Mysterious Black Spots on Paint?

[1oldbanjo]

A while back we were having trouble with tiny black spots getting on the cars in our parking lot. They look like little poppy seeds at first and are round and can be just brushed off with hour fingernail blow off at the high pressure car wash. They are very tiny - about the size of ground pepper. As they age they get flat and about the diameter of a pencil lead, a little less black and they cannot be removed without rubbing compound. The cars in one corner of our lot where all getting specs....but none of the cars in the rest of the lot where getting them. One day one of our clients came in with a white care that had them all over the car....and it had happened where he works. We also found them on the white vinyl siding at our house. I noticed that in order for them to appear it had to be above 60 degrees and they normally showed up only when the ground was wet - the day after a rain was the most obvious time for them to show up.After a lot of investigation.....we found out that it is something called Artillery Fungus. It grows in wood mulch and can shoot the spores about 15 feet without help from the wind. The mold spores are shot toward light - but it turns out that anything that can reflect light will also be a target. There are no known solvents or preventative measures that can keep it from sticking to your paint - or that can get it off once it has glued itself to your car. The spores can remain active for many years....and they just sit on the surface and wait for it to decompose so they can start growing.....which will work on wood that is decaying but your car or vinyl siding will never allow the spores to grow into a fungus. This fungus and the spores did not used to be a problem...however the wide spread use of mulch in lanscaping and the trucking of the stuff all over the country is causing an epidemic.If you have these spots on your car get them off early and it is easy, later on they can only be removed by using a cleaner wax or polishing compound. To avoid getting the spots - don't park near areas with decaying mulch. If you want to keep it off your house siding....use mulch made from something other than wood like stones or the recycled mulch made from tires.DavePS - I have attached a photo of one of the spots on a car while it is still a ball. I tried to attach a photo - but can't figure out how to insert or attach it. Any help on how to insert a photo from a file would be appreciated.

Attached files

[scherry2]

that looks like the same black stuff that comes out of the GM air vents on the roof in paint when the filters need cleaning. the cars get covered and GM pays to get the cars polished out.

[redlava]

I always thought that was tar or rubber off of the road, interesting. I usually used bug and tar removal to get it off and if I was in a real pinch a little bit of gasoline on a rag.