'Dog vomit mold' coming thanks to a mild winter, what you can do to avoid it or get rid of it
PITTSBURGH (KDKA) - It's coming.
There's nothing you can do to stop and frankly, it's gross.
We're talking about slime mold and it's not to be confused with the Nickelodeon slime.
This week's weather is the perfect recipe and it comes in many forms. It also can look like the fungus in The Last of Us and it's alarming when it hits your yard.
The name for it is dog vomit mold but given we're writing this around breakfast, we're going to use its other name, scrambled eggs mold.
"It's a slime mold and there are literally thousands of different slime molds," said Penn State Turf Management Expert Jeff Fowler.
He added that the slime molds are harmless.
"This year, in particular, is going to be, I predict, really bad for it because we had such a mild winter," Fowler said.
Fowler said normally the freeze in the winter does in the spores but because we really didn't have a cold winter that zapped the funguses that hang around.
As we await for a string of wet weather followed by a warm-up, Fowler said "It blows up, it really rears its ugly head."
That means rising out of the mulch, living in old tree roots, or other organic matter in the ground.
So, when that happens, how do you eliminate the ugliness?
"You can't go out and spray them with some magic dust to get rid of them," Fowler explained. "The best thing you should do is go out with a rake and kind of rake over then, break them up, and let them dissipate."
Fowler also said that it happens rather rapidly so do that in the morning and when you go back out in the afternoon, it's gone.
He also said you can simply do nothing. According to Fowler, if you leave it alone, it usually doesn't last more than just a few days and goes away on its own but it is ugly.
Once again, no need to worry, the stuff is not toxic or dangerous in any way. It won't hurt you, your pet, or even plants.
In fact, there have been instances of people in Mexico eating it!