Black Mold

Daryl Watters asked:


Stachybotrys not always, but almost always exhibits a circular growth pattern forming round colonies of about 1 inch or less to about 1 foot across approximately. Sometimes the circles are complete.

Other times, the circles are incomplete and form semi circles or crescent moon shapes when one side of the colony grows but the other side does not grow well, possibly due to a lack of moisture or competition with other mold types on the weaker growing side of the colony. Also, the mold often forms concentric circles of one circle inside another circle. When this or most molds grows in areas where building materials have been very wet for an extended period of time, such as months as opposed to days or just a few weeks, then the colonies grow into each other this is referred to as confluent growth and the circles are not longer distinguishable and all you see is irregular black patches of mold growth on the wall.

Stachybotrys is an extremely dark black mold. It is often reported to be shiny or slimy in appearance, however, from personal experience, this is only true when the mold is wet. When it is dry, it can be very dark black and powdery. Please note that all the above descriptions will sound wrong to a mold lab tech because the above are descriptions of how the mold looks when it grows on walls. In a Petri dish the same mold probably does not grow in concentric circles and it looks more fuzzy and may start out whitish, and it turns black later as it produces spores. In Identifying Filamentous Fungi by Guy St-Germain and Richard Summerbell the mold growing in a petri dish can be white, pink, orange, or black on the surface; bottom of the colony can be pale, orange, pink or black.

Stachybotrys requires high-cellulose, low-nitrogen food source, such as drywall or cardboard and very soaking wet conditions for an extended period of time. It is a slow grower. I have seen thousands of Stachybotrys colonies and have never seen it growing on metal objects, air conditioning ducts, or clothes. Its most common habitats in homes appears to be on the underside of wet carpets, or the bottom of wet cardboard boxes or other papers, or on the surface of drywall materials. When it grows on drywall, it is actually growing on the thin paper that coats both surfaces of the drywall.

Amanda Fain asked:


If you have wet walls, you’ll surely get mold. Wallboard, drywall, plywood, paper and cardboard give mold a perfect place to grow. The material made in the construction of your walls is porous, so it offers the mold a great place to live.

Stachybotrys chartarum, an infamous type of toxic black mold that has a slightly greenish-black color, is often found in wet walls. Unlike your shower mold, which is non-toxic, this mold grows often in building materials.

If you have wet walls in your house, you should remove the material immediately and make sure the black mold doesn’t come back.

Getting Rid Of The Moldy Walls

One huge mistake people often make is trying to paint over the water damaged spots on their walls. This won’t do anything! In face, mold can grow really well on paint.

What you have to do is take off the wet portions of the wall. Remove all the wet wall as quickly as possible, before mold has a chance to grow. Before you take it off, spray it with water from a spray bottle. All the porous wall material should be wet when you remove it, so that you won’t be spreading mold spores everywhere.

Wear protective clothes, make sure the area has plenty of circulation and dispose of the moldy wall material safely. Put all the moldy stuff in plastic bags for safe removal. It’s important to not let the mold spores contaminate the rest of the house.

Look closely at the dry parts to see if there’s mold hiding out behind it. You can just take off a small piece of the wall near the moldy area and check. In areas where the walls are wet, there is a good chance that the adjacent dry walls will also have mold growing.

After the wet walls have been removed, spray the walls with a bleach solution. Be careful with the bleach. Mixing it with any other cleaning products can cause toxic fumes. You should only use water in your bleach solution. Make it weak; no more than 1 part bleach to 1 part water. Bleach can irritate your nose, eyes and ears. For more info see http://www.toxicblackmoldhelp.org/removing/removing_Black_Mold_On_Shirts.html

Use a scrub brush for the wall and make sure you get rid of all the mold. If some of the muck runs down to the floor, clean it up with a vacuum.

If possible, dispose of everything that has been in contact with mold. This includes drop clothes, but also the clothes that you were wearing. If you don’t want to get rid of your clothes, wash them well in hot water and bleach.

Keeping The Mold Out Of Your Walls

Before you install any new stuff, make sure the wall has dried out completely. You can run a dehumidifier in your basement or wherever the wet walls were to speed up the process. Just make sure it’s totally dry before you begin construction again.

When building again, there are a few materials that will help keep mold away, depending on what you plan on putting there. A concrete backer board might be helpful to keep the wall dry. If you want to use tile, put up a 1/2 inch concrete backer board. If you want to put a surround, get a green board rock. You can find concrete backer board and green board rocks at your local home supply or hardware store.

The most important thing you can do to keep mold from growing again is to keep the room dry and well-ventilated. Remember that mold likes wet, dark places and grows well on porous material. After you’ve cleaned up and put in new walls, check from time to time to make sure the mold hasn’t come back.

Markus Skupeika asked:


As molds are omnipresent, it’s indeed difficult to avoid exposure to molds. Molds, mildews, fungus and injurious microscopic organisms are everywhere. Like all other members of ecosystem, molds and mildews are vital for maintaining environmental balance. By decomposing organic matters into simple hydrocarbons they continue the carbon and energy circulation through out the food chain. Earth without molds, fungi and other such organisms would become hard to live.

Mold bodies do not contain chlorophyll. They depend on dead organic matters for food. While collecting nutrition they decompose complex organic matters into simple form of hydrocarbons. Thus they perform their own quota of responsibility for the ecosystem.

But, when these molds contaminate indoor environment they become troublesome. Being primitive organism, molds and mildews reproduce by releasing spores. High density of mold spores in air leads to health problems. Apart from this, some toxic black molds produce mycotoxins which are injurious for human health. Molds, mold spores and mycotoxins create severe health issues.

Allergic Reactions:

Molds, spores, hyphal and mycelial sections are allergens, i.e., human body shows allergic responses to these components. Like any other antigen, when mold spores, hyphal or, mycelial parts enter into our system; the body releases antibodies to protect the infection.

Not all people react to molds and mold spores. Also, the amount of mold fragment that causes allergy is not fixed for all. Some people are hypersensitive to foreign particles. Even some subjects are allergic to pollens too. Oversensitive people should always try to avoid exposure to molds. Symptoms of mold allergy are watery eyes, puffing around eyes, irritation of throat, runny noses, extreme coughing and sneezing, asthma and more.

Some molds may lead to skin rashes and dermal infections. Dry skin, feet, nails are prone to such molds.

Opportunistic Infections:

People with healthy immune system are not vulnerable to such infections. However, those with compromised immune system suffer a lot as they have lesser ability to fight against infections. Hence, immunocompromised people need better protection against http://www.moldinspectioncompanies.org/black-mold/ black mold and mildews.

Diseases like AIDS, cancer fall under this category. HIV does a lot of harm to immune system. Chemotherapy, immunosuppressive drugs also lead to impaired immune system. People undergoing similar treatment need special care and should avoid mold infection at any cost.

Toxic Effects:

Molds and mildews produce both volatile and non-volatile compounds which cause the environment toxic. The musty odor observed at the place of mold contamination is due to these compounds. Such compounds produced by foodborne molds cause the unpleasant taste and smell in contaminated foods.

Mycotoxins, non-volatile compound, are produced by molds during their metabolism. Mycotoxins spread through out the mold colony including the substrate on which it has grown. Spores released from toxic mold colonies, fragments of toxic black mold when aerosolized, chances of toxic infection become higher.

Among various reactions of mycotoxins, flu like symptoms, throat irritation, headache, diarrhea, fatigue, cough, dermatitis and skin rash, malfunctioning of immune system are few to name.

Preventive measures:

Black mold and mildews cannot grow without moisture. Keeping building environment dry prevents indoor mold growth. However, if they grow anyway, remove molds with http://www.mold-removal.biz/natural-cleaning-products natural cleaning products.

All people are not allergic to molds. Those who are hypersensitive should carefully avoid exposure to molds. Keeping home, office and other indoor environments clean and dry helps to prevent mold growth.

Markus Skupeika asked:


If anyone has had any experiences with mold then they will tell you it can be a huge problem and if you catch it in time it can be avoided. Many people do not realize how deadly black mold can be and how easily it can spread. Mold can travel by the means of attaching itself to our clothing, and just like a virus it can spread through the air. The bad thing is once mold starts to spread it is very difficult to keep it from spreading throughout any area including your home.

Some people do not believe that http://www.propertyperfections.net/Stop-Black-Mold-s/3.htm black mold can turn into a deadly force. Many people don’t even realize they are inhaling mold while they are living at their home. Did you know that mold can turn toxic if it is not dealt with in a short period of time? Once the mold has set itself in the areas where it would like to reproduce it is only a matter of time before the mold becomes harmful to you and your family.

Black mold spores like any other organism will do whatever it takes to protect itself from natural predators and has the natural instinct to stay alive and grow. Once the black mold has matured it will naturally develop a defense mechanism which is called myotoxins. These myotoxins are basically toxic mold and are the reason why people keep constantly getting sick all the time and they can’t figure out why.

In order to prevent this from happening to you and your family you will need to purchase some good http://www.igotmold.net mold cleaners. These mold cleaners are great to have even if you do not have a mold problem because all it takes is for someone to leave a window open in your home without you knowing and then that room will start to smell musty and then you find out you got a mold problem. Most of the time these mold cleaners are very inexpensive and are stronger than some of the named brands that you will find in the store. Most people use bleach. Yes, bleach will work but what if you want to clean the carpet? Bleach will kill the mold but will not keep the mold from coming back. Bleach also gives off harsh fumes which may be uncomfortable for some people to breath and some people will break out because they are allergic to it.

The best way to prevent a mold problem is to be prepared and try to do whatever it takes to keep it out of your home. Although it is pretty much impossible to keep the mold out, you can always rely on the fact that the mold killer will be at your disposal if you ever run into a sudden mold problem. Being prepared to fight this mold will save you a lot of money in the future because you will not have to hire a professional mold cleaning company to come over and clean up the mold for you. Always be prepared for mold and stay one step ahead of the game.

Markus Skupeika asked:


People living in humid regions understand the pain of having molds in home. Black molds and mildews grow and develop in places that are moist, dark, untidy and moderately warm.

Molds obtain food from dead organic substances. As soon as they found a humid surface they grow and start collecting nutrition from adjacent organic materials.



It’s not necessary for them to grow on organic materials only. They often grow on concrete walls and obtain nutrition by degrading organic particles present on the surface or by eating on any adjacent food source.



To prevent and control mold growth, you need to control moisture content inside your home. Here is a list of actions that help you arrest indoor mold growth.

Steps to control mildews and toxic black molds

1. Moisture is the main life factor; mold cannot grow, develop and reproduce in dry places. So keep your home adequately dry. Use dehumidifier to keep the moisture content low. Install Relative Humidity tracker that alerts you whenever moisture level tends to rise up.

2. Repair plumbing defects and water leakage as soon as possible. You have to keep your home and building dry – no excess water anywhere. So take care of leaky roof, pipe leaks and plumbing problems as soon as possible.

3. Next important factor for black molds to live, grow and develop is food. Make sure your home is neat and clean all the time. If there is no matter to eat, molds won’t stay for long.

4. If your home or building is extremely prone to mold attacks, use properly formulated mold cleaning products as an added solution for regular housekeeping. General cleaners and sanitizers won’t be helpful for removing mold permanently.

5. Make sure molds have not found their way into the ducts of your air conditioning system or ventilator. Growth at such places is difficult to figure out and the spores spread all over the building easily with the air flow.

6. Take care of your bathroom, kitchen, basement and crawl spaces; actually take extra care of these places as they are very much susceptible to mold growth. Keep the places dry and clean.

7. Install air purifiers to filter airborne particles. That helps you eliminate floating mold spores and hyphal fragments from indoor air. The quality of air that you inhale controls the health of you and other members of your family.

8. Mold-proof, basically moisture-proof paints are available in the market. These emulsions prevent moisture condensation and mold formation on walls.

Kill mold – Mold cleaning process

Once molds start spreading, you need to sketch your plan of action for mold cleaning and mold prevention.

Mold prevention and control process has been mentioned above. While following the instructions, conduct thorough mold cleaning process too.

Molds and mildews are not insects, nor are they pest. So instead of insecticide, pesticide, sanitizer or bleach, use mold cleaning products. Kill mold spray are easy to use and effectively kill black mold and mildews from your home and building.

If you feel lost, take help from professional mold removers of your city.