When a man found a pair of ‘eyeballs’ in his back garden, he was left mortified, but he then realised what they actually were – but people are still freaked out
As the weather gets warmer, if you’re lucky enough to have outdoor space, you’ll be making the most of it – but many creepy things are lurking where you least expect it.
One man was left mortified when he found a creepy pair of ‘eyes’ on the ground at his home, leaving him spooked at the Halloween-esque display. The homeowner, from Pongakawa on New Zealand’s north island, found the squishy-looking balls, and was desperate to know what they were.
Someone took to Reddit’s ‘Weird’ forum to post the unnerving image, and people began theorising about what they actually could be.
In the Reddit comments, someone wrote: “PSA: They aren’t actually eyes, although they are gross.” Another penned: “FungEYE”. One said: “Is it some type of fungus? That is just ick!” A Redditor even said that they thought they were “acorns”. “Maybe he was just looking out for himself”, one man joked.
The man who found the ‘eyes’ confirmed to Yahoo News that what he found in his garden are called ‘earth stars’. According to the Woodland Trust: “Initially resembling a small brown bulb, after it splits open into pointed rays, the collared earthstar is star-shaped. As the rays continue to turn back on themselves, they create the ‘saucer’ which the round fruiting body sits on.”
Where are they usually found? The Woodland Trust said that often earth stars will be found in “woods with deciduous, hardwood trees, especially those with lots of leaf litter”.
Fungi expert Brett Summerell told Yahoo News “When they sprout it can almost look like eyelashes on these eyeball structures”, and therefore it looks like “two eyes looking at you when you look down at the soil”.
He also confirmed that despite their appearance, they are “not toxic at all”, and if you touch them, they pose no risk.
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