Mold Spores From Mulch On Vinyl Siding

The artillery fungus or shotgun fungus is a wood decay fungus that likes to live on moist landscape mulch.

Mold spores from mulch on vinyl siding.

Even with new landscaping it s a good idea to have the proper cleaner for artillery mulch on hand to avoid mold looking stains on your property. In home gardens it often takes up residence in wood mulch. It s called artillery fungus because it looks like bullets hit your house it looks like a bunch of black dots all over. It s hard to see shotgun fungus itself because it s only 2 millimeters wide.

Here is a photo of what the actual fungus that produces the black spores. In effect it looks like someone shot your house with little tiny bullets. Here is what the spores look like on the vinyl siding. When it is time for it to reproduce the fungus lives up to its name and shoots tiny spores in all directions.

Also the use of gravel or plastic mulch will not. These sticky black dots cling to vinyl siding like glue. Bark mulch whether natural or dyed adds an attractive finished look to the garden while keeping down weeds and holding in moisture. We have not found a good efficient way to get them off without leaving a stain or damaging the siding especially on old dry siding.

The worst thing about this fungus is that it shoots spores up to 20 feet which often land on siding cars. In order to kill artillery mold you must remove the spores from your siding and from the contaminated mulch that brought the spores to your home. There is research to suggest that blending mushroom compost at a rate of 40 with landscape mulch can suppress the spores. There is no fungicide registered as an artillery fungus treatment.

Also known as artillery or cannonball fungus sphaerobolus it uses internal water pressure to forcefully fire its spores similar to seeds up to 20 feet away the fungus sets its sights on bright areas so that means it will aim for any pale surface that reflects light such as the siding on your house. How to get rid of mold spores in bark mulch. Pressure wash the siding on your house. The spore masses of the artillery fungus stick like super glue.

How do i get the artillery fungus off my house siding. Its primary job is to decay dead wood. Artillery fungus lives in mulch. You can power wash them off of vinyl siding but such methods can be damaging to cars and wood siding.

You can also add about three inches of fresh mulch on top of the existing to suffocate the spores and stop them from latching on to your siding. Power washing may work on brand new only vinyl siding that still has a shiny oily sheen. The benefits of. To remove artillery fungus from siding you have to physically scrape it off.

This mold found on house siding looks like small black dots.