Slime Mold Attacks! Blame Heat Wave!

Sorry for the National Enquirer imitation, but I was pretty taken aback Wednesday evening when I discovered these tan blobs on the mulch in one of my gardens. It’s slime mold and it looked like the world’s largest bird poop, sort of. Other sources compare it to dog vomit.

I didn’t know what it was at first, but after taking a photo and a quick Internet search, I discovered that I have “slime mold.” This basically harmless fungi preys on garden mulches in times of high heat and humidity. That it occurred now makes sense since we’ve been setting humidity records nearly every day this week and the temps have been consistently in the 90s during the day. The mold “engulfs its food,” according to this helpful article from Texas A&M University. There isn’t much to do about the mold except control watering and hope for drier days ahead. Fortunately, those are in the forecast for next week.