by Marlene Gundlach

Created on: May 28, 2008   Last Updated: June 10, 2008

My husband and I were bewildered for an entire summer trying to solve the mystery of the black spots that were covering my van. It was covered every day with more and more tiny black spots; tiny black spots that would not come off with just a sponge and some soap and water. We would have to get out a razor blade or the use the edge of a credit card to meticulously scrape off the hundreds of black spots each weekend. Hours of work each weekend, and the next morning they would reappear.

We began to notice a pattern. Depending on where the van was parked, one side of the van would be covered more than another. My husband announced, "I think it is spider droppings!" Um, yuck! So we tried parking away from the trees, but still found the tiny black spots plastered all over my van.

My suggestion was to do a little research about our little black problem. Never did I think I would ever Google the term "spider poop." We searched and found nothing conclusive, but determined that it was not little surprises from our eight legged friends in the trees. We finally found a clue as to what was happening. A blog about something called "artillery fungus" or "shotgun fungus." It grows in the mulch and looks like a spindly orange growth. The dark brown spore packets eventually accumulate material and then the packets burst open. The cells are propelled as high as 6 meters and adhere to.my van!

There is not a fungicide approved to kill this particular fungus and the only fix was to scrape off all of the old mulch and replace it with new; an expensive fix. But, it was better than our weekly scraping of the spots on my van.

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