So on our daily check of the garden we came across this yellow substance that is a pretty strange sight. It's not bug eggs, but actually slime mold which can spread across mulch when temperatures get warm and humid. Slime Mold is part of the Myxomycetes family, it feeds on micro-organisms and is in no way parasitic. It prefers moist conditions and as it dries it turns a tanish-brown color. Pesticides and other chemicals do not effect it and it will most likely go away on it's own but you could scoop it out or bury it under if it's appearance gets to be too much.
SLIMETRAK
Currently Slime Mold is being studied all over the world and is featured in this article by Wired magazine for their unique ability to build efficient networks of travel. Slime mold designing our transportation networks?! I would never have thought that in a million years just by looking at it.
Aren't slime molds cool!? We found a lot of slime mold here, a bright orange variety, after some intense rains earlier this year. There's a link to a nifty time lapse film from YouTube at the end of our post that shows how slime molds grow:
ReplyDeletehttp://curbstonevalley.com/blog/?p=1179
Sorry for the link, but I do think slime molds are such fun!
I had no idea about this whole world. Amazing video, thank you!
ReplyDeleteI actually found some of this in our garden yesterday and was hoping it was fungi and not pest eggs. Thanks for posting this!
ReplyDelete