These sticky black dots often found on siding, fencing, and other light surfaces are the spores of a mulch-decomposing organism known as "artillery fungus."

Although the little wood-feeding organism known as “artillery fungus” has been around for as long as we’ve been slinging wood mulch over the yard, not everyone knows it’s the cause of those pencil-point-sized black dots that stick to our house siding and fences.

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