Public Service Announcement… Tiny Sap-like Spots on your Car or House.

Team Tacoma,

I’ve been plagued with the issue of little sap-like droplets on my car (and now my truck) for the past year and a half (new house). This plague manifests as tiny bumps of brown, sticky or hard organic matter glued to any and all exposed surfaces; sides, hood, roof and bed. I’ve been able to dislodge them with a fingernail, but they leave a visible residue, difficult to remove even with traditional methods such as bug, tar and sap treatments. I picked up a medium duty Clay Bar and Clay Luber from Chemical Guys and painstakingly went over the entire vehicle; extra attention to the thousands of sap residue spots eventually paid off. I followed the clay work with a coat of Jet Seal from the same company to further protect the paint. However, soon after cleaning, the spots began to return.

I’ve got several large, tall pine trees in the back yard with bare trunks topped by a canopy about 50 or 60 feet up. The trees constantly drop pine needles, year around, on my back lawn and side-facing driveway where I normally park the truck. Pine trees = pine needles = sap spots… or so I thought… it was the only logical culprit. I figured that when a pine needle breaks away from the tree and falls, it must have a tiny bit of fresh sap at the base of the needle and when the base hits the car, the sap is deposited on the finish. Many searches online, over time, revealed many people are plagued with sap on their cars; however, none of the descriptions matched what I was seeing and none of them where attributed to pine needles.

Finally, I decided to search images of cars with a sap problem to see if anything matched… low and behold… I found one, and clicked it to go to the source page. https://difioredetail.com/artillery-fungus-your-car/

Artillery Fungus, Cannon Ball Fungus, Shotgun Fungus… all cleaver and appropriate names for this fiend which is scientifically called: Sphaerobolus Fungi

Further targeted searches revealed more detail about how this crap grows on decaying wood, often mulch beds, and with the right mixture of dampness, sunlight, and temperature, little pustules explode and launch this sap-like substance up to 6 feet in the air and 20 feet away. Fungacides won’t kill it, and there isn’t much advice for cleaning it off your car. Strategies to control it include topping mulch beds with new mulch more frequently, replacing mulch with stone, or wood product that is rot resistant.

Yesterday, I ripped out all the mulch and replaced it with shredded rubber mulch. It was a little expensive, but worth it… I should be able to park the truck in peace now. Check your cars/trucks, especially if you park next to a mulch bed. The pictures don't do it justice... if you don't scrub/clay it off frequently, it's everywhere!

 

Yeah, that stuff is nasty. I used to get it all over the siding and even the windows of the house when I lived back in PA. Switched to a mulch that was made from shredded pallets and dyed red and that got rid of the fungus problem. But forget about cleaning it off the siding and I had to scrape it off the windows with a razor blade. Really miserable stuff!

 

yep. My HVAC repair tech was mentioning them as he noticed the same dots on top of our condenser. I use a dark brown mulch all around the house to "dress it up" and found it all over the roof of my truck too. super pissed and I replace the mulch every year. The more you know right? But clay baring didn't take them off and I doubt a compound for paint correction would be any better.

 

Very interesting, thanks for sharing. I used to have issues from tree sap from my parents live oak tree always getting on my cars when I still lived with them. It got so bad that I actually went and asked my neighbor if I could park my car in his driveway. He was really cool and let me park it there until I moved out. Whenever I go over to visit my parents I park in front of their neighbors home to prevent getting sap all over my vehicles. My fathers work truck is always full sap, it’s really bad.