Garden

[Spunkyspouts]

Hi folks, yuck, I warned you.

Ok, I went out to do some planting as a few things did not survive the winter. In one area I kept digging and turning over soil and I kept finding this disgusting white gunk that looks just like bird poop. It just was so gross and I kept turning it up everywhere that I dug. I normally reinforce this part of my garden with lots of store bought soil too and mulch, so I have no clue. it just gave me a bad feeling though.

The second thing is I have noticed that at night these worms are coming up on my deck and getting into a pet bowl. This just sends me to the end, I can hardly pick up the bowl. Clearly need to bring it in very early going forward, this is for a feral cat, he eats about 7.00 pm. They look like flat triangles too, not long earthworms, what are they and why are they here. I am not on the coast, so it cant be a snail right? I am disinfecting the deck tomorrow, but the thing is its clearly living below in the dirt.

Sorry people....this is n asty but I need to know on both fronts. I feel the land here is toxic personally, its just a feeling I cant prove.

[Tinkrbl44]

You should be talking to local nurseries and garden centers ..... people who are familiar with the area and its idiosyncrasies.

[OutofMadison]

I don't have a clue what the white gunk is but it sounds like it could be some type of mold or fungi. Do you have a local garden center that has an expert to help in these matters by testing the soil? The second problem - the only thing I can think of is slugs. I would try Sluggo Plus which takes care of a variety of these lovely things and is not harmful to pets. There may be home remedies - I know they say to put out tuna cans full of beer for snails.

[moto]

Not a regular gardener, but the white stuff sounds like a fungal decay, or mold. Has it been exceptionally wet in your garden? Google white fungus in soil and see if this is what you dirt looks like.

No idea on the worms, but if the bowl of food is drawing them, you need to remove it. Maybe set it in a box with rough gravel?

[Kachina624]

To gross you out further, when I lived in Houston I actually had slugs come in under the back kitchen door and get into the dog food bowls. I put a thin line of salt across the threshold and they disappeared. You can also put diatomaceous earth from a garden center around to get rid of snails and slugs. It's tiny crushed particles that are sharp to a slug but otherwise harmless. They stay away from the stuff because it will rip them apart.

[Spunkyspouts]

On 6/27/2014 kachina624 said: To gross you out further, when I lived in Houston I actually had slugs come in under the back kitchen door and get into the dog food bowls. I put a thin line of salt across the threshold and they disappeared. You can also put diatomaceous earth from a garden center around to get rid of snails and slugs. It's tiny crushed particles that are sharp to a slug but otherwise harmless. They stay away from the stuff because it will rip them apart.

I have some of that stuff, I actually put the bowl inside another bowl of water because we had ants too, tonight they actually had climbed over that somehow into the water and over onto the bowl. UGh!!! With the deck they climb right between the boards, so thats part of the problem.

About the soil, I am thinking mold, which again grosses me out. I have auto immune problems so bugs, germs and molds are not my thing. I guess I better armour up and deal.

[Spunkyspouts]

On 6/27/2014 Tinkrbl44 said:

You should be talking to local nurseries and garden centers ..... people who are familiar with the area and its idiosyncrasies.

I do not know if this happens to you, but it always seems when I ask things like this, they never know and look at me like I am nuts. I get tired of people just not being knowledgable and it seems to happen more and more, so I tend to just go to places where I think others are in the know and use the internet.

[ennui1]

The soil thing sounds like fungus. Is it cool and moist? Compost gets very warm.

Slugs -- can't help you there. Stop feeding them.

[NApickle]

Take a picture and send it to your local county extension agent. They should be able to help you. If they need to, they will send a sample to a state laboratory and give you the information you need. Have your soil tested. It will pay off in the long run.

[Spunkyspouts]

i found this on a forum

<table class="msgInfoTbl" border="0" cellspacing="0"> <tbody> <tr> <td class="msgEntry">GA Mod (Moderator)</td> </tr> <tr> <td>Date/Time</td> <td class="msgEntry">30 Apr 2010 1:10:47pm</td> </tr> <tr> <td>Subject</td> <td class="msgEntry">Re: White fungus/mould in the soil</td> </tr> </tbody> </table>

Hi all,

Apologies in the late reply, but here is the information I have from our researchers:

'It’s quite likely this is mycelium which are simply fungal threads. These are important decomposers (and a food source for some organisms) and not harmful.

It is really common to see fungal mycelium, particularly in fresh mulch and potting mix. They are quite hard to wet so can interfere with water penetration a bit. They would be from a range of different fungi but gobble up dead organic matter not live plants. There are some insects that could look like this stuff (woolly aphid on apples & cottony cushion scale) but would rub off or be squishy for ID purposes....'

Hope this information is of help. If you're still not sure if that is what you have, it might be a good idea to take a sample to your local nursery and see if someone there can identify it for you.

All the best!