black mold - any suggestions

[lugnut]

Here on the moldy Oregon Coast my wife has found that "Tilex Mold and Mildew Remover" works as well as any thing. Just spray in on and leave it!

[snowman]

I work in clay. I just pulled out my clay tools which were put away wet last time. They have some dark colored mold growing on them.

I am soaking them in pretty high concentration bleach right now (half gallon water, 10 glugs of bleach ...should that kill everything?

It's not like I opened it up and it was a giant black mass, just little spots on some of my tools.

-Jacob

[Forrest Addy]

I would think your black mold (treat it like black mold anyway) problem is solved by the bleach - at least on the surface. Any mold sends long filaments that spread into and attack what ever its nourishing on. It's my understanding that washing off and disinfection the exterior growth is unlikely to interfer with the mold re-establishing itself when conditions are right.

Here's a handy link:

http://arar.essortment.com/whatisblackmo_rfls.htm

Also, sodium hypoclorate bleach residues are great rust promoters. I suggest you thoroughly scrub the wood and metal parts of your tools with a hot washing soda solution after disinfecting. Most any powdered laundry detergent will do but look at the label to be sure. If you can dismantle them into components so much the better.

Needless to say whatever you stored the tools in is also infected with black mold. This is naturally occcuring biological warfare; you have to adopt a public health attitude in tracking down infection sources. It could be that there's a source of black mold spores near your working area. Better hope and pray it's not a structural part of your home or shop.

[This message has been edited by Forrest Addy (edited 02-26-2006).]

[snowman]

i have scrapped the parts.

unfortunate, but not worth the gamble.

clay has all kinds of fun bacteria in it. in fact, the more bacteria, the better the clay. normally it is moved around so much it doesn't matter...but this was allowed to sit sit still, improperly cleaned for quite some time.

i know the mold didn't come from in the house, as it's been out in the garage on the concrete floor, sealed in a plastic toolbox since the tools came home from school. now it's out in the garage until the garbage man comes to pick it up on wednesday

-Jacob

[barts]

If the tools are all-metal, boiling them in TSP will kill just
about anything. That might be a little hard on wood handles, but it's worth a shot.

- Bart

[CCWKen]

Bleach won't do any good for the metal and won't kill most molds. The best thing to use on mold is Borax. TSP will only clean the mold off and it will remain active wherever you did the cleaning. (Sink, yard, etc.)

There's so many variants of "mold", you probably did the right thing in getting rid of the stuff.

[wierdscience]

Methyl chloride will kill EVERYTHING permanatly.It can still be had in the form of Aircraft paint stripper sold at Autozone for about $6 a spray can.

[J Tiers]

FWIW, mold spores are everywhere. The reason mold can appear when conditions are right is that the spores are present. it doesn't grow from nothing.

If you provide poor conditions, mold won't grow.

The reason why mold is a big deal nowadays, is partly the combination of air conditioning and drywall. Drywall materials (paper and glue) feed mold rich tasty goodies.

Old-time lath and plaster did not offer such a good environment. There is now available at least one type of non-nutritive drywall, that won't grow mold.

Airconditioning presents a cool environment, and may lead to condensation inside walls. The resulting cool humidity is a perfect environment for mold when goodies are present.

And, "black mold" has lots of different types. The basic aspergillis niger is present all over. There are plenty of other ones.

"Mold" is not necessarily something to run screaming from.

Often a change in environmental conditions can stop it dead. Sure, the remainders will still be there, but dormant, just as the spores were before conditions became right for it to grow.

I would dry out tool handles that have mold, clean them, and re-varnish them to keep down the spores... Then I wouldn't worry about it any more.

Mold is a universal natural re-cycling mechanism. If you don't want something re-cycled, don't "leave it out on the curb".

[snowman]

ok...maybe i'll dig the box back out of the trash

-jacob

[thistle]

I am in the mouldiest place in the world, every thing gets mould ,it is a night mare in my work shop,wood gets mould ,leather , any cloth that i have handled ect,
I fight mould with a borax solution,borax-20 mule team is fairly harmless.

you can mop the floor with it soak stuff in it ,spray the walls with it .

if there is something like a work bench i might treat it with anti freeze and borax.
of course the anti freeze is poisonous so keep this in mind if down the road you are going to saw in to it, or if fluffy likes to hang out in the area as dogs and cats apparently like anti freeze.