Mold and Mold Infestation

Mold Description

Mold is a fungus that is virtually everywhere and is a necessary element in life. Mold growth is what helps in the decay of living material, such as fallen trees and leaves. The mold grows on this dead material and begins digesting it. Without mold there would be all kinds of organic material lying around that has not decayed.

Even though mold is a necessary component in life, it is not necessary within your home. In fact, mold within your home is a cause for alarm. Especially when you notice the mold growth is recurring.

Mold can cause illnesses and the impact can lead to long term and permanent health conditions, so do not take mold growth lightly. If you constantly are cleaning up mold within your home and it keeps coming back, then follow the guidelines on this site to eliminate your problem before serious health problems arise.

Mold spores are what usually cause the most discomfort for humans. They are microscopic and float around on the tiniest of air currents. They enter your home through the doors, windows, on your clothing and on your animals. It is quite natural to have mold in your home because it is so prevalent in nature.

The mold spores find a wet or moist place in your home and land on it. Think about how a dust cloud would act when you have a moist spot for it to land on - it stays and becomes mud basically. Mold spores land on the moist spots in your home. When there is moisture and a food source the mold begins to grow.

Mold loves to eat organic material, so anything that is made of wood products is like feeding mold a steak dinner. The main ingredient in homes, other than wood or textiles, is dust. Mold can feed on the house dust. So that's why mold can grow and thrive on the back and under your toilet tank. It's the condensation causing moisture and your normal house dust that allow mold to thrive. If you can see it then it is a colony, the mold you can't see - mold spores - are what will do the most harm eventually.

Preventing Mold Growth in Your Home

When preventing building mold growth you need to understand more about how mold grows. Think about it by beginning outside first. What are the conditions outside that keep mold from being a problem? The air keeps moving - so there is enormous ventilation so it is harder for the concentration of mold and mold spores to increase to a harmful level. The second reason was just in that last statement - concentration. Mold concentration outside is hard to achieve because the outdoors is vast and the wind keeps blowing. In your home you have to be aware of ventilation.

Mold only begins affecting you in high concentrations. So within the walls of your home, there is far less air movement than outside and you would not consider even the largest homes as "vast" when you compare their area with the outdoors. That means a home reduces ventilation that keeps the mold spores flying around and away from you and at the same time confines the mold spores to a small area.

When mold becomes a problem there is a very high concentration of mold spores within your home. These spores find their moisture source and stick to it. The dust or the material that the spores land on becomes the food source. The spore grows into mold and then the mold colonies spread more mold spores throughout the home. The HVAC system helps spread them around, your vacuum, people, and everything that moves within the home spread the spores. The mold spores eventually find the suitable places to thrive and create millions of more mold spores.

Preventing mold growth is a step by step process. First, eliminate the moisture sources; second, increase the ventilation; third, clean up the mold; and finally, keep monitoring the situation. This site has many pages that walk you through various processes to prevent mold. In "How to Get Rid of Black Mold" there are some technological solutions that become automatic mold killers in your home. The eBook has helped hundreds of people.

Your Health Concerns About Mold

There are many health concerns that become real nightmares when mold infests your home. There are even life threatening complications that mold causes with people having immune system problems.

Most people suffer a headache from time to time. Mold exposure over a long period of time can cause severe "shut-down" headaches and migraine headaches. Mold begins to affect you when you have allergy, cold, flu type symptoms over and over again. Most of us blow it off as one of those conditions, but see how stealth mold is? Mold makes you think that other illnesses are your problem. But over the course of time you need to log your illnesses to see if they make sense.

Mold sneaks up on you. You will find yourself buying allergy pills regularly; you will find that you buy cases of facial tissue every year because you will have itchy, watery, tired eyes. You will have sinus headaches that mimic migraine headaches. Their intensity will grow stronger over time and their frequency will increase making you think there are other problems. That's how mold destroys your health.

If you go away for a weekend and feel better, or you feel good all week but tend to be miserable on weekends, then there is a good chance mold is the problem. But you have to be very aware of how you feel and when in order to figure out what's going on.

When you suspect that you have a mold problem just follow the recommendations outlined here and keep tabs on your symptoms. Here is a more detailed article on House Mold Symptoms.

Over a long period of mold exposure you will have serious health issues. People get respiratory problems the most; worse mold infestations will cause tumors, hair loss, short term memory damage and more. So don't take mold infestation too lightly. Doctors will be treating you for other diseases and will never suspect mold - here's why...

Mold attacks your immune system and over time your immune system wears down. Diseases of opportunity set in because your immune system is so busy and tired of fighting the mold that it allows the "real" diseases to get "over the wall" so to speak. Now you have classic migraine headaches, asthma, and sometimes tumors. Those are what will be treated not the mold. That's why you need to take action yourself at the first sign of a mold infestation.

Mold illnesses are even worse on immune system compromised people, the very young and the very old. Mold will even attack your pets so if they have rather severe illnesses you may want to expect mold growth as a problem within your home.

Please research different mold issues on this site. "How to Get Rid of Black Mold" goes into more detail regarding the elimination of mold and how to remove mold safely.