AH. Open air mold test. can anyone identify? (pic)

[bobbobobbo]

I recently purchased an older building and decided to do an open air mold test.

The petri dish showed up like this after incubating for 72 hours.... I'm pretty concerned.

Can anyone identify what's in the air based on the growth pic?

[kurt]

Oh for the love of.....

No one can tell you anything from a picture of mold.

You wanna really go nuts? Take a swab off your computer keyboard and watch what grows.

I appreciate your coming to this site to learn something, but this is not the place to come with mold looniness.

[Mike Lamb]

What kit did you use? What were the instructions? What did it say to do when you grow mold in the dish?

[Marc]

Mold spores are everywhere. You could repeat that test with similar results anywhere and you'd get some growth. It doesn't suggest an issue.

My spouse once put small samples of cooked rice in jars, sealed them then set them aside for few days. The appearance of the mold growth that results was supposed to indicate the feelings of the person at the time the jar was sealed. I'm not ascribing to these beliefs, just saying if you incubate anything suitable for mold growth, you'll get some growth. There's thousands of varieties of mold.

Think I'm gonna use this post to start a TIJ boilerplate file.

Marc

[John Kogel]

Mold spores are everywhere. You could repeat that test with similar results anywhere and you'd get some growth. It doesn't suggest an issue.

My spouse once put small samples of cooked rice in jars, sealed them then set them aside for few days. The appearance of the mold growth that results was supposed to indicate the feelings of the person at the time the jar was sealed. I'm not ascribing to these beliefs, just saying if you incubate anything suitable for mold growth, you'll get some growth. There's thousands of varieties of mold.

Think I'm gonna use this post to start a TIJ boilerplate file.

Marc

Marc, what did you and your spouse decide? Were you moldy or were you sterile? []

[Tom Raymond]

That's a remarkably clean sample. I'm pretty sure there's more variety on my tooth brush.

[hausdok]

I recently purchased an older building and decided to do an open air mold test.

The petri dish showed up like this after incubating for 72 hours.... I'm pretty concerned.

Can anyone identify what's in the air based on the growth pic?

Repeat that test in the home you live in.

ONE TEAM - ONE FIGHT!!!

Mike

[bobbobobbo]

Aside from the harsher comments, I value all the responses given very much. I am not very familiar with mold at all.

This was my first "mold test" it was the Pro-Lab do it yourself kit. After you gain results you can send them in, yet others claim it takes up to a month, and poor results.

I was unaware that much mold is in any standard air. The test commented "if nothing grows no test is needed" so that had me thinking if anything grew it was an issue.

I am not as concerned, thank you for the help.

[Marc]

Mold is one of the panic words, like asbestos, radon gas, termites and others. Many folks use these words to convince the less-informed to open their pocketbooks. You've arrived at the beginning of the truth about mold with no expense other than a home field test. You're one of the fortunate ones.

There's many more threads in this forum on mold in case you're interested in reading up. Just insert 'mold' into the search engine. You'll find it by gliding your pointer over 'Forums' then click 'search'.

Marc

[Steven Hockstein]

How did we ever survive as long as we have with all of this mold around? Maybe because it is a bunch of hogwash?

[allseason]

If I wash my chickens with hogwash will they get moldy?

[Mike Lamb]

Aside from the harsher comments, I value all the responses given very much. I am not very familiar with mold at all.

This was my first "mold test" it was the Pro-Lab do it yourself kit. After you gain results you can send them in, yet others claim it takes up to a month, and poor results.

I was unaware that much mold is in any standard air. The test commented "if nothing grows no test is needed" so that had me thinking if anything grew it was an issue.

I am not as concerned, thank you for the help.

Good. Tell your friends. Mold testing is a rip off that helps you in no way.

I am a firm believer that unnecessary worrying causes cancer and this is unnecessary worrying brought on, no doubt, by well meaning but uninformed friends, TV and newspapers who's jobs it is to sensationalize and scare you, and the boobs who promote mold testing at inspector schools, home inspector associations and hack mold testing websites.

This is from the Center for Disease Control and Prevention:

http://www.cdc.gov/niosh/topics/indoorenv/mold.html#4

CDC does not recommend routine sampling for molds. Generally, it is not necessary to identify the species of mold growing in a building. Measurements of mold in air are not reliable or representative. If mold is seen or smelled, there is a potential health risk; therefore, no matter what type of mold is present, you should arrange for its removal. Furthermore, sampling for mold can be expensive, and standards for judging what is and what is not an acceptable or tolerable quantity of mold have not been established.