How do I kill mushrooms?

How do I kill a few hundred mushrooms?

I have a porous rock (probably slag from a steel mill type of firing) walkway north of the Outhouse (shed attached to north side of my garage/shop). Over the years I have had spurts of about 4 to 18 mushrooms growing there. Then it might go for months before another batch appear. Last time I was out there (yesterday I think) there were none. Today there are a hundred. The red "rock" is black with spores.

In the past I have carefully dug up the few mushrooms and the "rock" in the immediate area and disposed of them. If I dig this mess up I will have some problems disposing of the stuff. I will have to purchase over a hundred dollars worth of the red "rock" to replace the bad area.

It has been a vveeerrrryyyy long time since I had botany in my school courses. I just remember that this stuff is very difficult to get rid of. I could go to the nearest nursery for info. It is a half-hour away through So. Calif. traffic so I am asking here. Does anyone out there know what I can do?

I tried a search. However, all I found out was that a bunch of our FWW members did something with mushrooms at a small concert called Woodstock. All they can seem to remember was the problems getting to the concert and waking up a few days later someplace or another. That does not help me kill mushrooms; entertaining, yes; kill mushrooms, no.

HELP. I AM BEING INVADED!!

Not Enjoying,

JimB
 
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The tip in Don's link about using fertilizer is a good one. :thumb:

Another choice is bleach, it will kill the 'srooms & the spores, but also any surrounding grass & or plants....use carefully if you choose this route.

That's all I've got for now, all the pretty colors are distracting me, and the hookah smoking caterpillar keeps interrupting my train of thought.
 
There are granular fungus control products sold in the fertilizer section of your nearest store that sells that kind of thing.


Or you could call some of those hippies from Woodstock and your mushrooms will be gone in no time.
 
FWIW, in the S.F. Bay area, every year there are stories in the paper about some recent immigants who collect 'death cap' mushrooms in the parks in the area and cook them and end up killing themselves. Apparently the mushrooms look pretty much like what they were used to collecting in their country of origin. So, Consider this a killjoy warning about eating things you find on the ground.

But I do remember mushroom hunting with my dad in SE Iowa. I can still remember how good those morels we found tasted when my Grandma cooked them up...
 
Perhaps boiling water if you can manufacture get enough of it.... I haven't tried it on mushrooms specifically but its murder on the moss on the driveway. I found this out by accident doing beer brewing and was dumping some excess and voila all the moss it hit went shrively poo.. Further research (yaah interwebs) indicated that it was useful for various weed and see killing for the anti-herbicide using crowd. The problem is that you need a metric boatload of it to do much... so unless you have a 10+ gallon kettle you can get to temp this is probably useless advice :dunno:

For weeds I also use a blow torch (like this: http://www.harborfreight.com/propane-torch-91033.html ) which shrivels their divels (fastest way to clear weeds off of a gravel driveway, The "preen" anti sprout stuff wasn't quite cutting it). Only takes a short "hit", the intense heat actually pops the plant cells and kills them within a few days thereafter. I suspect that it wouldn't work on mushrooms though because the mycelia strands are below ground and thus protected.

Purveyors of chemical control substances indicates that a Bayleton based herbicide/fungicide in the 1.5–3 pounds per 1000 square feet might work (and that ~6lbs/1000 sq ft acts as a control against sporulation).

Also see this for more ideas: http://www.ehow.com/how_4460725_stop-mushrooms-from-growing.html - less acid more base (in keeping with the thread I suppose).
 
Do they look like this? The Shaggy Main or Ink Cap mushroom likes to grow by paths, it very tasty. But all mushrooms can cause issues with different people, it's like allergies, some people can eat even the most poisonous mushrooms with no effect and others can't eat the ones they sell in the grocery store. The way I was taught was to try a very small portion and increase the amount until you can eat a plate full, if your not dead you can eat that kind of mushroom. :rofl:
shaggyMainMushroom.jpg
 
I am an avid morel mushroom fan. The 3rd year after we moved to Idaho, an elk hunting friend invited us to go mushrooming the next spring. My wife was in heaven with all of our kitchen counter tops covered with 1/2 sliced morels while she par-fried them in butter before freezing them for later consumption. As she was cooking them she yelled "Now this place feels like home." When the weather cooperates here, we have morels yearly in our kitchen

That being said, we also have "false morels" here which are deadly toxic.While in Canada opening a Boy Scout camp for the summer with my FIL and 20 of his friends, we found morels that were bright red due to the iron content. We ate them with no effects and yet the false morels here are purple and will kill you. Hunting mushrooms requires some knowledge and preferably some tutelage.

My Mom and one of my sisters loved morels when they were younger but can't eat them now as they have become allergic to them.
 
My Mom and one of my sisters loved morels when they were younger but can't eat them now as they have become allergic to them.

That's tragic! :( Mushrooms are a favorite food. Mostly here I find puffballs, shaggymanes and meadow mushrooms (agaricus campestris) which are safely edible. I have seen one morel in all the years I have looked for them, and it was so wormy that it was inedible.
 
View attachment 66686View attachment 66687View attachment 66688Guess I should have done this sooner. Pics! The patch runs from the back yard to the front yard, north of the outhouse. It ranges from about six-inches wide to a little over two-feet wide. The little buggers all seem to be part of the same family.

I cannot do a lot of the logical methods of killing them off. I cannot move the house to give the area more sun. There is no irrigation there so I cannot stop irrigating. The same thing applies to many of the remedies on the web site. Therefore I will go to Home Depot if a couple of the things FWW members don't work.

Thanks a Million.

Wish me Joy in my killing spree.

JimB
 
LOML and I killed a half pound for dinner tonight with some butter, a little EVOO, thyme, rosemary, chopped onion, minced garlic and a couple of ounces of chardonnay to finish the saute. Went great with beef tips, brown gravy over egg noodles and a side salad. And, we never left home. Have I told you I like to cook as well as make sawdust? Wood chips are good fiber, right??? :huh:
 
Hi Jim,

You are probably right that all the little buggers are part of the same family. The part you see is literally just the tip of the iceburg - kind of like the flower on a plant. The mycelium is the actual feeding part of the organism and can be quite huge :eek:

How deep does that red rock go? You may try raking it up and turning it over, spraying with a bit of boric acid. Be careful with the stuff if you grow anything in the area -- too much boric acid can prevent anything from growing in the area for a very long time. Any solution to the problem has to deal with the 90% of the mushroom that is underground that you don't see.
 
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