Black Mold

Markus Skupeika asked:




Molds are nothing but living organism of fungi group. They obtain nutrition from dead organic substances. Molds grow on organic matters and then decompose the matter to form simpler organic materials and obtain energy for living as well.

They metabolize the food and produce excrements. Excretory products are responsible for stains found on mold infested substances. If mold is not taken care of at right time, they would not only spread allergy, but spoil your properties like furniture, carpets, walls, clothes, leather goods, curtains and fabrics.

Hence, the mold cleaning products used to kill molds should be able to de-stain the substances and remove mold spots effectively. While purchasing mold cleaning products one must check if the product can remove stains or not.

As mentioned before, molds can grow on any organic substance like wood products, clothes, leather goods, wallpaper, adhesives used on wallpapers, carpets, and surprisingly on concrete walls even. Substances with high cellulose content are preferred by molds and mildews.

The best way to save your house and household things from becoming food of black molds and mildews, you need to keep your home dry all the time. If any incident of leak, overflow or flood happens, it should be taken care of timely and the places need to be dried off fast.

Mold spores enter into houses by air and or by being carried by human beings. It is always better to leave shoes out of the house. Since shoes are made of leather they show a tendency to nurture molds. And mold spores often get stuck to the shoes when we walk along lawns, gardens or roads. So shoes must be kept in a separate place and must be cleaned periodically.

The clothes must be washed after coming back home. They are also good carriers of mold spores and reported to be responsible for substantial black mold growth in houses.

How does black mold look like?

Molds can look black, white, gray, greenish or brownish. They may appear velvety, cottony or granular. Toxic black molds appear as black specks and that is why they are called black molds.

Toxic black molds produce mycotoxins while metabolizing obtained food. Mycotoxins are not good for human health. The mold species Stachybotrys chartarum generates mycotoxins and known as toxic black molds.

All other types of molds are not harmful in that sense. However, airborne mold spores and hyphal fragments can always result in respiratory troubles for human beings.

Though toxic black molds appear as black spots, molds are microscopic organisms and not visible to unaided eye. Once molds form colonies, they become visible and the after effects begin.

Mold colonies are basically an interconnected network of multi-cellular filaments known as hyphae. Mold colonies do not contain any discrete organisms; the network of hyphae is called as mold colony, sometimes molds only.

How to remove molds? What kills mold effectively?

Take away the conditions that help molds to grow and amplify – that’s the best mold removal process. Now you cannot remove all the organic substance from your home, that’s impossible. But you can ensure that your home remains dry all the time. If some cases of dampening happen, you must put the effort required to dry it out.

If black molds and mildews have already grown in your home, try natural mold cleaning products to kill molds permanently.

Black Mold

Charles Martin Boday asked:




There is now a lot of evidence to connect black mold with Sudden Infant Death Syndrome (SIDS) and miscarriage. The death of an infant can be devastating for a family so can losing a baby due to miscarriage. It is vital that any steps needed to prevent these awful events should be taken.

It is not just the fact that black mold is toxic that means that it is dangerous to infants. One way that it is believed to work is that black mold spores end up in baby’s mattress and they releases harmful chemicals from the mattress into the air and the baby breathes this lethal gas. This process is believed to be responsible for many cases of SIDS.

Black mold has also been associated with miscarriage. It seems that exposure to mold toxin could be the cause of many women losing their baby during pregnancy. Not all mold is toxic, but it is almost impossible to tell this by just looking. The usual way to determine toxicity is by sending the mold to be tested in a laboratory. This is why it is probably a good idea that pregnant women treat all mold as if it were toxic and keeping well away from it.

The best way to stop black mold from becoming an issue for infants and those who are pregnant is to prevent it occurring in your home, and if you do have it to quickly eliminate the problem. This can be a difficult issue for those who are living in rented accommodation and have a landlord who just won’t do anything about your mold problem. The advice here is to find somewhere else to stay either permanently or until the problem is fixed.

The real danger comes when black mold is growing and you are not even aware of it. Mold likes damp places that are poorly ventilated so make sure you check your attic and basement and any other cubby holes. Of course, if you are pregnant you will want someone else to conduct this search for you. In most instances eradicating the mold will be fairly straight forward so long as you discover it all. Pregnant women should not be involved in any part of the cleaning up process, but be kept well away from the area in case toxic spores are released into the air. When the mold is completely removed you will then need to take measures to make sure it doesn’t back again.

Black Mold

Gerard K. Lawson asked:




Before you plan on starting a black mold ceiling cleanup operation, first inspect all the ceilings in your home and survey the damage. If it’s just one or two rooms, say, the basement and the attic, you might want to buckle down to business and do the job yourself.

This would involve taking down the ceiling boards carefully, wrapping them in plastic (to keep spores from flying around the house while transporting them) and cleaning them up with soap and water in the yard.

Never attempt to clean mold-contaminated stuff inside the home. You will only spread the spores to other furniture or parts of the house, and in a few days, your mold problems are back!

Now, if you are asthmatic or are especially prone to allergies, don’t attempt to do the job yourself, regardless of whether you’re an excellent DIYer. Remember, countless persons have been rushed to the hospital for severe asthma attacks after exposure to the spores of black mold.

If the boards have already been severely damaged or are now too unattractive because of discoloration, you may opt to replace them with ones. This not only improves the look of the room but also ensures that no mold spores are left behind to again reproduce.

When cleaning off the black mold, always wear protective gloves and masks to protect yourself. And since you’re working with a strained position – that is, looking up into the ceiling – you’re also exposing your eyes to mold spores that may inevitably fall off. Put a pair of soldering glasses back on or any protective pair of glasses to avoid an irritation of the eyes.

In the shower, black mold not only grows on the ceiling but also on the shower room tiles. To clean them, prepare a mixture of water and bleach to kill the mold. You may want to purchase another cleaning solution to treat the discoloration, or if the black mold contamination is deep-set, you can opt to replace the shower tiles instead.

Prevent the recurrence of black mold

After a thorough cleanup, ensure that the Black Mold won’t reappear soon by keeping humidity levels in your house at a constant 30-60% and no higher. Black mold thrives in extremely humid areas, so making conditions below their optimum levels would deter their further growth.

It would also be wise to have all leaking pipes fixed before restoring the panels which you have cleaned. You may have to shell out a couple of hundred dollars to have a plumber do a thorough inspection and repair, but the added expense may well be worth it, if it means ensuring your health.

Black Mold

Gerard K. Lawson asked:




Sometimes, a perfunctory check may reveal several areas of mold growth. We know them to grow under the carpets, behind the wall, inside the ceiling, but black mold is also present in our refrigerators, inside the garbage cans, in the corners of our closets. They thrive practically anywhere that’s dark and moist!

Don’t be discouraged, though – black mold of the non-toxic type is not too dangerous. It can cause several symptoms, though, that can be quite unwelcome:

Coughing and sneezing. These symptoms will help you locate the mold growth because they’ll intensify when you enter he room where they’re at. Some people experience having a dry, itchy throat which may induce their coughing.

Clogged nose. As the black mold spores find their way to your nose (the spores, by the way, are airborne, so a messy mold cleanup actually releases millions of spores into the air), your cells react to the foreign organisms, triggering an inflammation reaction inside your nose and lungs.

This could lead to breathing difficulties and sometimes even a runny nose. People with asthma should be especially careful not to come near any black mold cleanup operation because even a mild inhalation of the black mold’s spores can cause a severe asthma attack.

Headaches and fatigue. The headaches can be linked to the difficulty in breathing experienced by people with black mold sickness. Because a lot of effort is exerted in trying to breathe, the individual naturally gets headaches. Fatigue is caused by the toxic black mold variety, making you feel tired even after sleeping for hours.

This is because the mycotoxin released by this toxic black mold attacks the immune system, giving you a feeling of general weakness.

Some people with black mold sickness also experience lightheadedness or dizziness which often go hand-in-hand with the sinusitis symptoms.

Memory lapses. Countless studies have been made linking memory loss to black old sickness. As the spores travel through your respiratory system, the mycotoxins they released then attack the nervous system, including the brain. Apart from affecting the memory, many patients also report hearing loss and mood swings.

Nausea and vomiting. If you only experience sinusitis-like symptoms, there’s a good possibility that you’ve only been hit by the non-toxic mold. However, flu-like symptoms are signs that the toxic Black Mold is what’s causing the sickness, so you should not delay in having yourself treated once you suspect that you’re infected with this toxic mold.

Black Mold

Howard Doughman asked:




House Mold Symptoms

Mold is stealth and will slowly creep into your home and create nuances of havoc with your family’s health.

The symptoms that mold produces in your home are very subtle. The huge symptoms of totally bed ridden health problems come after long, continuous exposure. In fact, as your health slowly declines, you won’t even notice that you aren’t as healthy as you used to be.

Mold, fungus, and mildew are all practically the same. They are formed by airborne microscopic spores that attach themselves to a nice moist food source. Do you have drywall construction, wall paper, wood frame, carpet, humid bathrooms, a basement, an attic? If you said yes, then read on because you need to be aware of the symptoms of mold exposure so that you know when it is time to take massive action.

Mold feeds on cellulose, wood based, organic material. It can feed on house dust! It can feed on the paper covering of drywall! Mold will feed on any fabric, anything organic, and many of the items that are in your home and items that comprise your home.

Mold is a single cell organism produced by spores. When these single cells group together and reproduce, you will notice a mold spot somewhere. That means there are thousands of cells. These mold colonies are what are big enough for us to see. They produce millions of spores that float on any air stream throughout the house.

The reason mold within your house is an issue is because it is a sealed environment. The mold spores aren’t blown away out of your home. They are spread throughout your home and continue growing and reproducing. Because your home is well insulated from the outside, it is also well insulated from the inside. These mold spores can’t escape and will eventually increase their population large enough to effect your living conditions and health. Quite literally a population explosion!

Have you ever noticed that as autumn ends that your yard’s grass becomes dormant and then in the spring after some sunshine and rain it begins to thrive again?

Mold will go dormant as well. So, if you had a leak in your bathroom, fixed it, and then cleaned up the mold, you probably will still have mold colonies within the walls or the floor. The reason is the mold will go dormant due to the moisture being cut off, but it won’t die!

Should there be more leakage, or should there be adequate humidity, the mold will begin to thrive again. So in essence, the mold will continue to impact your home even after you’ve cleaned up the colony that is showing. It will continue to effect you when you have cut off its water supply.

If you keep cleaning up the mold and you still keep getting symptoms, then what can be done?

First, clean up the mold you can see. Find helpful tips by reading the top 10 mold and mildew solutions available above. Second, take a look at the typical house mold symptoms:

Typical House Mold Symptoms
Stale musty odors, in the bathroom, laundry, basement, attic, walls. Headaches that occur on a weekly basis. Musty towels or clothing that was just washed. Stale air conditioning or furnace air. Mold colonies that appear as if from out of no where even after cleaning it. Speckles or splotches on the home water filter or water softener tanks. White/gray crystaline substances on basement walls. Damp cardboard in the attic, garage, or basement. Strange health problems that the doctors can’t seem to identify a cause. Buying one or more boxes of antihystimine per month. Runny nose, red eyes, tired eyes, itchy eyes and nose, sniffles. Throat frequently irritated. Sinus headaches, sinus pressure, you can feel the goo. Un-naturally tired. You feel better after having been away from the house for a period of time. You get these ill effects only on weekends (because you are at home more). Idiopathic (makes no sense) illnesses, mixed with more chronic (long term) health problems. Banging headaches when they don’t make sense to have them. Migraine, light sensitive headaches. Multiple ear infections. Allergies.

Most of the symptoms take time to take hold within your home. If you believe you are seeing any of these symptoms, or an increase in these symptoms then it is easy to determine if they are mold related. Begin by downloading the top 10 mold / mildew solutions at the top left of this page. Just enter your name and email (click “send solutions”), then I’ll email you the small report within a few minutes.

Next, after evaluating whether or not you like what I have to say, look into my eBook titled “How to Get Rid of Black Mold”. In this book, you’ll not only get better details about the clean up of mold, but you’ll get the steps to preventing mold in your home.

As I stated earlier, cleaning up the mold only does a little good. You must destroy mold and its spores within your home to make a difference. The methods for destroying mold and its spores are in the book. Quite simply you’ll notice a change within a few weeks. You’ll feel better. Headaches will gradually decrease. Your medicine expense (perscription and over-the-counter) will decrease tremendously. Your peace of mind will be restored.

Do you have small children? Do they frequently get runny noses, ear infections, etc.?

Own “How to Get Rid of Black Mold” before spending a fortune and a lot of time on doctors and medicine. In fact, the price is about the same as your monthly supply of over-the-counter medications for your various ailments.

Black Mold