Black Spots On Vinyl Siding Mulch

It s on the porch my windows but it is worse on the siding.

Black spots on vinyl siding mulch.

I have been experimenting with various solutions on my vinyl siding to remove the spots. Artillery fungus is a wood dwelling fungus commonly found in mulch. These are microscopic flowers that shoot tar like substance up the 2. A side of my house in new york is covered in the dots.

It goes all the way up to my second story windows and is even under my soffit and on my gutters. Use big pieces of pine bark or other bark mulch which are a less hospitable place for the fungus. Others have said it s a fungus from mulch. 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. John shows you images o. The mulch is being contaminated by artillery fungus also known as sphaeobolus stellatus. Some tell us it s from spiders.

We have these small black spots that look like specks of tar all over our white vinyl siding of our house. This will buy you a year before the fungus reaches to the top of the new mulch. Here is what the spores look like on the vinyl siding. A first use a scraper or wire brush and scrape over a section of affected vinyl siding.

Replace wood mulch with landscape fabric and small stones. I ve found the following over the counter product works with elbow grease to remove the spots. You can power wash them off of vinyl siding but such methods can be damaging to cars and wood siding. The black tar like spots that are all over your vinyl siding are more than likely a fungus called sphaerobolus stellatus better known as artillery or shotgun fungus although it s most often found on the east coast it can grow anywhere and especially thrives in areas that have cool damp springs or rainy fall weather conditions.

We have thousands of tiny black spots pin head size all over the siding of our house. Plant a low maintenance groundcover in the area instead of using mulch. The worst thing about this fungus is that it shoots spores up to 20 feet which often land on siding cars. Here is a photo of what the actual fungus that produces the black spores.