Lawn mushrooms can make a fabulous lawn look unsightly. Most people are not familiar with why lawn mushrooms develop in their lawns. There can be several contributing factors as to why mushrooms are starting to appear in your lawn. Mushrooms are a fungus. The job of a fungus is to break down organic matter whether it be in your lawn, garden or landscape. The sign of mushrooms means that there are sources of organic matter breaking down in your lawn. Lawn mushrooms can form by animal waste, grass clippings or decaying tree material. If you have had a tree removed in the past few years, chances are that you did not get all of the old tree out of the ground. When old stumps and roots break down into organic matter, you might start to see lawn mushrooms break out where the tree once stood. The best way to keep this from happening is to remove as much of the old tree as possible.
If you have a damp or shaded are in your lawn, you might also be creating the optimal environment for lawn mushrooms to flourish. Lawn mushrooms are not necessarily a bad thing to have in your lawn. If you find them unsightly, you can manually remove them. If you prefer, some fungicides are labeled to control mushrooms. Ideally, if you want to remove mushrooms from your lawn, you need to remove the source of the problem. If you have large organic matter breaking down, consider removing it. If your lawn is consistently wet, fix your drainage problem. If your lawn is too shaded, consider pruning your trees to let more sunlight into your property. Sometimes even taking corrective action will not remove mushrooms from your lawn.
Most lawn mushrooms are harmless.
Most lawn mushrooms are harmless if you come in contact with them. I wouldn’t recommending eating any mushroom, unless you know what it is. Some lawn mushrooms are poisonous and may make you sick. If you hand pull mushrooms from your lawn, you shouldn’t have any problems with your skin absorbing them. If you are worried about contact with the mushrooms, just wear gloves.