Kind of gross -- fungus or?

[AHI in AR]

I had an inspection last week on a vacant, bank owned property. The sellers had thoughtfully thrown some items into all of the toilets to entertain me. When I opened the lid on one of them, it almost looked like the wig from a doll sitting in the bowl. Very fine strands of extremely glossy, black thread-like material crisscrossed over the underlying material. In looking more closely at it, I realized it had grown there, possibly some sort of fungus. The second photo shows the round shapes present at the ends of each strand.

While I didn't get real close and breathe deeply, there was not a really strong smell.

So.....

Does anyone know what it is? I couldn't find anything that was any help when I Google'd it.

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[Ben H]

Not a clue, but it sure is gross.

[Jim Katen]

I see that stuff pretty often in crawlspaces, growing out of piles of animal poop. It's some kind of fungus. I don't know the official name, but I call it black thready poop fungus.

- Jim Katen, Oregon

[Ben H]

I call it black thready poop fungus.

- Jim Katen, Oregon

That makes it even groser.

[AHI in AR]

I see that stuff pretty often in crawlspaces, growing out of piles of animal poop. It's some kind of fungus. I don't know the official name, but I call it black thready poop fungus.

- Jim Katen, Oregon

Yeah, I've seen it there on occasion too. I just haven't ever seen it inside. Getting a decent pic of it in a crawlspace was that much more challenging.

I also wonder what the white, spiky growth found on dead insects in the crawlspace is. That's oddly interesting also.

[John Kogel]

Don't know what it is, but thanks for sharing. []

It could be related to crawlspace hair fungus alright. Should we care? []

I found some of that a few weeks ago. The picture is not great, but that's as close as I was going to get. []

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[AHI in AR]

Don't know what it is, but thanks for sharing. []

It could be related to crawlspace hair fungus alright. Should we care? []

I found some of that a few weeks ago. The picture is not great, but that's as close as I was going to get. []

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That photo looks like Don King's hair...

[ghentjr]

Google Raccoons, it appears to be the fungus that grows on their feces. It is harmful and usually found in the attic on the drying turds.

[Mark P]

"Raccoon poop fungus is harmful" - now that is something I never would have thought I'd read about when I awoke this morning. If I used tweeter that would be my 1st tweet. I think I'll post it on facebook.