This was on top of my raised bed. It's three photos of the same thing taken at night. It looks like goopy yellow corn meal. I've seen this crap before in another place in my yard. It seems to appear quickly. Animal barf?
Well, I think I've found the answer. It's slime mold. I'm amazed at how quickly it appears. I thought it might be deer vomit, but I guess not.
http://en.allexperts.com/q/Wild-Animals-705/2010/7/Deer-vomit.htm
I seem to be getting a lot of questions about this weird yellow stuff, and finally someone sent me a picture. It's slime mold! If you turn a hose on it after it turns brown, and the pile erupts into a cloud of fine, brown dust, then that's what you're seeing.
The most common slime molds are yellow. They are multi-nucleate masses of cytoplasm that blorp along the ground in wet habitats (usually at night when it's wet with dew), ingesting microorganisms. When the weather dries out, the plasmodium (the term for the "body" of the organism) begins to dry up and produce spores. Those are the brown dust particles you'll see if you spray it with a hose.
If your stuff is anything like the stuff in the picture I was sent, then that's what you have. You can see pictures for comparison here:
http://tinyurl.com/265p75q
Well, I think I've found the answer. It's slime mold. I'm amazed at how quickly it appears. I thought it might be deer vomit, but I guess not.
http://en.allexperts.com/q/Wild-Animals-705/2010/7/Deer-vomit.htm
I seem to be getting a lot of questions about this weird yellow stuff, and finally someone sent me a picture. It's slime mold! If you turn a hose on it after it turns brown, and the pile erupts into a cloud of fine, brown dust, then that's what you're seeing.
The most common slime molds are yellow. They are multi-nucleate masses of cytoplasm that blorp along the ground in wet habitats (usually at night when it's wet with dew), ingesting microorganisms. When the weather dries out, the plasmodium (the term for the "body" of the organism) begins to dry up and produce spores. Those are the brown dust particles you'll see if you spray it with a hose.
If your stuff is anything like the stuff in the picture I was sent, then that's what you have. You can see pictures for comparison here:
http://tinyurl.com/265p75q
