Mold in the soil

[m-jean03]

I've been weeding in the backyard today ... ferns and other nuisances sprout up pretty quickly in the Pacific NW... Anyway, I've been noticing a lot of mold right under the first layer of soil in a certain area. This happens to be an area near where I buried a dead bird a few months ago. I'm wondering if the mold is in any way related to the bird's decay.

Would appreciate any insight into this matter, thanks.

[m-jean03]

1. Kick

[Eye and Monkey]

2. well, I don't know if it's much insight, but -

We get mold in the soil frequently down here (South Louisiana). Alot of bedding plants and veggies are adversely effected. Tilling the soil and improving drainage helps. But if it's isolated to the spot where you buried the bird, it wouldn't seem to be much of a worry. And ferns - a nuisance? or volunteers?

for more - yahoo search, entering either +"mold" +"soil", or +"mold in soil"...for instance - I quickly found this site -
http://www.redpaw.net/molds.htm

[m-jean03]

3. Thanks Eye and Monkey -- interesting stuff

It's just that I had a minor panic attack about the mold in the area of the bird, as I am very averse to carrion and the mold that accompanies it due to some traumatic childhood discoveries. :scared:

As for the ferns, they're otherwise wonderful plants, but they take over our entire (dirt) backyard very quickly in the spring and are a pain in the butt to have to pull up and haul away a ton of. :-)

[kikiek]

4. Was the bird wild? Any chance West Nile? Nothing to do with the

mold. Have you had a lot of rain?

[m-jean03]

5. Yeah, lots of rain

Yes, it was a wild bird. Are you asking if it had West Nile? Probably not -- it was just a victim of our sliding glass back door. :(

[kikiek]

6. Bad/ good news about the door accident. I have found mold in

our grass here in MN during our wet and very humid summers. I bet if we get it here anyone can!!

[m-jean03]

7. OK, no problem, got it figured out

It's a common soil mold, not related to the carrion buried in my backyard. Phew! :-)