How To Locate And Destroy Mold

[IWishIWasRich]

Anyone know how to find and destroy mold? I suspect there is mold in by bathroom. There are some black particles on my bathrobe where it is in contact with the wall.. I tried to clean it and it doesnt go away. There is also some black stuff on the doors of the shower, im not sure if its just the plastic because its old as ****. I think there is something wrong in my bath. How can I detect any mold? And do you recommend any machines to keep the air clean, do these work or are they are a scam? Maybe a dehumidifier on the bathroom is also a good idea to keep it dry and avoid bacteria from growing. I just don't know what devices to buy because there are too many scams in this field.

I have fatigue specially in the morning, im light headed, brain fog, I have constant production or some sort of white muccus, im not sure if its post nasal drip. I want to address environmental problems to rule that angle out. I live in a flat with poor ventilation so I need machines to destroy the focus of humidity which is typically your bathroom, and I need a machine in my bedroom where I am most of the time, to keep the air clean, because the window in my room has a nice view of a wall where other people do laundry, hence my nickname.

 

[Giraffe]

Friends of mine contracted a painter to get rid of mold in their kitchen. Since they need to deinstall the heating, they postponed the job till summer. As an interim solution the painter suggested that they wash the walls with vinegar. He assured them that this would take care of the mold for a while. They think it worked.

 

[InChristAlone]

Sounds like you need a new place. An air cleaner can help in the meantime. And ventilation /dehumidifer in the bathroom. Old places are notorious for mold problems.

 

[smith]

I've been putting 3% hydrogen peroxide solution in little spray bottles that I spray all over my bathroom when it's completely dry. What does mold feed on? Just air or water?

 

[IWishIWasRich]

Sounds like you need a new place. An air cleaner can help in the meantime. And ventilation /dehumidifer in the bathroom. Old places are notorious for mold problems.

Yeah but what specific model of dehumidifier? I don't have money to move.

 

[Waynish]

Same way as in the body: decrease dampness.

 

[Dave Clark]

Haven't really tried it, but I have read that a borax solution can kill mold when it is sprayed on it. Makse sense since boric acid is used for the same purposes. Worth a try, borax isn't that expensive.

 

[achillea]

Watch out about moving it in any manner. You want to smother it. If it is on a porous surface and you paint it will go in deeper.

If you wash it with a rag and it is alive the spores can go into the air and into your lungs.
Read this article Can You Separate Mold Facts from Mold Fiction? - Sinusitis Wellness


https://microbalancehealthproducts.com/products/ec3-mold-solution-concentrate.html

 

[smith]

Citrus seed extract, huh? Maybe something a little more intense would work, like chlorine dioxide. Ironically installing a shower filter probably helps in providing a suitable environment for mold to proliferate due to the lack of toxic chemicals like chlorine now coming through the pipe.
That article says that bleach isn't recommended because the water part of it will just feed the mold, making it grow back... that means just about ANYTHING water-based like a 3% hydrogen peroxide solution will be be completely useless, including the product you linked. If BLEACH doesn't even do the job, how could a homeopathic watered-down (literally, the first ingredient is distilled water) seed extract work?

 

[achillea]

The person that developed this product is an ear nose and throat doctor who specializes in mold. He has been doing this for 15 years and had the products tested for efficacy.
If you do not want to go this way then re discover the wheel.

 

[Zpol]

Mold needs at least 60% relative humidity to be active (releasing spores). You can get a dehumidifier to minimize the humidity and use a hygrometer to check what the humidity is at to verify the dehumidifier is doing the job. Make sure you get one big enough for the space. Also, look for any bulging or swelling in the walls, this would indicate a leaking pipe (if an inside wall) or rain leaking in (if an outside wall).

There are air purifiers that are not scams. I like this one Coway. The thing to remember is that they only help reduce the spores, they will not eliminate them.

You can use any disinfecting cleaner to clean and sanitize (vinegar, borax, bleach). Just remember, the mold will come right back unless you reduce the humidity and eliminate the moisture factor.

 

[x-ray peat]

I just went through this helping my mother who had a huge mold problem in her crawl space. She eventually moved. This however sounds like it's most likely surface mold from excessive moisture as others have mentioned. If you are renting then you should tell your landlord they need to fix it. There are code requirements for adequate bathroom ventilation, either window or fan. Assuming you have a bathroom vent check to see if its clean or maybe you need a stronger one if the bathroom gets all fogged up during a shower.

To clean dont use bleach, cant remember why, but the latest science says its not a good choice. Can use just vinegar, borax or soap and water.

Now there is always a chance that the mold goes deeper into the walls. Here you would need to look for any signs of leaks or water intrusion. Mold needs two things to grow, moisture and an organic food source like the paper in wall board.

If you want to test your air look into mymolddetective.

If you are feeling ill then you can take a visual contrast test online VCSTest.com: Visual Contrast Sensitivity (VCS) Test and look into the Dr Shoemaker treatment protocol.

@pinacolada had a similar problem and may be able to weigh in.

Good luck

 

[InChristAlone]

Yeah but what specific model of dehumidifier? I don't have money to move.

Any good model will work. Be sure to read the reviews. I'm sorry you don't have money to move. Mold is serious business. I will always put my health before any sum of money after going through what we went through with mold. We had the money to take care of it too. We were just being cheap.

 

[Captain_Coconut]

If the surface the mold is on is porous, you will not be able to remove the mold - only to retard it. The softer the surface, the deeper the roots of the mold will go.

These agents are good: distilled white vinegar, borax, any kind of high percentage cleaning alcohol, bleach, hydrogen peroxide. If the surface is porous, I suggest alcohol, as it will evaporate fast and not add extra moisture which would help feed any surviving mold.

Mold can live off of nutrients in dust and also from rust and basically anything that has a trace amount of minerals. So removing anything rusty, and keeping an air ionizer going would probably help too.

Ozone is amazing for preventing mold growth. So is a good old dehumidifier, however be careful as a dehumidifier itself can start to grow mold very easily, you will need to keep it clean. Cold temperature, sunlight, and plenty of fresh air is also good, but all are only partially effective.

If you have the ability to keep the area ventilated with air that is dry, without passing that air in to other clean rooms, that would be good too. e.g. if it is a low humidity day outside.

When working with cleaning up mold, you really should try to spend as little time in the area as possible, and you really should have good protective gear on, respirators and masks and gloves etc. Some of the worst mold poisoning I got was from cleaning up mold.

Water drains and poor hvac systems are a very common sources of mold.

 

[achillea]

Individual mold old spores are less than 4 microns in size– They are so small that as many as 250,000 spores can fit on a pin head and a person can inhale as many as 750,000 of these spores per minute.

Disruption of even small mold colonies can result in millions of spores being released into the immediate air.

 

[smith]

That sounds familiar..

Since there's no removing mold from porous surfaces like bathroom tile grout, could we just cover it all with caulk and suffocate it to death as an alternative or addition to reducing humidity? Some people recommend against caulking, forgot why.

 

[InChristAlone]

View attachment 9814
That sounds familiar..

Since there's no removing mold from porous surfaces like bathroom tile grout, could we just cover it all with caulk and suffocate it to death as an alternative or addition to reducing humidity? Some people recommend against caulking, forgot why.

We got it in our grout and then no matter how long we left bleach on it, it would come back. I think the only option is to redo the grout.

 

[smith]

Ah whatever, I'll just turn on the vent, close the door and won't go in there for another month. I've been using a guest bathroom recently. That should kill it.

 

[akgrrrl]

So many here are right...mold is serious business. Hurricane Katrina showed us so much, many years after the disaster. Turns out there are 3 sub species of Aspergillus (black mold) and after inhaling those ridiculously small spores they band together and colonize in the submucosal tissues of the sinus. They then exude a biofilm that covers their colonies, making the "swab" test or "nasal washing" test completely moot. Symptomology can arrive even 7 to 10 years after exposure, and has a wide range of symptoms, many which appear to mimic hypothyroidism and chronic fatigue syndrome as colonies generate internal mycotoxins and gliotoxins. The long term effects span many neuro-probs, and I wish more people would learn about black mold. After an insurance claim for black mold, my house was stripped of sheetrock and the house framing sprayed with bleach. Its true, bleach doesn't do it. Now we know that only freezing will kill it as far as home amelioration. Now, there are three men who provide "expert" witness in court cases and have a great abstract online to read for discovery and treatment of black mold : Jack D. Thrasher, Joseph H. Brewer, and Dennis Hooper published online 2013. "Chronic Illness Associated with Mold and Mycotoxins: Is Naso-Sinus Fungal Biofilm the Culprit?" I am on a very diligent course to rid my body of this plague, to include the use of the most potent oregano oil in the world. I would trade smelling like pizza over the peripheral neuropathy and other long term symptoms set forth in the above abstract.

 

[tara]

Until you can move ...
Washing the walls down seems like a good idea to me.
And ventilating regularly.
And maybe dehumidifier in your bedroom.

Bleach and vinegar and probably borax and other things can kill mold.
But bleach is not great stuff to be exposing yourself to, whereas vinegar is pretty benign for you, so that could be a good reason to favour it.
Possibly citrus-based or herbal-based cleaners could also be good, but I don't know which are most effective/proportions. Maybe a couple of drops of oregano or tea tree if you like the smell enough in the vinegar wash?