Death Cap Mushroom

After several dry winters so many mushrooms springing up all over that it is difficult to keep track of which ones are poisonous to dogs, much less eradicate them. We have  little red ones coming up near the kitchen door, white ones coming up in circles on the lawn and little pointy ones  coming out of the mulch which is everywhere. The Death Cap (Amonita Phalliodes) is highly poisonous despite it's innocuous appearance. 

There is a non poisonous mushroom that is so difficult to distinguish from the Amonita that mushroom experts often admit to having difficulty telling the difference. Every winter we used to read about how self professed experts would go out gathering mushrooms, and die of liver failure after eating them. We took Ozzie to the swimming hole this morning and noticed colonies of these mushrooms pushing up through the oak and maple leaf mulch underneath the trees. We have a steep hill down to the drainage swale under our oak trees …not too easy patrol but we probably will have to if we don't want to have to walk the dogs on a leash in our own back yard.

Intermittent internet interruptions…has a nice ring to it, but it is most annoying…are reminding us how clueless we are at diagnosing the problem. The technician OilMan spoke to on the pone apparently couldn't figure it out either, at least not remotely, because a technician is coming tomorrow.