What to do if mold grows? Here's what to do!

Look, moldy tomatoes, spoiled peanuts, hairy mops, moldy walls... Who is causing the damage? Tinea pedis, onychomycosis... Who is causing the trouble?

In fact, the real culprit is this - mold.

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#1 Mold is a multifaceted species

Although mold has all the above-mentioned sins, it is not completely useless. For example, penicillin, the world's best antibacterial drug, is extracted from Penicillium. Penicillin is a highly effective antibiotic with minimal side effects. Its advent has saved countless human lives. The vinegar, soy sauce, fermented bean curd, cheese and other flavorful fermented foods we usually eat are also masterpieces of mold.

As the saying goes, the better it is, the worse it is. In the mold family, there is a ruthless character that makes people tremble with fear - aflatoxin. This guy mainly grows in spoiled peanuts, corn and some cereal foods. It is extremely toxic, carcinogenic and mutagenic. Its toxicity is 10 times stronger than the well-known highly toxic drug potassium cyanide, and 28 to 33 times more toxic than highly toxic pesticides.

In addition, there are ergot toxins, trichothecenes, humic toxins, zearalenone, ochratoxin, etc., which are all mold products that are very harmful to humans and animals.

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How do molds break into various nooks and crannies such as walls, kitchens, bathrooms, balconies, windows, and sinks? This is due to the help of two other tough characters in the family: Botrytis cinerea and Aspergillus niger, one black and the other green (sometimes a small amount of brown variants can be seen). These bad guys not only look pitch black, but also release unpleasant and pungent odors. Large amounts of mold can cause bronchial asthma and endanger human health.

In addition to every corner of the home, some parts of our body are also favorite places for mold, such as nails. Once mold settles in, it will cause onychomycosis; for example, places that sweat frequently and are not easy to ventilate - feet, the consequence of being targeted by mold is athlete's foot.

#2What exactly is mold?

If you see those fuzzy, flocculent or spider-web-like colonies in moist and warm places, they are molds. They are large in size, loose in texture, dry in appearance, opaque, and either loose or tight in shape.

In fact, mold is not a taxonomic term, but a general term for fungi that form branched hyphae. If you magnify mold, you will see many crisscrossing transparent tubes intertwined. These tubular filaments are the hyphae of mold, which are the basic units that constitute the vegetative body of mold. Its diameter is generally 3 to 10 microns, which is several to dozens of times thicker than the cells of bacteria and actinomycetes.

Mold has a strong reproductive capacity. Any fragment of its mycelium can develop into a new individual under suitable conditions. Mold has a variety of reproduction methods. It can form a variety of difficult-to-deal-with spores. These spores are like plant seeds. They grow wherever they float. Each individual produces tens of thousands of spores, sometimes even tens of billions, hundreds of billions or even more. These spores have a long dormancy period and strong resistance to stress, which is very conducive to the spread and reproduction of molds in nature.

#3 Kill the mold

To deal with mold with such strong vitality, it is absolutely necessary to have some anti-mold technology. This depends on the three conditions for mold reproduction: eradicating spores, controlling humidity, and controlling temperature.

Eradicate spores - Take food as an example, keep it in a cool, dry place and seal it to prevent spores from the air from falling in. Question: If food grows mold, can we just cut off the moldy part or cook it at high temperature before eating it?

The answer is no. Even if there is no mold, mycotoxins have already penetrated and cannot be completely decomposed by boiling. For example, aflatoxin needs to be decomposed at a high temperature of 280℃, while the temperature of frying is only 200℃. We cannot decompose aflatoxin by cooking. So once food starts to grow mold, please remember to throw it away immediately without hesitation.

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Control humidity - When mold appears in the environment, check if there is water seepage in the wall, if the room is not ventilated in time, and if the humidity is too high? Remember not to wipe the mold with a wet rag, otherwise you will get the mold growth package - the more you wipe, the longer it grows, and the longer it grows, the more you wipe, and it will never end.

You can use 84 disinfectant or some anti-mildew spray to treat the symptoms. Of course, to treat the root cause, opening windows for ventilation, wiping off water stains in time, and waterproofing the walls are the key to eliminating mold. You can also use some sterilization and deodorization machines to continuously disinfect and decompose mold on the surface of objects and in the air, remove spores, and achieve the effect of purifying the air and environment.

Control the temperature - Clothes that are not completely dried will have moisture in them, which provides a possibility for mold to survive. If the temperature is suitable, mold spores or hyphae will multiply faster and germinate into colonies. Therefore, in the rainy season in the south, drying clothes in a dryer at high temperature after washing, or directly using a washing machine with drying and sterilization functions, can greatly reduce the probability of encountering mold.

If mildew spots have already formed on clothes, you can choose some cleaning products containing protease to remove the mildew spots through biodegradation. If the clothes are precious or the mildew spots are large, it is recommended to send them to a professional dry cleaner to better remove the mildew spots.

Friendly reminder: Since 84 disinfectant is a bleach, be careful when washing clothes. The following are different ways to deal with mold on different types of clothes, for reference only.

Source: Chongqing Science and Technology Museum

Author: He Wenting, Master of Biomedical Engineering

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