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Pest Crew
I woke up one morning in August to notice a bunch of gray-green colored
mushrooms growing in my bermudagrass lawn. These big things seemed to just
appear in my yard overnight and after looking a bit closer, I noticed that they
were growing either in a big circle or an arc. They were scattered over a big
area in my back yard. The grass does not appear to be dying. Where did these
things come from and will they hurt my grass? (Steve in Little Rock).
These mushrooms that you saw are probably the result of a lawn problem
called "Fairy Ring". Many types of fungal microorganisms can cause fairy
ring. These microorganisms live in the thatch layer and soil and send up a
mushroom when they reach a certain stage of growth. These mushrooms often
appear during the summer or fall and produce spores that enable the fungus
to spread to other locations, usually by wind or splashing water. The spores
are released from the mushroom and sometimes appear as a "brown powder".
Some of these mushrooms are poisonous. The microorganisms that cause are
often associated with decaying wood that is buried in the soil. This wood
may be an old tree stump or even old building materials that were buried in
the soil. Fairy rings are mostly cosmetic in the home lawn, but can have a
significant impact on the golf course. Homeowners should just mow these
mushrooms off or physically remove them as soon as they are seen, since they
can be poisonous to pets or children. For additional information refer to
