Potential Bug Eggs ... or Slime Mold?

Advice for the Home Gardener from the Help Desk of the
UC Master Gardener Program of Contra Costa County

young slime mold

Client's Request: Yesterday I found what appear to be hundreds of white tiny eggs on my raised bed soil. I'm attaching a photo. Can you tell me what they are and if I should remove them? Thank you!

Help Desk Response: Thank you for contacting the UC Master Gardener Program Help Desk and for sending those good photos of the little white things on your soil. As I said in our conversation earlier today, they look like a type of slime mold and are not harmful to your garden. They eat bacteria and fungal spores, as well as organic debris and are not harmful to your garden They come in a wide variety of colors, shapes and sizes.

Slime molds are pretty interesting organisms. They start out as individual cells and join together into a moving, sometimes pulsating mass. I found a couple of articles and videos about slime molds you might find of interest:

From KQED Science: https://www.kqed.org/science/635319/this-pulsating-slime-mold-comes-in-peace

From Bay Nature magazine: https://baynature.org/article/ask-naturalist-mysterious-tiny-eggs/

Happy gardening! Please let us know if you have further questions.

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Walnut Creek 3/30,
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Help Desk of the UC Master Gardener Program of Contra Costa County (SEH)

Note: UC Master Gardeners Program of Contra Costa's Help Desk is available almost year-round to answer your gardening questions. Except for a few holidays (e.g., last 2 weeks December), we're open every week, Monday through Thursday for walk-ins from 9:00 am to Noon at 2380 Bisso Lane, Concord, CA 94520. We can also be reached via telephone: (925) 608-6683, email: ccmg@ucanr.edu, or on the web at http://ccmg.ucanr.edu/Ask_Us/. MGCC Blogs can be found at ht tp://ccmg.ucanr.edu/HortCoCo/ You can also subscribe to the Blog.