HOW MY INTEREST IN MOLD STARTED
Were any of you ever in love with his or her teacher when you were little? I was.
Mr. Carson was the most handsome teacher that ever taught me as a child. He was my fourth grade teacher, and I thought he was awesome! He had light brown curly hair, an athletic build, and dreamy hazel eyes. I would do what ever he asked of me. I was his best student - at least that is how I still see it. Ha! Ha!
LEARNING ABOUT MOLD
It was nearing the time for our yearly science fair, and I needed an idea. What was I going to do my science project on? It had to be great! I must win first prize! My cousin was NOT going to win this year – not again. Mr. Carson fielded me some ideas and one of them was mold, or penicillin. I researched and read every book in our school library on mold and fungi, drew pictures and diagrams of mold spores, but to no avail - it was not exciting enough to win. I had to beat the spouting volcano this year.
I asked my mom what to do to make my project more interesting. She told me that I needed real samples of mold. Pictures were not enough. She said to put pieces of food in a container that one could see through, add a little moisture, and let them grow mold. What a great idea!
EXPERIMENTING WITH MOLD
I found an old fish bowl, which once had housed a gold fish, that I had won at the fair. (Why do they give you the fish that you hit on the head with the little ball anyways? - It is on a one way trip to the toilet right from the start.) I took a piece of every kind of food, which I could find in the refrigerator, and carefully placed it in the fishbowl. Then I covered the opening with plastic and secured the cover with an elastic band. Now all I had to do was wait, and nature would take its course.
CONDITIONS THAT MOLD THRIVES IN – The Facts
Mold needs certain variables present in order to reproduce and continue growing: mold spores, mold food, the right temperatures, and lots of moisture. There are mold spores everywhere in our environment, but they are not triggered to start multiplying until they have the perfect conditions. Mold likes 70% - 100% humidity - the wetter and warmer the better. I put my fishbowl on the heat vent and watched as my mold began to appear.
What is mold food? Like anything in life – in order to grow and reproduce, a substance must first be alive and have nutrients to keep it alive. Mold needs organic material containing carbon atoms to grow. For example, my mold experiment needed food from my refrigerator and my mom’s garden to feed off. There were pieces of apples, oranges, carrots, bread, meat, onions, tomatoes, beans, crackers, a napkin at the bottom and “Cheezies”. Oh – and a piece of gum from the underside of my cousin’s desk chair. (He sat in front of me.) Mold food is anything that is derived from human, animal or plant life.
The glass fish bowl was not a good sustainer of life for the mold and mildew, just a good housing unit. The mold did not feed off the glass, but rather fed off the organic cells in the food. If there is mold on glass it is feeding on the dust or dirt layer on the glass. So, mold eats anything that is natural. The napkin at the bottom of the fish bowl was made from processed wood fibers (from a tree), therefore it became moldy too. The gum contained sugar and my cousin’s saliva – both perfect as mold food. Yuck!!
The last conditions that fungi, mildew or mold needs in order to flourish is moisture or humidity. Covering the fishbowl opening with cellophane caused the moisture from the food to condense as it tried to evaporate. The moisture was trapped causing an optimum environment for bacteria to multiply quickly. (I was nine years old, I just did not want my brothers to bother my project, or flies to get in it.) I was a genius and did not know it. Ha! Ha!
IS MOLD LIFE-THREATENING?
I said all of this for this one reason – unless one has every variable needed for mold to grow – mold will not grow, and will not be dangerous to one’s health. Carpet cleaners who use a low moisture level process of cleaning try to scare customers into believing that black mold or “toxic death” is lurking in their carpets, and that their cute little baby who crawls on it every day is at the highest risk. If you as a homeowner or business owner can smell the mold or mildew, or can see actual mold spores on the carpet, then you have a problem. If there is water leaking under your rug, or there has been a flood, then the under pad has to be removed, the carpet thoroughly dried out, cleaned and disinfectant sprayed down so that mold will not be able to grow.
WHO CAN YOU TRUST?
Now, you will need a professional cleaning company to help you with your problem, who has not told you outrageously exaggerated facts about toxic fumes coming out of your carpet, and will not charge you outrageous prices either. Kwik Dry Total Cleaning’s policy is “Honesty up Front”. They show all of their processes from carpet cleaning to upholstery cleaning to tile cleaning to air duct cleaning to hardwood and laminate floor refinishing,and even mattress cleaning on videos found at www.kwkidry.com The prices are posted on their web site for all to see. Nothing is hidden.
HOW TO BEAT MOLD
The most important factor in stopping the growth of mold is to limit the amount of moisture. Take away or limit water from any living organism, and it will stunt its growth or kill it. Kwik Dry Total Cleaning uses an all-natural, low moisture process that dries in one to two hours depending on the humidity of the room, thus eradicating the multiplication of mold spores under or on your carpet. Do not believe everything that you read on the internet. If it sounds exaggerated, it probably is.
By the way… I won first prize at the Science Fair, and I saw Mr. Carson many years later, and he was still awesome looking! No exaggeration! Thank God for handsome 4th Grade teachers! Ha! Ha!
No comments:
Post a Comment