Green mould?

[Tim Watts]

What with it being such a wet last year, I've just noticed some items in my shed have picked up a funny green powdery coating. It's a light green - of the type sometimes seen on bread.

I assume this is likely to be mould?

The question is - is there anything to worry about, health wise, if I bring these in the house (it's a chair, bare wood Ikea cupboard and there might be a bit on a cardboard box.). It's superficial, nothing wrong with the items under the powdery coating.

I was planning on waiting for warm sunny weather wiping down with vinegar outside (heard that kills mould) and letting them dry on a sunny warm day, then give them a going over with the hoover.

[The Natural Philosopher]

lichen - I THINK its a very primitive sort of plant that sdoes in fact do photosynthesis..Hmm you have got me wondering,..LMGTFY...

Oh. weirder than i had imagined.

*Lichens* (pron.: / ? l a? k ?n s / ,^[1] sometimes / ? l ? t? ?n s / )^[2] are composite organisms consisting of a fungus (the *mycobiont*) and a photosynthetic partner (the *photobiont* or *phycobiont*) growing together in a symbiotic relationship. The photobiont is usually either a green alga (commonly /Trebouxia /) or cyanobacterium (commonly /Nostoc /).^[3] The morphology, physiology and biochemistry of lichens are very different from those of the isolated fungus and alga in culture

nope. unless you are massivly allergic to them. we pressure wash stuff every year because it stains.

nah. hot day, pressure wash, leave to dry. Maybe bleach if stained.

[Martin Brown]

I'd leave them where they are and then clean them outside on a warm sunny day. Some fungal spores are not good to breathe and taking them into the house where it is warm will just encourage faster growth.

One of the proprietary wetting agent and antibacterial cleaning sprays will probably do a better job and be less likely to leave residues that corrode any bare metal than vinegar.

[Tim Watts]

On Wednesday 17 April 2013 09:42 Martin Brown wrote in uk.d-i-y:

Thanks Martin.

I do have some allergy victims with mild asthma in the house, so wanted to be careful.

So antibac sprays kill mould? OK - I wasn't sure. I had read that bleach did not always work as moulds like alkaline environments.

Main thing I guess is a good bake in the sun (one day. ha!) should dry it out properly and halt the growth (same as rot). Spraying or wiping down seemed like a good extra thing to try. I'll hoover the affected items with a HEPA grade hoover as the last step - that should take any remaining spores off.

Thanks!

Tim

[stuart noble]

I'm sure the mould won't survive your indoor conditions.

[Tim Watts]

On Wednesday 17 April 2013 18:46 stuart noble wrote in uk.d-i-y:

No - I'm sure it won't.

But I don't want to introduce toxins to a place where there are asthmatics. I've read several conflicting reports.

The claimed problems are

a) spores causing infection (where there are a Category A (nasty), B (usually OK) and C (no real risk).

b) "off gassing" of toxins which is claimedto be the allergy trigger - clearly this would cease if the mould is dead.

(a) I'm hoping a will be of little practical risk if wiped down adn hoovered then kept dry (so more spores do not form).

"Green mould" apaprantly is likely be of two common types - a Cat A and a Cat B

I'm sure it'll be OK if I don't just dump the dusty items straight in the house. I just wanted to see if there was anything I might have overlooked...

Cheers :)

Tim