Q: In the many years I've lived in my home, I'm noticing mushrooms in my front lawn for the first time. There are no dead roots or stumps in the yard, but there is some thatch.

What can I do to get rid of the mushrooms, or at least control them? I've noticed about three different types in the past few weeks.

A: Don't worry about them at all. They are the flower of fungi that live in the soil. They break down organic matter into compounds that plants use, so they are beneficial to your lawn, and the trees and shrubs that have roots under the lawn. At certain times of the year, typically when the soil is moist and the air is cool, they bloom and release spores to grow more fungi. The mushrooms will go away on their own, or you can knock them apart. You could possibly eat them, too. Some are edible, but you will need to research to figure out which ones you have before eating them.

Sometimes, animals eat mushrooms. My parents' dog eats them (no matter how much they try to stop it), and so far no harm has come. That said, there was a recent news report about a dog dying from eating mushrooms, so dog owners may want to remove mushrooms from sections of lawn that their dogs use.

Q: We just bought a home that has large cypress trees in the yard. They are leaving pink-colored sap on my porch, travel trailer, driveway, etc. It also gets on the bottoms of our shoes. Plus, there are numerous green nut pods on the trees, which fall everywhere and on everything. Do you know how we can get the sap off of everything, and what to do with these pods?

A: Tree sap can be very sticky stuff. It's made from water and sugar compounds. Some trees ooze a lot of it, while others don't seem to have any. But it washes away easily with soap and water.

Resin, on the other hand, is also a sticky liquid that moves within and sometimes drips from trees. It is most often found in trees with needle-like leaves, but can be found on choke cherry trees and other broad-leaved trees. It is very acidic and used by trees to stop insect and disease problems. Trees can produce resin rapidly in response to wounds. If your trees were damaged due to high winds, insects or pruning, they may be responding excessively now, and could slow down or stop production in the future. Resin is used to make varnish, turpentine adhesives, incense and other products. Fossilized resin is called amber.

Many off-the-shelf products will remove resin. They should be easy to find in automotive departments (people park their cars under trees for shade and then have problems with resin damaging the finish, for example). Outside of auto products, turpentine, water-soluble paintbrush cleaners, WD-40, rubbing alcohol, orange-based solvents, antifreeze and nail polish remover can be used.

There are lots of home remedy solutions to try, too, many of which are nontoxic because they are actually foods. You can try bacon grease, peanut butter, bath oil, vegetable oil, mayonnaise, baby powder or butter — they'll all present varying degrees of success and messiness.

All of these products will take longer to work if the resin has hardened. The sooner you attack the problem, the easier it will be. Test any of these products on inconspicuous areas first, to see what the results are and what damage may occur to the finish of the surface being treated. You may need to repaint or wax some surfaces after removing the resin.

Nothing will stop the tree from producing seedpods or cones, so they will fall off and crash-land on the unsuspecting surfaces below.

Email questions to Jeff Rugg at [email protected]. To find out more about Jeff Rugg and read features by other Creators Syndicate writers and cartoonists, visit the Creators Syndicate website at www.creators.com.