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Hi All,
I am a new user. I was after any helpful advice from anyone who has had to manage deadly mushrooms in their garden. I have a lawn area that has confirmed Pholiotina rugosa and a suspect Concybe sp amongst others. The front yard has A.muscaria and a Cortinarius sp which looks a bit sinister.
Since identifying the P.rugosa I’ve kept my dogs away from the grass because I have a low risk tolerance for these things. Especially because in Melbourne, Australia we have periods of rain even in summer, so it’s a bit unpredictable.
Management - Not sure what works. When I find any known toxic mushrooms I tend to dig them out, pour boiling water around the area and back-fill with washed sand to reduce nutrients in that spot. I also aerate the soil when it’s wet.
My quests are: (i) is there anything else I can do to keep the mushrooms at bay and (ii) how do others manage this situation? Do you keep the area off limits or just check regularly for growth after rains?
I really don’t want to lose a dog(s) to a deadly mushroom. My OCD-tendencies and risk aversion have led me to close-off the lawn (which, ironically, I actually laid for the dogs!). It’s a real imdediment and people have said let you dogs be dogs and hope for the best - just seems careless to me. I’d value any advice, especially those who are in a similar situation.
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Hi!
I’m not well versed in whether or not dogs like to eat mushrooms or not, so I can’t really weigh in on that part - hopefully someone else can get back to you on that. I’ve heard the ‘let dogs be dogs’ argument before and understand your concerns. I’d pick the mushrooms as they pop up and dispose of them somewhere where the dogs can’t reach them. Picking them without hand protection is absolutely okay, as no mushroom is toxic on contact.
I’m not familiar with using boiling water on the soil, but a big thing about mushrooms is that the mycelial networks underground that produce the fruiting bodies (the mushrooms) are usually very persistent and strong, and run very deep and over a wide area of soil, so I doubt this is an effective strategy. As far as I know, there’s really nothing you can do to kill off mycelium. These organisms have evolved for millions of years, and are capable of withstanding quite a lot!
You can check the lawn every few days or so for new fruitings and dispose of them. And then let the pups outside - they need the outdoors!
If you believe your dog has eaten one of the toxic mushrooms, you should call your local poison control hotline for more information, and monitor the dog’s behavior.
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Thanks for your kind reply. Yes, I thought my attempts to reduce the chance of mushrooms was futile :( The dogs get to runaround the patio area but not the same as rolling in grass. We have clay soil, so once it gets thoroughly wet, it stays wet for months. Which is why I still get mushrooms after a bit of rain in summer. It’s been 30Celcius these past few days with no rain, so I will likely open-up the lawn and let them run around with supervision. One of the dogs is a real sniffer, so she will have a good hunt around for anything lying around, or growing. P.rugosa are quite small and sometimes hard to see if they are underneath the grass - perplexing.
I really appreciate your feedback and advice.
Thanks so much
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You might check the responses in some of these previous threads (including one started by you):
https://forum.inaturalist.org/t/how-worried-should-i-be-about-mushrooms-in-my-yard/44286
Thanks so much for the threads! Very helpful, especially, the ones related to OCD are helpful because I also have OCD, which makes me very risk averse. It’s hard to find a balance between being responsible but not overly cautious, or paralyzed with worry about the P.rugosa finding their way into my dog’s mouth…
I have a whole bunch of amanitas in my yard every summer, and our dog just leaves them alone.
I merged the threads and reopened since @spiphany noted, they are essentially the same question from the same user.
My dog died from messing with a cane toad. Ever since then, I have regretted not teaching him “leave it” – although I don’t know if dogs still apply that when they are out without their humans.
Hi Jason,
I’m so sorry to to hear about your dog. Cane toads are a menace! I think unsupervised dogs are always going to be difficult to keep safe. I know a dog trainer trained his dog to only eat from him - however if anything happens to him it’ll be a challenge to get his dog to eat!