Brown Spots On House Siding

I am getting small dark spots on windows and the white siding of my house.

Brown spots on house siding.

Also known as artillery or cannonball fungus sphaerobolus it uses internal water pressure to forcefully fire its spores similar to seeds up to 20 feet away. They have very long antennae and their bodies grow between 1 2 to 1 1 2 inches long. What it looks like. Some tell us it s from spiders.

Now there is a section on the second floor we ve seen it a couple of other places but it s most concentrated in one area that has reddish brown liquid lines running down from under the siding. If you notice lots of tiny black or dark brown spots developing on your siding above a landscaped area of your yard as seen below it is most likely artillery otherwise known as shotgun fungus. If the home experiences ice dams and the stains start at the soffits and run down the siding they re probably the result of water leaking through the roof as a result of the ice dams. The black tar like spots that are all over your vinyl siding are more than likely a fungus called sphaerobolus stellatus better known as artillery or shotgun fungus.

Artillery fungus is a wood dwelling fungus commonly found in mulch. When water runs through the wood and wall sheathing it picks up tannins in the wood and leaves dark stains on the siding. The spots are about the size of the head of a pin and appear to be black or dark brown in color. I thought it was bird droppings at first so i power washed it off.

The fungus sets its sights on bright areas so that means it will aim for any pale surface that reflects light such as the siding on your house. Others have said it s a fungus from mulch. I have often seen red or brown stains from water leaking down behind building siding on older homes. I have tried to remove these spots with mineral spirits without.

Most often the root cause is wind blown rain condensation or frost accumulation behind siding that was not installed over a modern housewrap water barraier. Since then there haven t been any issues with the siding however a week ago i noticed a bunch of brown streaks stains on the east side of the house. Seeing black tar spots on the sides of your house or vehicles. Although it s most often found on the east coast it can grow anywhere and especially thrives in areas that have cool damp springs or rainy fall weather conditions.

We have thousands of tiny black spots pin head size all over the siding of our house.