Slime Molds

There are practically thousands of mold varieties out there; all of them pose some threat to your family’s overall health and well being. So how are slime molds different from any of its brethrens? This variety is usually found outdoors and people often mistake it as animal vomit or a yellow blob in their gardens. So if will carefully inspect your flower beds, the sides of your pots and soil, this unsightly mold deposits can turn from canary yellow, to gray and finally breaks down into some brown powdery deposits. These seemingly gooey masses usually act like some giant amoebas and slowly creep on the ground towards some food particles.

However, what sets slime molds apart from the rest of its fungi family is the fact that it causes little or no damage at all. It fact, a slime mold is considered as an ideal tools for some scientists who want to study mitosis or what is known as the process of nuclear division.

There are actually two main types of slime molds that are commonly found in your garden. The first one is the Plasmodial slime molds is basically a huge single cell that contains thousands of nuclei. It is often used in cytoplasmic streaming or in layman’s term the movement of cells mainly because such processes can easily be observed even under low magnification. There are roughly around 65 cellular and 500 identified plasmodial molds species that are readily found in cast forests and residential lawns all throughout the globe.

The second type is the cellular slime molds that also produces spores and germinates into some amoeba like cells. The unique thing about this type is the fact that when food and moisture are quite scarce, it has an unerringly ability to navigate past obstacles and find food, whether separately or as one big blob. Each single cell is capable of sending out some sort of a chemical beacon in order to attract other cells and join up into one mass that usually looks like a slimy slug. These slime molds usually eat decaying vegetations, bacteria and even other slime molds. It can reproduce through the fusing of two haploid amoebas and then later on engulfed with other neighboring amoebas in order to form one organism, which is known as macrocyst.

Slime molds are known to eventually disappear after some time when left alone. However, if its present in your garden, you might want to eliminate it as it generally spoil the appearance of your garden. You can easily remove it by using a rake or moved through if it is on a flat plane. However, you don’t have any of the garden implements, you can also easily turn your garden hose for a fill spray to wash it away.

Unlike other varieties of molds, this particular breed does not trigger any allergies or any health related illnesses. It is actually quite fascinating to watch its creeping behavior as in navigates its way to you garden. Since they have a rather limited lifetime, you need not worry about severe infestation and can easily be eliminated with relative ease unlike other types of molds.

There are a number of slime molds pictures online if you want to see what it really looks like. Graphic descriptions can only do so much, so the best way to identify slime molds in your neighborhood is to check out photos of this particular fungi specie online. Among the best websites that will provide you with great pictures of slime molds and other key information that you may want read can be readily access with a quick search online.