Molds are Anywhere and Everywhere

Molds are living organisms that grow in damp places in your home. They stain or discolor surfaces and smell musty. There are hundreds of thousands of different types of mold. They can grow almost anywhere: on walls, ceilings, carpets, or furniture. Humidity or wetness, caused by water leaks, spills from bathtubs or showers, or condensation, can cause mold to grow in your home.

Its spores are tiny particles that float through the air. These can sometimes cause health problems. It does not affect everyone, and different people are affected differently when mold is breathed or inhaled. It plays a very important role in our lives. Without them, we wouldn't have certain life-saving drugs like penicillin. We also wouldn't have cheese. Exposure to mold is common both inside and outside the home. Some people are more sensitive to mold than others, especially those with allergies and asthma. Some may be strongly affected when exposed to larger quantities of mold.

Molds are considered to be microbes and do not form a specific taxonomic or phylogenetic grouping, but can be found in the divisions Zygomycota and Ascomycota. In the past, most molds were classified within the Deuteromycota. Molds cause biodegradation of natural materials, that can be unwanted when it becomes food spoilage or damage to property. They also play important roles in biotechnology and food science in the production of various foods, beverages, antibiotics, pharmaceuticals and enzymes. Some diseases of animals and humans can be caused by molds, usually as a result of allergic sensitivity to their spores or caused by toxic compounds produced as molds grow.

Sometimes, though, mold grows in places it shouldn't - including inside our homes or workplaces. The mold inspector’s expertise and state of the art scientific equipment ensure that you will receive reliable, prompt same day results. If you are a homeowner, prospective homeowner, real estate professional, lender, insurer, builder or landlord, the mold inspector can help you now. Inspect immediately mold so you can be ready to find ways how to remove it. One best and proven way to detect presence of mold in your house is to contact a professional specializing in Mold Detection and Environmental Consulting.

Slime Molds at Home

Slime mold is a broad term describing some organisms that use spores to reproduce. Slime molds were formerly classified as fungi but are no longer considered part of this kingdom.Slime molds, as a group, are polyphyletic. They were originally represented by the subkingdom Gymnomycota in the Fungi kingdom and included the defunct phyla Myxomycota, Acrasiomycota and Labyrinthulomycota. Today, slime molds have been divided between several supergroups, none of which is included in the kingdom Fungi.

A plasmodial slime mold is enclosed within a single membrane without walls and is one large cell. This "supercell" (a syncytium) is essentially a bag of cytoplasm containing thousands of individual nuclei. See heterokaryosis. By contrast, cellular slime molds spend most of their lives as individual unicellular protists, but when a chemical signal is secreted, they assemble into a cluster that acts as one organism.

Slime molds begin life as amoeba-like cells. These unicellular amoebae are commonly haploid and multiply if they encounter their favorite food, bacteria. These amoebae can mate if they encounter the correct mating type and form zygotes which then grow into plasmodia. These contain many nuclei without cell membranes between them, which can grow to be meters in size. The species Fuligo septica is often seen as a slimy yellow network in and on rotting logs. The amoebae and the plasmodia engulf microorganisms. The plasmodium grows into an interconnected network of protoplasmic strands.[7]

When a slime mold mass or mound is physically separated, the cells find their way back to re-unite. Studies on Physarum have even shown an ability to learn and predict periodic unfavorable conditions in laboratory experiments (Saigusa et al. 2008).[9][10] Professor John Tyler Bonner, who has spent a lifetime studying slime molds argues that they are "no more than a bag of amoebae encased in a thin slime sheath, yet they manage to have various behaviours that are equal to those of animals who possess muscles and nerves with ganglia – that is, simple brains."

Protostelids are small slime molds in the taxon Amoebozoa with most species found in the subtaxon Eumycetozoa, the group which also includes the myxomycetes and dictyostelid cellular slime molds. The protostelids are the least well known and most easily overlooked of the slime molds. This is because almost every species has delicate, microscopic fruiting bodies and because relatively few researchers have studied them since their recognition in the early 1960s.

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Identifying Molds

Mold is the most common fungi on planet Earth. They are microorganisms and they grows in wet and humid environments. Molds can be potentially dangerous to your health and to building materials. Molds begins a little spores, but when they find the perfect condition the fungi starts to make a colony and that is when you can see it. When mold begins to germinate, the spores multiply by billions, emitting gases into the atmosphere and spreading spores into new locations.

Molds come in a wide range of colors (green, white, black, orange) and textures (smooth or rough, slimy,  furry).Many people manifest asthma-like symptoms in allergic reaction to mold; and some molds are toxic to humans.
Mold has risen to become one of the most damaging toxins that we face in our everyday lives.Mold is one of the worst enemies your home can have. Once growth begins, it can spread and grow in your home or even yourself. Its growth can also cause deterioration in the structural integrity of your home through fungal growth and rot.

SAMPLE IMAGE OF MOLD

It grows in areas with excess moisture, which can be caused by a variety of factors. If not treated properly and in a timely manner, it could lead to health problems.
When airborne mold spores are present in large numbers, they can cause allergic reactions, asthma episodes, infections, and other respiratory problems for people. Exposure to high spore levels can cause the development of an allergy to the mold. Similarly, when wood goes through a period of wetting, then drying, it can eventually warp and cause walls to crack or become structurally weak.
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