A Quirky Encounter With Dog Vomit Slime Mold In Torrington

It only took 56 years for me to find my first patch of Dog Vomit Slime Mold in Connecticut, and yes that's it's 'real' name.

I walk my Chihuahua along the Naugatuck River in Torrington every day, and today on the path up I saw a shockingly bright yellow patch of what looked like scrambled eggs? Or maybe a condensed field of what I thought were dandelions? I snapped the pic above and ran it through the 'Plant Identifier' app on my phone, and it came up with "Linchen, Milfoil, and Fuligo Septica. I think it most resembles fuligo septica, otherwise known as dog vomit slime mold.

Everything You Need to Know About Dog Vomit Slime Mold

Fuligo septica, or dog vom, as I'll refer to it going forward, is a harmless slime that thrives in warm, moist environments. It's been pretty damn moist and warm over the past month, so these patches of dog vom are starting to appear in mulch piles, old leaf piles, and rotting logs. Dog vom is actually beneficial, it helps to decompose organic matter.

Some mistake dog vom for scrambled eggs, but in Scandanavia it's referred to as 'Troll cat vomit", and 'Witch's Butter or Witch's Spit' in Sweden, Finland, and Holland according to wikipedia.

Do you need to remove dog vom? Not really, but if you do it's easy to scrape or rake it up. Eventually the bright yellow dog vom will fade into a dull gray and disintegrate back into the earth. It's interesting to see something so bright in a sea of brown and yellow.