I know that this forum is for people that love fungi and fungus and I have these things through out my garden. Some of them I have been able to put names to but not everything. I have dozens of them and unfortunately I do not want them. They are beautiful and interesting but I need to know how to get rid of them. I can smell them the minute I walk out my back door and heaven only knows what the neighbors think. They pop up so fast! There is also one not pictured that is like a white lacy growth just under my mulch. I was told to keep turning the mulch over so it can have air. We put on a very bulky mulch last year that is mostly chunks of wood that will eventually decompose but not soon enough to avoid all this stuff. If they were a little more sturdy then I would be happy to mail them to someone on this forum. For right now I just want to get rid of all of them. One of the pictures I am attaching is a little hard to see if you do not know what you are looking for. Through out my garden there are these things that look like bee hives right in the dirt there. I sure hope someone can tell me how to get rid of them and prevent them from returning for ever.
fungi
Mableruth, as unsettling as fungi can be for some folks, it might help you to understand the role that they play in the cycle of life. That mulch you applied NEEDS fungi in order to decompose. The organic matter is then recycled so that other things can grow. Picture what the world would look like were it not for fungi (and bacteria and big saprovores and saprophytes). Every road kill would still be lying on the road, every leaf would still be lying in the forest, and every branch would simply lay where it fell.
The white threads you are seeing are called fungal hyphae - the threads that will eventually merge with another (fungal sex) and produce a fruiting body (visible mushroom). Those spore bearing fruiting bodies are the things you don't like. We are basically unaware of the digestive, decomposing work theses fungal hyphae are doing year round. I have no answers. As long as you live on the earth, you will have fungi spores, and fungal hyphae around. It beats the alternative.
If you moved into an apartment with no yard, you could forget about all of this. If you paved your yard with concrete, you could also forget about all of this.
I don't know that this helps, but it is what it is.
Well I am certainly not going to move into an apartment or condo!! I just wish that they would not stink so much! Can I till them into the dirt? Would doing that eliminate rthe smell?
Sure - if you want to do that - the fruiting bodies don't last all that long, but if the smell is really bothersome to you and worth the effort put in to tilling, it will cut the odor. Give it a try - and see how that works for you.