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Here’s the story : We’ve lived in our house for 6 years now. We’ve always put our house plants outside during the summer, because they love it, but this year everything, including our plants, has gotten this black crap all over it. It was all over my bird feeders (a bleach solution got rid of it pretty quick), it’s all over everything, although it sticks better to some things than others. We powerwashed our concrete patio out back at the beginning of summer, and it’s black now. Our new light brown table umbrella, which we bought at around mid-summer, is also black. The white rocks that we have between the stone slabs that form a path in the backyard have all turned black (on top). All of the neighbors have experienced similiar problems; one of them just threw their houseplants away, thinking it was disease (pretty sure it’s not, as you can wipe it off). We thought mold or mildew, but can’t figure out why it would happen this year, and never before – my mother suspects the local university powerplant, which is a couple of blocks away at most, and has a smokestack – some sort of emission control problem, perhaps. The weather this year has not been abnormal, really. It wasn’t blazingly hot for very long, but it wasn’t overly wet to the point that it should cause excessive mold or mildew either…so I’m hoping someone here knows who to ask/how to ask what this is. I looked at the EPA’s website, but couldn’t figure out who to email, and was afraid they would give me the brush-off if I didn’t narrow it down to the right person, since I’m sure they get millions of emails from nutters who think a piece of dirt on their windshield is the evil local powerplant or whatever trying to poison them. Here are some pictures :
These are the (previously) white rocks. The slabs to either side used to be a light reddish-brown.
This is the umbrella.
One of the houseplants.
Anyone had to deal with something like this before? Ideas?
It looks like something in the air that has been brought down by rain. Has it rained at all? This happens in Texas with pollen. The pollen is in the air, and when it rains, it turns everything yellow. Thats all I can think of… pollution brought down by rain.
That happens ALL the time here in California….It’s usualy when there’s a lot of crap (smoke/smog/etc.) is in the air, and stuff gets wet, so the “crap” sticks to it and dries, forming kind of like a mineral crust. I ‘ve seen this a lot when it drizzles and gets the plants wet, and there is a smoke vent, or a deisel truck that runs next to them for a few minutes. I’m sure it you chemicaly analized it, it would be mostly carbon emissions. Also see it in places where there are a lot of big trucks that sit and idle, like at the post office, they water their plants, and they park the trucks right on the curb idling while they pick up the mail from the mail boxes and the plants get this black crap on them. So while it’s not a disease or particularly harmful, it is something to worry about and I’d report it to the city. If you have allergies or get migraines from stilly stuff like carbon dust it may be a worry too. Otherwise it’s just a nuisance.
Well, it rained a normal amount…for Missouri. o.o This summer wasn’t dry, at least…although I can’t say it was what we’d call ‘wet’, until fall, and everything was already black by then…hmm. My father lives all the way across town, and he hasn’t had any sort of problem like this. I will check out our city’s website and see if that has someone I could ask.
well, it doesn’t have to be soaking wet, just damp, like from sprinklers. If the winds cary the particles over your side of town, then your dad may have been clear of it. Maybe someone was running a vehicle that had bad carbon emissions? I dunno. See if you can call the city tho, tell them you think it might be toxic and they need to send someone over to check it out right away! 👿 😆 That’ll get them out there, though they might make you evacuate O.o
Nirvanacat13 wrote:well, it doesn’t have to be soaking wet, just damp, like from sprinklers. If the winds cary the particles over your side of town, then your dad may have been clear of it. Maybe someone was running a vehicle that had bad carbon emissions? I dunno. See if you can call the city tho, tell them you think it might be toxic and they need to send someone over to check it out right away! 👿 😆 That’ll get them out there, though they might make you evacuate O.o
They’d have to evacuate the whole neighborhood, if they did that. 😀
Another place to ask about it would be your local Cooperative Extension office.
Hello 🙂 I live in Florida and it looks alot like the black stuff that ends up on the house and almost everything outside….. its a type of mold…due to our humid climate the stuff grows like wildfire…. we use bleach mixed with water in a sprayer to clean it up… clorox also makes a bleach solution made for outdoors I bought it at our local home center. If you try some bleach water and it changes the color and makes the black stuff almost disappears…its a safe bet its mold….it looks just like the stuff here and its always worse in the summer.
I hope this helps you out. 🙂 KalThat’s really helpful, thanks! =) @ pegasi
Our first thought was also mold or mildew, Kalandra…except for the fact that no one except other people in our neighborhood (and perhaps others surrounding the university, I haven’t gone out and surveyed or anything), are having this problem…and we all have the same weather in town. Plus, the majority of the mess is on the side of the house facing their powerplant. I really think it’s some kind of pollutant. = But yes, cleaning it off with bleach does work, which is what I used on my hummingbird feeders before I put them through the dishwasher and then away for the winter! 🙂 Then again, there isn’t a lot that can’t be cleaned off with bleach. 😀
Well, I will see about sending a sample to MU, and maybe they can tell me what it is. Danke~
I did my internship at the news department of the Alabama Cooperative Extenstion System so when someone has a question on things like this, I always point them in the direction of their Co-Op. Who better to answer a question that someone who’s an “expert” in it? Hopefully they can help you figure things out.
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