Termites and Mulch

What did we ever do without pre-packaged mulch from the lawn-and-garden shop? Using this woody ground cover helps keep plants moist, prevents outbreaks of weeds and insulates all the living things it surrounds from the ravages of nature.

There is a downside. Termites thrive on wood. The big question is: Are you inviting these close relatives of cockroaches in to chew-up your mulch, and eventually your house?

These destructive, tiny beasts have a place on our planet. Known as detritivores, they have a purpose in life. A beneficial purpose, believe it or not. They’ve evolved to help the process of decomposition by consuming dead plants, especially wood. The bad thing is they can’t tell the difference between fallen materials in the forest and your home.

Generally when you’re purchasing some mulch at the local garden supply store, you’re buying cypress mulch. You can also grab a few bags of cedar, pine or other kinds of wood bits. As for the termites, they usually don’t like to eat this type of bark. The stuff doesn’t give them enough nutrition to survive. But they do like what the mulch gives them in another way – a home.

Remember, you bought the ground cover in the first place because you wanted to help your soil retain moisture and protect your plants from extreme weather. Guess what? Termites could use those two things, too. They enjoy setting up house out of the light of day in a wet place. Your mulch could very well be just the place they are looking for to raise a family.

As we noted earlier, these monsters are not discriminatory. They don’t care if you “mulch” your plants with wood, small stones or sea shells. They’ll thrive in any environment that shields them from the naked outdoors and keeps moisture trapped below the surface.

What you want to do is have your cake and eat it, too. There are some techniques you can employ to keep termites from burrowing into your home’s foundation.

• It’s not that underground termites hate cypress and pine mulches. Sometimes they will get a sweet tooth (or a sweet-mandible, if you will) for those woods. Best bet? Consider gravel mulch as opposed to the organic stuff.
• Don’t toss your bark up against the house. Set up a little-bitty firewall between your home and the garden. This barrier strongly discourages the buggers from skipping into your woodwork. It might not hurt if you got some simple termite preventative spray and spritzed that gulf every so often.
• Don’t go overboard with mulch. A couple inches are fine, but more than that create the perfect environment for termites.
• There is no such thing as insect-proof mulch. And if there is, you don’t want to buy any of it. It’s not treated with toxins. Instead it’s infused with certain strong perfumes that keep beneficial bugs from your garden.

Also, consider this analogy when picking your new load of mulch. You’re playing roulette. Place a chip on both the red and the black. You won’t win, but since you’ll break-even, you’ll live to play another day.