How to Kill Mushrooms Growing in My Lawn

orange-cup boletus mushroom aspen mushroom image by Pali A from Fotolia.com

Mushrooms that grow in your yard are not edible and often make your yard unattractive. Mushrooms are actually evidence of fungi in the lawn. They are the fruit structures of the fungi. If you have mushrooms in your lawn, get rid of the them the right way. If you are not careful, you could actually spread the fungi to other areas of your lawn.

Walk around your yard and pluck up the mushrooms. Carefully pull by the bottom of the stem to avoid releasing any of the spores in the top of the mushroom.

Place the mushrooms in a plastic bag and tie it shut as soon as you are done. Toss the bag out with trash.

Rake the area of your lawn where the mushrooms were. This will prepare the lawn for the fertilizer.

Apply a 16-6-8 fertilizer at a rate of 6 lbs. per 1,000 square feet of space. This is the rate recommended by the University of California. It will speed up the decomposition of the organic matter in the soil, which prevents the growth of new mushrooms.

Rake the area again, and then water it. This will set the fertilizer into the soil.

Kill Large Mushrooms

Break off the mushroom caps as close to the ground as possible as soon as you see them. Drop them quickly in a plastic bag. This keeps the spores from spreading and growing more mushrooms. Rake the soil cores extracted by the aerator and use them in your compost bin or throw them away. As the water seeps deeper into the ground the next time you water or it rains, the mushrooms are less likely to get the moisture they need to grow. Pour the fertilizer pellets into a seed spreader and walk slowly across your lawn, following your mowing pattern. Without proper moisture and food, mushrooms die. Remove other items the mushrooms may use as nutrients, such as pet waste, old mulch and tree stumps or fallen branches.