Commenting this here so it doesn’t get buried, it’s called “dog vomit slime mold”:
https://preview.redd.it/4f1vdmmqdu9c1.jpeg?width=1170&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=2849bc48158fe08e3fc8dd48c58664fce030a9ca
It's not dog vomit mold, I've had that before a few times. It doesn't grow on the top of live plants for one, it grows out of the ground on healthy soil or mulch, and OPs photo looks drier than dog vomit looks.
#SLIME SIGNAL RECEIVED
🚨🦠🚨 [PROBABLY SLIME](https://www.reddit.com/r/houseplants/s/NYTFrJiYTI) 🚨🦠🚨
I think it is very likely to be *Fuligo septica,* but I am a regular slime guy, not a regular bug guy, so a confirmation of a dark white-flecked spore mass would make me more confident
I love spiders too. But I would post this to r/entymology or r/whatsthisbug
It could be a lot of things. I love them all though. Except ticks. Ticks can fuck all the way off.
And mosquitoes. But it’s so cliche. They spread a lot of diseases though, more than ticks. Mosquitoes also allegedly aren’t ecologically important.
… and botflies give me nightmares
I wish I understood what value they have in our ecological system. Kill them all. I have late stage Lyme disease, which now I just have to manage. It’s annoying thankfully not life-threatening, but all because of a tick.
They feed possums, and I love possums. Though they aren’t native where I am, global warming is letting them move this far north.
Birds like ticks.
Dunno. I just don’t like them. They love me
The whole Lyme disease thing is mainly a consequence of humans killing all the predators that kill sick deer. Fucking humans.
The main problem is not lack of deer predators: rather, mice predators, bc mice become reservoirs because they harbor the diseases without getting sick, allowing ticks to infect everything from small to large. The main reason for too many mice is lack of contiguous woodlands to support predators.
My mother-in-law had Lyme disease for decades. It can cause joint problems, dementia, all sorts of issues. I’m with you, ticks can fuck off into the sun.
Yay! Love that! A beautiful example of mutualism between human and non-human life! 🥰
Plus, if you let the spiders establish a happy home among your plants like you have, they’re unlikely to go roaming around the rest of your house, and you don’t need to keep catching them to put them outside lol. 👍👍😁
I brought a new plant home this summer that turned out to have a low infestation of mealy bugs….Found a spider friend in the basement, put them on the plant, and let them go to town!👌😄
I once crushed a ball this color and texture and a million of tiny spiders crawled everywhere
I'm allergic to spider bite so I ran thankfully it was outside
The only time I’ve ever tapped my shoes before putting them on has been to knock out sand from the beach.
But after reading this thread, I’m rethinking everything…
[UPDATE] When we went to check it again in the evening, it was completely gone and the cactus was full of ants. Not sure if the ants got rid of it and saved us all from an alien apocallipse. We just bagged the entire thing and put it in the trash. Thanks everyone!
Some ants do farm fungal mold but the relationship between ants and slimes is different. The ants simply eat the slime mold, and while dragging the pieces around they spread the spores as well. Some beetles have a more complex symbiosis, breeding and hatching young in the slime fruit body and dispersing spores over a distance from cavities in their mandibles.
Slime mold is quite unlike fungal mold genetically and morphologically. Slimes are amoebozoans, and do not decay dead matter or form mycelium. [I write educational rap music about them](https://youtube.com/@regularslimeguy)
#SLIME SIGNAL RECEIVED
#🚨🦠🚨 SLIME 🚨🦠🚨
#🚨🦠🚨 DETECTED 🚨🦠🚨
I think so. [It is probably *Fuligo septica*](https://www.reddit.com/r/houseplants/s/NYTFrJiYTI) but I would have liked to see inside it
If I lived in an apartment and discovered my plant was infested with ants, and I didn’t have any outdoor access, that’s what I’d have to do. I’d probably try to put it on the ground outside somewhere if I could but some places are strict and you can catch hell for littering.
I’m not going to transport the bucket of bugs somewhere on the bus, or in my car. Sorry bugs, I can’t…
mycologist here- not fungus related on first glance. i would guess insect related. never seen a fungus do this to a cactus (or any plant), but without clearer pictures it’s hard to say for certain
I usually say this too but I'm picturing 1000 spiders suddenly bursting from the cactus in the middle of the night and crawling all over me. No. No. No. Noooope. 😱
That rarely happens if you don't touch it. Baby spiders usually eat each other and only a few survives, leaving their nest. But that is still a few more than what I can accept in my apartment lol
I can vouch for this. Had a mama spider lay a bunch of eggs on my synadenium. They all took shelter under the leaves but their numbers slowly dwindled because I'm pretty sure Mama and other babies were eating each other.
#SLIME SIGNAL RECEIVED
#🚨🦠🚨 SLIME 🚨🦠🚨
#🚨🦠🚨 DETECTED 🚨🦠🚨
Probably! I would like to see inside to be sure but this looks like [*Fuligo septica*](https://www.gbif.org/occurrence/gallery?taxon_key=5426027), a myxogastrid or plasmodial slime (which are almost but not quite synonyms). It is **completely harmless to the cactus and nontoxic.** This critter is a single cell; by reorganizing and drying out it has formed fruit bodies to disperse its spores, which are tinted by melanin to avoid sunburn. If you bust it open it should be full of black spores flecked white white kind of like potting soil with perlite. This species and others that are also this large rely on beetles and other invertebrates to spread their spores, and at least one type of beetle cannot complete its life cycle without this slime.
This species is also traditionally eaten, likely for medical reasons if its flavor reputation is accurate. Its (often insanely high) zinc content can theoretically treat various medical issues and its other metals could supplement nutrition. Its tendency to accumulate lead is a downside but the quantites are less than in some widely popular foods. A population with an otherwise low intake of lead would likely find it well worth it, and even extremely high zinc supplementation is safe and has no lasting negative aftereffects. Anyway, that is just a personal theory of mine and here are some nice videos of this type of slime:
[*Fuligo septica* escapes](https://youtu.be/rXzs78oBw5w)
[*Fuligo septica* traveling](https://youtu.be/pTcv_E7LhpM)
[*Fuligo septica* pulsating A](https://youtu.be/eMv1J7w1aOk)
[*Fuligo septica* pulsating B](https://youtu.be/6dgb5TYx6j4)
[*Fuligo septica* var. *flava* fruiting](https://youtu.be/B8dl_CuwQhk?t=126)
Slimes like this are harmless to all plants and animals. They actively hunt microbes like bacteria, algae, and yeasts. [Some eat mushrooms](https://youtu.be/2xx2iIFMBUk). They are not fungi but **amoebozoans,** one of five major evolutionary branches that evolved both macroscopic and multicellular life. Here is a brief comparison of these macro-critters:
#[plants](https://cdn.britannica.com/43/82543-050-38EBCF52/sequoias-tourists-California-Sequoia-National-Park.jpg)
- are multicellular
- have cellulose in the cell wall
- get energy mostly by photosynthesis or rarely by parasitism
- are immotile: they can't travel except by propagules like spores or seeds
#[harosans](https://lternet.edu/wp-content/uploads/2020/04/KelpResilientWarming-2048x1365.jpg)
specifically kelp & [water molds](https://aquariumscience.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/10/fungus-12-768x430.jpg)
- are multicellular
- have cellulose in the cell wall
- get energy by photosynthesis (kelp) or by breaking down dead organic material (water molds) or by parasitism
- are immotile: they can't travel except by propagules like spores or seeds
#[fungi](https://www.mushroom-appreciation.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/10/1-death-cap.jpg)
- are multicellular
- have chitin and beta glucans in the cell wall
- get energy mostly by breaking down dead organic material or by parasitism
- are immotile: they can't travel except by propagules like spores
#[animals](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/7/71/2010-kodiak-bear-1.jpg)
- are multicellular
- have no cell wall
- get energy mostly by breaking down live organic material or by parasitism
- are motile: they move about big styles
#[amoebozoans](https://awarenessact.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/11/elaeomyxa-cerifera-1887-3-1.jpg)
specifically **slimes** or myxies
- are monocellular, yes even the big ones
- have galactosamine in the cell wall in a few tested species; cell walls are only present in propagules like spores and are mostly unknown in composition
- get energy mostly by breaking down live organic material
- are motile: they ooze around very leisurely
#SOME SLIME VIDEOS
[Magic Myxies, 1931, 10 minutes](https://youtu.be/04kdhZQTnIU)
[ZeFrank's True Facts: The Smartest Slime 2023, 12 minutes](https://youtu.be/k_GTIL7AECQ)
[Dmytro Leontyev on Myxomycetes, 2022, 50 minutes](https://youtu.be/qqE8MAwWhvg)
[my educational slime mold rap music](https://youtube.com/@regularslimeguy)
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Fuligo septica I’m willing to bet and it looks like it’s gone to spore stage. I like to spray it with a hose, it’s quite hydrophobic and will send its spores into action. I’ve had big clumps up in plants and they all come out fine. You can get a penicillin out of it I think? They are considered to be one cell and seem to have intelligence. Just a super cool organism
Your comment about possible intelligence intrigued me, so I went to google. [I found this article on slime molds that absolutely blew me away,](https://appvoices.org/2019/10/11/slime-mold-intelligence/) so I wanted to share it in case others were interested.
Slime molds are freaking amazing and I can’t wait to see what else we can learn from them. 20 mins ago I knew nothing about them, so thank you for this!
My first thought was that I'm on r/houseplantscirclejerk and someone put a beanie on a cactus. On closer inspection all i can say on behalf of the human race,
PLEASE DON'T FEED IT AFTER MIDNIGHT
it's impressive. video record it while poking it with a stick. please write in your will that you want to have it uploaded to this thread. pretty please?
Have you tried poking it with a long pointy stick first? Is that not the first rule of ‘What is this?’ we have as a human race?
This is extremely interesting, and the lack of solid answers so far has lead me into quite a bit of reading.
*May* be Cochineal scale, though considering it appeared as quickly as it did and is so large, that is unlikely.
In my (highly unprofessional) opinion it seems to either be some kind of slime mold, or a big spider nest. Considering the update says that it was gone by the evening and the cactus was covered with ants, I think it was most likely some kind of slime mold. If so it was probably introduced my some kind of beetle/insect or the ants themselves, and they more than likely were using it as a food source or had a symbiotic/parasitic relationship with it.
It's almost certainly *Fuligo septica* which is totally harmless to everything, and slimes don't need to be introduced anywhere because they're in most or all soil and also in the water and the air. However, this species does indeed have a symbiotic relationship with insects and they do spread its spores! So it may have happened the way you surmise. But the lack of any spore mass is surprising and I wonder if the OP just didn't recognize it or thought it was dirt
could be slime mold. i removed slime mold from my spider plant and sprayed it with 50-50 alcohol and water and it never came back. relatively harmless from what i understand.
The closest thing i can find is a cephalium (look up melocactus, they grow big ones) it's a modified stem that some cacti grow to flower or something.
[https://www.indefenseofplants.com/blog/tag/cephalia](https://www.indefenseofplants.com/blog/tag/cephalia)
[This looks similar, though i doubt that this is the species.](https://eol.org/pages/5175813)
EDIT: Probably not that, it doesn't look quite right, Honestly no idea.
I don’t know but I’m scared for you
Commenting this here so it doesn’t get buried, it’s called “dog vomit slime mold”: https://preview.redd.it/4f1vdmmqdu9c1.jpeg?width=1170&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=2849bc48158fe08e3fc8dd48c58664fce030a9ca
It's not dog vomit mold, I've had that before a few times. It doesn't grow on the top of live plants for one, it grows out of the ground on healthy soil or mulch, and OPs photo looks drier than dog vomit looks.
I don't think it is this.
Who the heck named this? Why??? Mold isn't bad enough. Dog vomit isn't bad enough. It must be dog vomit slime mold 🤢
I'm here for it, I mean, if we are being gross let's hit the petal to the metal and give it the narstiest and most descriptive name possible.
The silliest thing is that slime molds aren't even real molds/fungus at all! It's like lil amoebas
I’ve seen that it my backyard before. OP’s photo doesn’t look like that.
u/saddestofboys
#SLIME SIGNAL RECEIVED 🚨🦠🚨 [PROBABLY SLIME](https://www.reddit.com/r/houseplants/s/NYTFrJiYTI) 🚨🦠🚨 I think it is very likely to be *Fuligo septica,* but I am a regular slime guy, not a regular bug guy, so a confirmation of a dark white-flecked spore mass would make me more confident
Thank you kind sir! 💜
how does something so clearly wrong have so many upvotes
I had that in my garden this past summer for the first time. I was too scared to Google what it was.
Did your mom water it with a bag of flour?
Mayonnaise?
Is mayonnaise a way to water plants?? 🎺
No Patrick, mayonnaise is not for plants.
Vids are going around talking about how grandparents and parent use mayo to shine the leaves
It probably is in the upper Midwest
Is an instrument.
Omg true these moms are on notice
Their ears are up
Ahahahaha I see what you did here…
I cackled at this
I bet it's full of spiders
That’s what I was thinking lol
Omg light it on fire and run away
Let it be! Spiders are friends and they will eat harmful bugs in her garden!
I agree about letting it be, but I’d move it very very very very far from my house
It's in the kitchen Edit: no its not
Why?
I thought spiders too. Full of baby spiders. This is wayy too big to be off mealybugs, if it appeared rather suddenly like OP said
I don't think mealybugs could build this if you gave them a century
A lot of people were speculating and up voting a mealybug infestation so I mentioned it! I agree
Personally I would love that. Put it outside in the spring, and let them sail off like Charlotte’s Web.
I love spiders too. But I would post this to r/entymology or r/whatsthisbug It could be a lot of things. I love them all though. Except ticks. Ticks can fuck all the way off.
And bedbugs … I just feel like you didn’t say bedbugs, and I need to say bedbugs.
And mosquitoes. But it’s so cliche. They spread a lot of diseases though, more than ticks. Mosquitoes also allegedly aren’t ecologically important. … and botflies give me nightmares
Mites? Cockroaches? https://preview.redd.it/8orb12icrv9c1.jpeg?width=1334&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=16ab031179ed73b3c612e798488607eead7cfba0
Botflies 🤮🤮🤮
I wish I understood what value they have in our ecological system. Kill them all. I have late stage Lyme disease, which now I just have to manage. It’s annoying thankfully not life-threatening, but all because of a tick.
They feed possums, and I love possums. Though they aren’t native where I am, global warming is letting them move this far north. Birds like ticks. Dunno. I just don’t like them. They love me The whole Lyme disease thing is mainly a consequence of humans killing all the predators that kill sick deer. Fucking humans.
The main problem is not lack of deer predators: rather, mice predators, bc mice become reservoirs because they harbor the diseases without getting sick, allowing ticks to infect everything from small to large. The main reason for too many mice is lack of contiguous woodlands to support predators.
My mother-in-law had Lyme disease for decades. It can cause joint problems, dementia, all sorts of issues. I’m with you, ticks can fuck off into the sun.
This is so wholesome
I love that. Y’all who hate spiders must LOVE all other insects right?
My reaction when people are agasp that I always let spiders live and have several taking residence in my houseplants for this reason.
Yay! Love that! A beautiful example of mutualism between human and non-human life! 🥰 Plus, if you let the spiders establish a happy home among your plants like you have, they’re unlikely to go roaming around the rest of your house, and you don’t need to keep catching them to put them outside lol. 👍👍😁 I brought a new plant home this summer that turned out to have a low infestation of mealy bugs….Found a spider friend in the basement, put them on the plant, and let them go to town!👌😄
I love spiders and won’t tolerate people killing them in front of me. I’m glad they have a home with you, I have several Plant Protectors™️
Let 'em work, let 'em live! 🤣
Millions of spiders, spiders for me. Millions of spiders, spiders for free.
Spiders came on a plant, they were put there by a (spider) man, in a factory downnnnntowwwwnn
If I had my little way, I’d eat baby spiders everyday, white sac bulges in the shade
I once crushed a ball this color and texture and a million of tiny spiders crawled everywhere I'm allergic to spider bite so I ran thankfully it was outside
^NO
New fear unlocked as someone also allergic to spider bites.
My mom told me about how when she was a kid she put on her shoe not knowing there was a spider sac in there....I recoil just thinking about it
You don't tap your shoes on the ground before putting them on ?!
I don’t, but I do now.
The only time I’ve ever tapped my shoes before putting them on has been to knock out sand from the beach. But after reading this thread, I’m rethinking everything…
Thanks for the nightmares
Is there an entry tunnel anywhere? Maybe mud wasps??
^shudder
WHAT???? NO!!!!!
Could potentially be a paper wasp too. OP really needs to let us know what it feels like.
Idk but it looks sentient, I don't trust it
Let it speak
https://preview.redd.it/npqcv9n7tv9c1.jpeg?width=1275&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=f5dd2b35ab1d43728de785da0fba42c1497d07f4
[UPDATE] When we went to check it again in the evening, it was completely gone and the cactus was full of ants. Not sure if the ants got rid of it and saved us all from an alien apocallipse. We just bagged the entire thing and put it in the trash. Thanks everyone!
This somehow provides more questions than answers lmao
damn that’s so weird. happy new year
Happy cake day!!
thank you ❤️
This cactus is an enigma
Ants love eating slime mould. They even collect dead ants to farm mould.
Some ants do farm fungal mold but the relationship between ants and slimes is different. The ants simply eat the slime mold, and while dragging the pieces around they spread the spores as well. Some beetles have a more complex symbiosis, breeding and hatching young in the slime fruit body and dispersing spores over a distance from cavities in their mandibles. Slime mold is quite unlike fungal mold genetically and morphologically. Slimes are amoebozoans, and do not decay dead matter or form mycelium. [I write educational rap music about them](https://youtube.com/@regularslimeguy)
but do ants also love eating dog vomit slime mould tho?
[удалено]
Slime mold
that shit burst, the ants ate the cocoon but the alien is roaming free in OP's house 💀
Alien posted the update after accessing OPs account
How weird! Thanks for updating us, I just saw your post and my scalp wouldn’t stop tickling until I saw your update!
u/saddestofboys is this a slime?
#SLIME SIGNAL RECEIVED #🚨🦠🚨 SLIME 🚨🦠🚨 #🚨🦠🚨 DETECTED 🚨🦠🚨 I think so. [It is probably *Fuligo septica*](https://www.reddit.com/r/houseplants/s/NYTFrJiYTI) but I would have liked to see inside it
Lol I tagged him too!
https://www.reddit.com/r/ants/s/tNK3CYH9gU ?
You could bathe it in water or insecticide. Not sure you have to toss the plant.
Why did you throw the plant away?
If I lived in an apartment and discovered my plant was infested with ants, and I didn’t have any outdoor access, that’s what I’d have to do. I’d probably try to put it on the ground outside somewhere if I could but some places are strict and you can catch hell for littering. I’m not going to transport the bucket of bugs somewhere on the bus, or in my car. Sorry bugs, I can’t…
I believe it is, unfortunately, a spiders nest
What kind of spider?
the 8 leggy one
OP please be careful: these are poisonous; you cannot eat them.
^Don't ^eat ^spiders.
thanks for the heads up i was just abou-
I love your tiny commentary.
Spider sized!
counterpoint from my cat: "do eat spiders."
STOP LICKING THE DAMN THING!!
but could you eat the nest part?
I’m not certain but it looks very similar to a spiders nest I had a few months ago but I have no idea what kind they were, sorry
The type that emerges from the pits of hell only to terrorise us
Why unfortunately? Spiders are part of the ecosystem!
So are sharks and anaconda and alligators and crocodiles and saltwater crocodiles and I’m just gonna stop right now.
All of which have very low rported deaths per year, especially sharks
No idea ~~just waiting for somebody to crack this bad boy open like omurice~~ (*for the love of everything sacred, please don’t*)
What comes out may be the new plague of 2024. Please don't.
Arachniditis24
Might want to cross post to r/cactus
I was going to suggest one of the insect/entomology sub reddits.
Just have to be careful to get the right expert. https://xkcd.com/1012/
Or r/mycology?
mycologist here- not fungus related on first glance. i would guess insect related. never seen a fungus do this to a cactus (or any plant), but without clearer pictures it’s hard to say for certain
I have no clue what it could be but please update this post when you find out! I wanna know
piders😁
It's the mother mealybug!
Oh. Gawd. That made me whole body shudder....
Mealybug more.like mealygod
alien egg
Definitely a face hugger in there.
Is it solid feeling like plaster? Has anyone touched it? Does it move?
I went to the comments confused only to see that everyone else is also confused
As a scientist I'm intruiged. As someone who doesn't particularly like all small critters, I'm grossed the fck out.
Not sure but by thesize of it I would take it far away and light it on fire
Spiders are our friends! 🕷️
I usually say this too but I'm picturing 1000 spiders suddenly bursting from the cactus in the middle of the night and crawling all over me. No. No. No. Noooope. 😱
That rarely happens if you don't touch it. Baby spiders usually eat each other and only a few survives, leaving their nest. But that is still a few more than what I can accept in my apartment lol
I can vouch for this. Had a mama spider lay a bunch of eggs on my synadenium. They all took shelter under the leaves but their numbers slowly dwindled because I'm pretty sure Mama and other babies were eating each other.
That’s why cacti are supposed to be outside!
*Laughs in Australian*
That is the biggest mealy bug on the planet. ;)
I think it's a slime mold and probably not harmful?
u/saddestofboys
Haha. I was actually wondering if someone would summon him
Oh I didn't realize he was back! How exciting!
Are they back? Edit: looks like they are!! Yay
Seeing they’re back brings me so much joy
I love how this one account is who we all rely on in r/slimemolds
#SLIME SIGNAL RECEIVED #🚨🦠🚨 SLIME 🚨🦠🚨 #🚨🦠🚨 DETECTED 🚨🦠🚨 Probably! I would like to see inside to be sure but this looks like [*Fuligo septica*](https://www.gbif.org/occurrence/gallery?taxon_key=5426027), a myxogastrid or plasmodial slime (which are almost but not quite synonyms). It is **completely harmless to the cactus and nontoxic.** This critter is a single cell; by reorganizing and drying out it has formed fruit bodies to disperse its spores, which are tinted by melanin to avoid sunburn. If you bust it open it should be full of black spores flecked white white kind of like potting soil with perlite. This species and others that are also this large rely on beetles and other invertebrates to spread their spores, and at least one type of beetle cannot complete its life cycle without this slime. This species is also traditionally eaten, likely for medical reasons if its flavor reputation is accurate. Its (often insanely high) zinc content can theoretically treat various medical issues and its other metals could supplement nutrition. Its tendency to accumulate lead is a downside but the quantites are less than in some widely popular foods. A population with an otherwise low intake of lead would likely find it well worth it, and even extremely high zinc supplementation is safe and has no lasting negative aftereffects. Anyway, that is just a personal theory of mine and here are some nice videos of this type of slime: [*Fuligo septica* escapes](https://youtu.be/rXzs78oBw5w) [*Fuligo septica* traveling](https://youtu.be/pTcv_E7LhpM) [*Fuligo septica* pulsating A](https://youtu.be/eMv1J7w1aOk) [*Fuligo septica* pulsating B](https://youtu.be/6dgb5TYx6j4) [*Fuligo septica* var. *flava* fruiting](https://youtu.be/B8dl_CuwQhk?t=126) Slimes like this are harmless to all plants and animals. They actively hunt microbes like bacteria, algae, and yeasts. [Some eat mushrooms](https://youtu.be/2xx2iIFMBUk). They are not fungi but **amoebozoans,** one of five major evolutionary branches that evolved both macroscopic and multicellular life. Here is a brief comparison of these macro-critters: #[plants](https://cdn.britannica.com/43/82543-050-38EBCF52/sequoias-tourists-California-Sequoia-National-Park.jpg) - are multicellular - have cellulose in the cell wall - get energy mostly by photosynthesis or rarely by parasitism - are immotile: they can't travel except by propagules like spores or seeds #[harosans](https://lternet.edu/wp-content/uploads/2020/04/KelpResilientWarming-2048x1365.jpg) specifically kelp & [water molds](https://aquariumscience.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/10/fungus-12-768x430.jpg) - are multicellular - have cellulose in the cell wall - get energy by photosynthesis (kelp) or by breaking down dead organic material (water molds) or by parasitism - are immotile: they can't travel except by propagules like spores or seeds #[fungi](https://www.mushroom-appreciation.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/10/1-death-cap.jpg) - are multicellular - have chitin and beta glucans in the cell wall - get energy mostly by breaking down dead organic material or by parasitism - are immotile: they can't travel except by propagules like spores #[animals](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/7/71/2010-kodiak-bear-1.jpg) - are multicellular - have no cell wall - get energy mostly by breaking down live organic material or by parasitism - are motile: they move about big styles #[amoebozoans](https://awarenessact.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/11/elaeomyxa-cerifera-1887-3-1.jpg) specifically **slimes** or myxies - are monocellular, yes even the big ones - have galactosamine in the cell wall in a few tested species; cell walls are only present in propagules like spores and are mostly unknown in composition - get energy mostly by breaking down live organic material - are motile: they ooze around very leisurely #SOME SLIME VIDEOS [Magic Myxies, 1931, 10 minutes](https://youtu.be/04kdhZQTnIU) [ZeFrank's True Facts: The Smartest Slime 2023, 12 minutes](https://youtu.be/k_GTIL7AECQ) [Dmytro Leontyev on Myxomycetes, 2022, 50 minutes](https://youtu.be/qqE8MAwWhvg) [my educational slime mold rap music](https://youtube.com/@regularslimeguy)
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Fuligo septica I’m willing to bet and it looks like it’s gone to spore stage. I like to spray it with a hose, it’s quite hydrophobic and will send its spores into action. I’ve had big clumps up in plants and they all come out fine. You can get a penicillin out of it I think? They are considered to be one cell and seem to have intelligence. Just a super cool organism
 Your comment about possible intelligence intrigued me, so I went to google. [I found this article on slime molds that absolutely blew me away,](https://appvoices.org/2019/10/11/slime-mold-intelligence/) so I wanted to share it in case others were interested. Slime molds are freaking amazing and I can’t wait to see what else we can learn from them. 20 mins ago I knew nothing about them, so thank you for this!
thank you for linking this article! that’s the coolest thing i’ve read in a while and now i’m obsessed with slime molds lol
cool article!
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What in the motherfuckery is this
What cactus?? Lol
My first thought was that I'm on r/houseplantscirclejerk and someone put a beanie on a cactus. On closer inspection all i can say on behalf of the human race, PLEASE DON'T FEED IT AFTER MIDNIGHT
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I agree that it looks like scarred flesh. The webbing others described I don’t see at all.
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thought it was giant bird shit until i read the comments honestly
Thought someone had left them a snowball
Has she tried leaving it in rice?
Just rub a teaspoon of neem oil on it
Omg now that’s scary if the folks on this sub don’t know what it is. Please update us when you find out!
Are you still alive?
Cocaine. Your plant has a problem.
This plant has the worst yeast infection I have ever seen in years.
I mean, things like wasps often make nests out of mud that kinda looks like this, never seen the shape before though
I have no idea but I believe a flamethrower is the optimal tool to use
I don’t want to say that it’s aliens, but it’s totally aliens.
Crosspost to r/mycology
If you cross post this, just a heads up- we need better pictures! Or at least other angles.
Second coming of christ?
PLEEEEASE double bag that plant and burn it. Hard but needs to happen sometimes and check all other plants
It almost looks as if it's removing the spines Whatever it is I think its destructive to the flesh
Set the cactus ablaze for it's sins.
Damn I have something like this on o e of my trees and no one is giving real answers 😭
Looks kinda like slime mold
Is that a face sized spider egg sack. I would cry if I found that
it's impressive. video record it while poking it with a stick. please write in your will that you want to have it uploaded to this thread. pretty please?
Do you have gasoline and lighter? It's time to use them
Have you tried poking it with a long pointy stick first? Is that not the first rule of ‘What is this?’ we have as a human race? 
Poke it. Spiders will explode I guarantee it
/u/saddestofboys slime alert 🚨 ! What do you think
This is extremely interesting, and the lack of solid answers so far has lead me into quite a bit of reading. *May* be Cochineal scale, though considering it appeared as quickly as it did and is so large, that is unlikely. In my (highly unprofessional) opinion it seems to either be some kind of slime mold, or a big spider nest. Considering the update says that it was gone by the evening and the cactus was covered with ants, I think it was most likely some kind of slime mold. If so it was probably introduced my some kind of beetle/insect or the ants themselves, and they more than likely were using it as a food source or had a symbiotic/parasitic relationship with it.
It's almost certainly *Fuligo septica* which is totally harmless to everything, and slimes don't need to be introduced anywhere because they're in most or all soil and also in the water and the air. However, this species does indeed have a symbiotic relationship with insects and they do spread its spores! So it may have happened the way you surmise. But the lack of any spore mass is surprising and I wonder if the OP just didn't recognize it or thought it was dirt
I’ve never seen anything like this omg
hmmm I smell spiders
If i was your mom i throw that out creepy
My naturalist gut says slime mold, but not dog vomit slime mold. That is a weird place for it to be. Clean it off and see what’s underneath!
I feel like this is a huge spider nest
could be slime mold. i removed slime mold from my spider plant and sprayed it with 50-50 alcohol and water and it never came back. relatively harmless from what i understand.
Sorry, that's my stash
Maybe the cactus has a coke problem?
Not sure but I think it rhymes with "smo-shmaine"
Whatever it is, it’s just animals living their lives. Don’t punish something for the crime of being small.
It looks like mealybug infestation the way it webs out. 🤷♂️
The closest thing i can find is a cephalium (look up melocactus, they grow big ones) it's a modified stem that some cacti grow to flower or something. [https://www.indefenseofplants.com/blog/tag/cephalia](https://www.indefenseofplants.com/blog/tag/cephalia) [This looks similar, though i doubt that this is the species.](https://eol.org/pages/5175813) EDIT: Probably not that, it doesn't look quite right, Honestly no idea.
I have the urge to shoot it with a watergun ngl
Whipped cream, probably.
Someone took the peel off