steps. Keep the mulch about 18" away from the foundation of your house.

Dave
tclynx
16 years ago
I live in FL where there is a saying about houses. "There are those that have termites and those that will have termites." Anyway, termites are active year round here and there are many that fly and get into houses from the attic vents but that is kinda beside the point.

Termites like moist dead wood, they will also make tunnels up a foundation to get into the wood structure of a home. Keep the area right around the foundation clear so you can inspect.

I have actually seen termites in large chunks of wood mulch. I don't know that it attracts termites but if they are there and it is moist, they will like it.

All that said, I use lots of chipped up trees around my house as mulch, I just try to keep it a foot or so away from the foundation. It is good to inspect along the foundation for their tunnels going up looking for a way in. And take care of moisture problems since termites and carpenter ants have far more trouble eating dry wood than they do moist wood.

Just so you know which grain of salt to take with my two cents, my house is concrete block with wood roof and wood interior structure. I might not be so willing to use wood chip mulch if my home were log or timber frame.
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Wood mulch does not attract termites; on the contrary, termites prefer a more higher nutrient woody material such as cardboard. Still, you don't want such critters in your mulch, so while it is in such state, spread it out, and apply what will kill them. You might want to spread it out on a plastic sheet or something else so that the buggers cant escape into the soil to further produce young.
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I am at at Tim Horton's parking lot (free WiFi) so that I can get on my macbook to find a thread in the Hosta forum somewhere that could help me remember exactly what size pine to use in my media for my pots. Well, lo and behold I found this perfect thread and I thought it could use a 'bump' for this season considering there have been media questions. Anyway, now I can go back into Canadian Tire feeling confident that I will buy the right stuff. You should have seen the young lads face when I couldn't decide what to buy and I told him that I would be back after I visited my forum and asked my hosta friends :) Again...thanks so much to all of you really experienced folks who share your knowledge with the rest of us!
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The link did not appear in my previous post. Here it is: http://forums2.gardenweb.com/discussions/2805869/container-soils-water-movement-and-retention-xxi You need chunks of bark. Not shredded. The chunks allow for creation of air spaces while the shreds do not. Also, those shreds are sapwood which decompose quickly using up the nitrogen that should be going to the tree and result in compaction of the soil which will lead to root rot. Chunks of bark are not sap wood, they are bark and do not decompose as readily.
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Kimmsr
16 years ago
Termites do not have the olfactory sense (smell) that we do so a fragarant mulch is not going to attract them. The termites you might find around you will only eat dry wood, so the damp mulches are not going to attact them either except maybe, possibly as a place of abode since they do need someplace to live that is moist and cool. However in 34 years of mulching with various materials I have not found termites (they are around here) in the mulches. I have found termites eating away at the dry wood scraps the previous owners tossed in the crawl spaces of this house, however.

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