I have a couple large patches of mushrooms coming up in my lawn and in bark mulch I put down last fall. Should I dig them out? Should I do anything else to make sure that they do not grow back? Or should I just leave them alone to die on their own?

The sudden appearance of mushrooms in our lawns always sets our blood racing. What caused these “alien life forms” to appear overnight? In reality, mushrooms are just the fruits of a fungus caused by rotting wood in the soil that may have come from past construction or old tree roots and stumps.

Since you are seeing them in bark mulch you applied, the fungus spores were probably in the mulch and while still dormant, hitched a ride into your yard. This doesn’t condemn your mulch source nor do you need to remove the existing mulch and put down fresh. Mushrooms do not harm the grass or the mulch.

They should, however, be hand-picked or raked out to prevent the fruiting bodies from producing more spores and increasing their numbers. If you mow over them, you may carry spores to other parts of your lawn on your mower blades. There is no chemical that will prevent them.

Since a fungus prefers moist, shady conditions, you may want to check how often you water your lawn and the amount of air circulating in that area. Removing the mushrooms present and monitoring your maintenance methods should decrease their colonization.