Poisonous Mushrooms Can Be Deadly

[Ciri]

Recently my desert tortoise ate a poisonous mushroom that had come up in the backyard without my knowledge. Apparently due to the monsoon rains we get here in Tucson, these mushrooms can come up anywhere. Now that I have learned more, I know many of the poisonous ones are white or brown, but may be other colors too. My tortoise became very ill, was treated by a veterinarian who is a reptile specialist, but did not survive. I removed the mushrooms, but they've come back repeatedly. I'm looking into how to treat the soil so that mushrooms will be unlikely to grow there. A gardener told me to use sulfur, so I'm looking into organic sulfur to put down the ground to change the pH and prevent mushrooms from growing there. It's a very tiny patch of the backyard, and the mushrooms were really hard to see as most of them blended in with the grass. I wanted to warn others who have desert tortoises in hopes no one else has to go through this.

 

[wellington]

Hello,and Welcome. So sorry it's under these conditions. So sorry for your loss. Thank you very much for joining this great forum to warn us of these mushrooms and how fatel they are. I do hope you stick around. Again, I am so sorry.

 

[Prairie Mom]

Recently my desert tortoise ate a poisonous mushroom that had come up in the backyard without my knowledge. Apparently due to the monsoon rains we get here in Tucson, these mushrooms can come up anywhere. Now that I have learned more, I know many of the poisonous ones are white or brown, but may be other colors too. My tortoise became very ill, was treated by a veterinarian who is a reptile specialist, but did not survive. I removed the mushrooms, but they've come back repeatedly. I'm looking into how to treat the soil so that mushrooms will be unlikely to grow there. A gardener told me to use sulfur, so I'm looking into organic sulfur to put down the ground to change the pH and prevent mushrooms from growing there. It's a very tiny patch of the backyard, and the mushrooms were really hard to see as most of them blended in with the grass. I wanted to warn others who have desert tortoises in hopes no one else has to go through this.

My heart just breaks for you! I'm so sorry you had to go through this and think you are so thoughtful to warn others. Take care!

 

[Jacqui]

I am sorry to read this. Did you happen to take a picture of the type of mushroom you had this horrible issue with?

 

[ascott]

I am sorry for the ordeal you and the tort had to endure.....how did the vet determine that the source of poison was a mushroom? Which type did the vet identify...?

 

[Ciri]

Hello,and Welcome. So sorry it's under these conditions. So sorry for your loss. Thank you very much for joining this great forum to warn us of these mushrooms and how fatel they are. I do hope you stick around. Again, I am so sorry.

Thank you very much. Yes, I will stick around.

 

[Ciri]

My heart just breaks for you! I'm so sorry you had to go through this and think you are so thoughtful to warn others. Take care!

Thank you. It's been a nightmare which I hope no other tortoise and their human ever has to ever endure.

 

[Ciri]

I am sorry for the ordeal you and the tort had to endure.....how did the vet determine that the source of poison was a mushroom? Which type did the vet identify...?

The vet determined that he was sick from a poisonous mushroom by doing a blood test. The test showed that he had very low blood sugar and blood protein. This is an indicator of toxic mushroom poisoning. After he'd told me that I searched my yard and found the mushrooms in question. I gave him samples and he confirmed that they were indeed poisonous. The white mushroom was particularly poisonous, but the brown mushrooms were poisonous as well. There was a small bite taken out of the white mushroom, and that mushroom was growing in dirt without any grass around it. The brown mushrooms were hidden in the grass. He was most suspicious of the white mushroom, but it was unclear whether he was sure that was it or not.

I removed the mushrooms but they came back six days later. I removed them again and they were back three days later. I had a hard time finding all of them, so someone helped me and he found a few more that I was able to see.

 

[ascott]

MUSHROOMS IN LAWN
Why They Form, And How To Get Rid of Them

Mushrooms are truly unique organisms, and their ability to recycle agricultural wastes, tree stumps, and other decomposing matter is usually not fully appreciated because they tend to do it right in the middle of our well cared for lawns!

Now the mushroom-producing fungi that we are going to talk about today are lawn management or nuisance problems but do not necessarily cause lawn diseases.

Mushrooms, sometimes called toadstools, are the reproductive (fruiting) structures of some kinds of fungi. Other reproductive structures sometimes found in lawns include inky caps, puffballs, stinkhorns, and bird's nests.

Many fungi do not produce visible fruiting structures, including those that cause many lawn diseases. Most fungi in lawns however, are beneficial because they decompose organic matter, thereby releasing nutrients that are then available for plant growth.

In order to understand what is involved in the permanent removal of lawn mushrooms, it is important to know where they come from, and what causes them.

Lawn mushrooms are simply the product of fungi infested in your yard soil in one or more areas of your yard. They are actually the fruit of this fungus, and feed off different sources that could be present.

Lawn mushrooms feed off decaying matter such as:

Old mulch
Animal waste
Rotting tree stumps

Abundance of food sources for the fungi in your yard soil will pretty much ensure the presence of lawn mushrooms in your yard. The more food sources for the fungi, the bigger the lawn mushrooms will grow.

That's the reason sometimes the lawn mushrooms will be very large, and sometimes they will be very small. It all depends on the amount of food sources the fungi has available. Permanently ridding your yard of lawn mushrooms means totally eliminating the food sources for the fungi, but we'll get into that in a minute.

Mushrooms in Lawns

Because mushrooms are merely the fruiting bodies of fungi, removing them does not kill the underground mycelia from which they are growing. Picking mushrooms, puffballs, stinkhorns, or other reproductive structures soon after they appear may prevent their spores from spreading to new sites.

Because most spores are wind-blown long distances however, they can easily come into a lawn from neighboring areas. The primary reasons for removing mushrooms from lawns are to keep them away from children and pets (because you don't want them eating them by accident) and to improve the lawn's appearance.

Mushrooms in Newly Laid Sod

Mushrooms often appear in a new sod lawn during the period of sod establishment because new sod lawns require frequent irrigation to become established, creating an ideal environment for the growth of mushrooms. The mushrooms do not harm the lawn and will disappear when irrigation is reduced.

Why Mushrooms Form

Mushrooms found in lawns often develop from buried scraps of construction lumber, dead tree roots, or other organic matter. The fungi that produce these mushrooms are beneficial because they decompose organic matter in the soil, making nutrients available to other plants.

These mushrooms usually are harmless to grasses, but some people consider them unsightly or want to get rid of them because young children play in the area.

LIFE CYCLE OF A FUNGUS

The mushrooms that you see are not the whole fungus. You are in fact seeing the fruiting body, which has a prime function of spreading spores to create new colonies. It is what's going on under the ground, that keeps the fungus alive.

Most mushrooms reproduce asexually by releasing thousands of spores through their gills into the open air for dispersion into the environment.

Here is the mushroom life cycle simplified:

It all starts when the spores are released from the gills, (or whichever surface the mushroom happens to carry spores on). Millions of spores are released into the elements, (air, water, animals..) these spores are dispersed by various methods, (depending on the kind of mushroom).

When the conditions are right, the spores germinate sending out tiny threads called hyphae (single: hypha). In order for the hyphae to develop and eventually produce a mushroom it has to find other hyphae that are compatible.

When two compatible hyphae meet, they fuse together to form a network or threads called a mycelium. This mycelium eventually forms what is known as a hyphal knot which grows and develops into a pinhead which in turn grows and develops into a mushroom and then it all starts again.

Though the fruiting body of the fungus only stays around for a matter of days in most cases, the main body of the fungus, under the ground, can last for years, and only produce fruiting structures when conditions are favorable, such as after periods of prolonged wet weather, or when there is a sudden change in weather e.g. warm and sunny one day, cold and rain the next.

This is what usually triggers them to grow. Each fruitbody contains thousands of spores and if one lands in a suitable site, it will germinate and grow to form a new mycellium.

MEANS OF CONTROL

Reduce Irrigation:

Many mushrooms are associated with over-irrigation or poor drainage, and mushrooms tend to go away as the soil dries out. So water your yard less.

Better Air Movement:

Removing excess thatch and aerating the soil to improve water penetration may help in some cases, so you may want to think about having it dethatched and aerated to allow better air movement.

Fertilize:

You can sometimes eliminate mushrooms growing from organic matter by applying nitrogen fertilizer. This helps, because fertilization speeds up decomposition of organic matter.

Apply fertilizer at a rate of 1 pound (.45 kg) of actual nitrogen per 1,000 square feet (93 square meters) of lawn. The nitrogen should be readily available and not slow-release or water-insoluble formulations.

Examples include 5 pounds (2.27 kg) of ammonium sulfate (21-0-0) or special lawn fertilizers such as 6 pounds (2.72 kg) of 16-6-8, or 4 pounds (1.8 kg) of 27-3-4 per 1,000 square feet (93 square meters) of lawn.

Removal:

Another method to control mushrooms is to remove them as you see them throughout the year. Continual removal will keep the appearance of your yard up to par, but the source of the lawn mushrooms will still be present. Thus, the lawn mushrooms are likely to return in the future.

There is only one way to permanently rid your yard of lawn mushrooms, and that is to exhaust all of the food sources in your yard and soil. Performing the following tasks could aid in permanently ridding your yard of lawn mushrooms:

Clean up pet waste
Dispose of rotting mulch
Have old tree stumps ground

Having old tree stumps ground down and removed may aid in the permanent ridding of lawn mushrooms, but it could also cause a type of mushroom called fairy rings to appear. Most lawn mushrooms do not harm your lawn, but fairy rings are known to commonly kill grass in certain areas of your lawn.

Fungicides:

Some people want to spray mushrooms with a fungicide, but you can't really spray them because fungicides sprayed onto the mushroom itself do little good because the mushroom is simply the fruiting structure of the organism. Most of the fungus is below ground and inaccessible to the chemical.

What We Suggest:

What most professional and commercial landscapers do with mushrooms, is they pick them as soon as they see them appear because it helps prevent their spores from spreading to new sites.

And while it is true that many spores are wind-blown long distances, and they can easily come into your lawn and yard again from neighboring areas, if the conditions are not right, they won't grow and form mushrooms.

 

[bouaboua]

Oh, so sorry to hear your lost. But very welcome to have you here.

 

[Yellow Turtle01]

I am so sorry to hear about your poor tortoise! Thank you for telling us about your mushrooms, they are so hard to know about, and identify!

 

[rabbidbros10]

I'm sorry for your loss

 

[Tom]

Welcome Ciri. Thank you for the warning.

We get the same thing here periodically and I once had a dog get pretty sick from eating a shroom.

 

[Ciri]

I am sorry to read this. Did you happen to take a picture of the type of mushroom you had this horrible issue with?

These are the mushrooms he could have eaten. The veterinarian thought that it was likely to be a highly toxic white mushroom. As you can see in the picture, it looks like a bite was taken out of it the white one. It may not have been the one he ate, though. Also, the brown mushrooms were well disguised in the grass.

 

[Ciri]

Thank you very much for the mushroom information. A master gardener at the University of Arizona told me to use sulfur. I found organic sulfur through a local company which is also online called Arbico.. I'm looking into whether that will be safe for my box turtles and any tortoise I may adopt in the future. The gardner explained that I need to change the pH of the soil, and that I could also do this in a slower way with ground-up eggshells and/or salt. I have found that each time I take the mushrooms out, if there is even just a little bit of rain they return within 3 to 6 days, so I know I need to do something more.

 

[SouthernBelle]

My tortoise also ate a mushroom the other day and is not doing well. In your case the vet determined cause of illness but was there not some kind of treatment, or is it just one of those things that little can be done? Thank you.

 

[Yvonne G]

This is a pretty old thread. We'll need to send an alert to call her back to the thread - @Ciri

 

[Ciri]

My tortoise also ate a mushroom the other day and is not doing well. In your case the vet determined cause of illness but was there not some kind of treatment, or is it just one of those things that little can be done? Thank you.

My apologies that I did not see this sooner. My veterinarian did everything he could but unfortunately my tortoise ate a particularly poisonous mushroom, I didn't catch it soon enough, and he passed away. It is possible to save them, especially if it's caught within a couple of hours, or maybe within a day, it all depends on the specifics of that situation. Eating a less poisonous mushroom could be survivable. How is your tortoise doing now? I hope he/she is doing better.

 

[TammyJ]

Thank you for starting this post with this really useful information, but I am very sorry for the loss of your tortoise.
I know nothing about mushrooms. I thought it was toadstools that were poisonous??!!

 

[Ciri]

Thank you for starting this post with this really useful information, but I am very sorry for the loss of your tortoise.
I know nothing about mushrooms. I thought it was toadstools that were poisonous??!!

This is an interesting question. I asked my veterinarian about the distinction between mushrooms and toadstools, and he explained that they are the same. It's certain varieties of mushrooms (toadstools) which are deadly poisonous. I've learned more about them and come to the conclusion that the best approach is to remove any and all mushrooms from the tortoise's living area. It is so hard to identify them correctly as to poisonous or not, it's just better to play it safe.