Identification: Can anyone help me identify these mushrooms?

Hi Everyone:

New to the forums - these started growing rapidly in my backyard. Can anyone identify them and tell me how to get rid of them(don't want my dog to eat them).

THanks

 

Greetings!

Hard to identify from photos, the larger ones look like they might be Marasmius, the smaller ones (photo #2) might be a different mushroom from the others.

To identify the species for certain would require examining the specimen directly: You could contact your local mushroom club / mycological society (http://www.njmyco.org ) and bring samples to an upcoming meeting/event and ask for someone to ID them. Little beige/brown mushrooms are often hard to ID, but the prospects are better with examining a specimen directly.

Taking a spore print will help narrow this down: Remove a cap from a mature (but not too old) mushroom, place gills side down on paper, put a small drop of water on the top of the cap (why this helps I don't know but it always works for me), and leave undisturbed for a couple hours or overnight.

You can remove the mushrooms, but the body of the fungus exists in the soil or on/in buried wood etc, so it is not possible to remove the organism. Most fungi are pretty hardy and adaptable, usually tougher than plant life, so fungicidal substances even if effective on the fungi would likely be bad for the lawn/plants and health of your yard.

Hope this is a bit helpful,
-frog