Black Spots On Siding In Clusters

Micro black spots on siding tags.

Black spots on siding in clusters.

The dark spots are indeed spores but they do not come from your oak trees. Shotgun fungus can shoot black spots on your house here s how to avoid the mess if you re seeing dark specks on your siding the culprit could be hiding in your mulch. They wont come off with plain high pressure water or a brush its even hard to scrape them off with my fingernail. Although it s most often found on the east coast it can grow anywhere and especially thrives in areas that have cool damp springs or rainy fall weather conditions.

I have hundreds of tiny black dots spread out all over my house. In the absence of direct sunlight it shoots the spores at highly reflective surfaces such as white house siding. They are the reproductive structures produced by artillery fungus sphaerobolus stellatus one of several fungi common on wood mulches used around plantings in home and commercial landscapes. The black tar like spots that are all over your vinyl siding are more than likely a fungus called sphaerobolus stellatus better known as artillery or shotgun fungus.

Are those spots alive. Are there any chemicals recommended that wont ruin my vinyl shrubs or lawn. Some tell us it s from spiders. Lawn garden we have thousands of tiny black spots pin head size all over the siding of our house.

In nature the artillery fungus shoots its spores towards sunlight.