Siege of the Stinkhorns!

As I was out walking the hill above the Bayou, I came across something that did not make me overly happy. Normally, it is hard for me to find anything out in nature that irritates me but this nearly did just that. Our mulch guy is still dumping truckloads of mulch in the back of the house. There are huge mounds that Son goes out and spreads about in thick layers. Then when we need any for the gardens or pathways, he takes the wheelbarrow out to the heaps. The stuff is carted about the hillside to help with the landscaping projects. These mountains of mulch normally make me smile as I consider it all good for the earth. Today, however, the area did not bring smiles..it was more of ...EWWWWW! Yuck! Something smelled horrible! The stench in the area rivaled a thousand and one dirty socks! Nasty! The closer I got to the mulch piles, the stronger the stench. It smelled of rotting carrion or perhaps some massive dung pile! Ugh! Not again!

Holding my breath as I neared the mulch mountains, I could not believe what I saw. Thousands upon thousands of Stinkhorns! Devil's Toadstools! Those nasty, nasty, stinky mushrooms that smell up the place! Everywhere I looked, I saw red, gooey blobs of rotting stinkhorns, fresh perky stinkhorns and round, stinkhorn "eggs". Yep..eggs! I have a couple of little "grand-nephews" that labeled the the rounded sacks containing the new fungi as eggs. The "unhatched" stinkhorns look a lot like some strange alien egg pod that is erupting from the mulch pile so Ashton and Darius were not too far off in their descriptions. These two spend hours helping their "Mimi" (aka my sister) dig out the Devil's Toadstools and "mushroom eggs". It has become some sort of odd entertainment for the kids and sure helps my sister get her place stinkhorn free! I think those kids need to spend about the next two months digging these from my mulch mountains! The egg is sort of a dirty white blob that within a day or two will split open to reveal a new stinkhorn that will smell up the entire place. There were hundred and hundreds of eggs so I am sure that my stinkhorn days are far from over.

These stinkhorns are covered with a gooey slime that the bugs love. The stench draws the bugs near and once on the fungi, the spores stick to their legs. This spreads the spores far and wide creating "stinkhorn gardens" wherever the bug travels. I am supposing that no matter how many I pull up, I will never eradicate them completely. I am surrounded! Stinkhorns are taking over the Bayou area! Ashton! Darius! Bring your shovels and rescue me from the Stinkhorn Siege!