They say not to Google your health symptoms online, right? Why? Because more often than not, it’ll end up causing unwarranted worrying. The same holds true for Googling about mold!
Almost all information you end up finding is about black mold and how it will, well, harm you beyond anything you could imagine. Let’s pump the brakes just a little bit for a minute. Mold isn’t always deadly. It depends on the mold classification it falls under:
- Allergenic Molds cause allergic reactions like eye and skin irritation, or asthma.
- Pathogenic Molds often cause diseases, and are extremely difficult to suss out.
- Toxigenic Molds produce substances, and those excretions are toxic which can lead to harmful and sometimes deadly outcomes.
The 12 Most Common Mold Types
Twelve of the most common molds found in a home can fall into any of the three mold classifications, so it’s important to know what they are and where you can find them around your house.
It’s always best to call a professional mold remediator to identify species’ of mold. However, knowing where a variety of molds are most commonly found in your house can help you locate if there are mold-like substances, so you can then hire a professional mold specialist to remediate the mold problem as well as fix the moisture source it’s stemming from.
With more than 250 varieties of this species of mold, it’s found both indoors and outdoors. If it’s outside, it’s usually in damp places like overwatered soil, or soggy, dead plants. All of those mold spores get dragged into the house and then the spores spread throughout your home. To confirm it’s in your home you’ll need an air test and surface sampling and since it spreads quickly, a professional will be necessary.
Acremonium
You’ll find this in damp locations most often after flooding. It’ll appear as a wet substance at first, and then turn into a powdery substance. The substance can look grey, orange, white and sometimes pink. It’s usually pathogenic, but it can escalate to toxigenic if not handled quickly.
Since it spreads slowly, if you can catch it prior to it spreading, it’s easy to clean up with water and bleach. If it doesn’t require a professional, and you can handle it yourself, make sure to properly ventilate the area and wear a mask along with protective clothing. Mold spores are released in the air once sprayed with the bleach and water solution.
Alternaria
If you’re experiencing allergic reactions, or your asthma is acting up more often, or you’ve been diagnosed with a pulmonary disease, you may have Alternaria in your home. Call a professional mold remediation specialist to check your:
- Carpets
- Wallpaper
- window frames
- AC systems
Aspergillus
Both an allergenic and a toxigenic, it can cause allergic reactions and lung disease. It’s found in damp walls and surfaces in a home and has a few varieties: niger, flavus, and fumigatus. If the cotton or wool texture mold isn’t cleaned up with a chemical or an antifungal treatment, it can cause Aspergillosis, a type of lung disease.
It’s not easy to identify as it grows in a range of colors from yellow-green to blue-green shades, which can be similar to other types of molds.
Aureobasidium
Notice a black, cream or pink kind of growth on the grout or caulking in your bathroom or kitchen? It could be Aureobasidium. This one can cause Asthma, hay fever, and hypersensitivity pneumonitis, so it’s definitely classified as an allergenic mold.
Sounds simple, but the best way to fight this mold is to be on-top of cleaning your home. If the mold is already there, when you clean it, wear gloves along with a mask so spores don’t end up in your lungs, or come in contact with your skin.
Chaetomium
Water damage often results in the growth of Chaetomium, an allergenic as well as a pathogenic. It can grow on drywall, wallpaper, and wood and can cause asthma, hay fever, sinus issues, and can be a teratogenic and a carcinogenic.
Cladosporium
Basements and attics are the two most common places you’ll find this velvet texture and olive-gray colored Cladosporium mold. It’s because it loves when there’s little sunlight and poor ventilation. Infants are most susceptible to suffering allergic reactions. Serious nail and eye infections can result from exposure to this allergenic and pathogenic mold.
Since it’s fast-spreading, and a serious risk of infections, homeowners should have a mold specialist handle mold remediation so you can avoid health threats.
Fusarium
Typically this allergenic mold is found in home garden soils, but if it does get into your house it can cause structural damage as well as set off allergy symptoms.
Mucor
The nasty part about this allergenic mold is that it can be found basically anywhere. Mucor is usually yellow or white, and looks like cotton. It’s in dust, carpets, and mattresses. Mucor is everywhere, but it’s fairly low-risk for healthy individuals as it normally only sets off allergic reactions.
However, if you’re sick Mucor can cause your illness to become worse and cause pulmonary, gastrointestinal and cutaneous infections.
Penicillium
If you’ve ever walked into a room, or a building, or basement and noticed a musty odor – the chances are the allergenic mold Penicillium is probably present. Indoor moisture is its favorite breeding ground and it loves leather and cloth.
When you notice a blue-green, white, yellow or pink colored powdery substance and are experiencing hay fever, or your lungs are inflamed – get those cleaning supplies ready! It’s time to do a deep clean.
Stachybotrys
Most of us know this toxigenic mold Stachybotrys as Black Mold. It’s greenish black, and can cause serious illnesses such as dermatitis, respiratory issues, fever, headaches, fatigue, and pain in mucous membranes. It loves to grow in wet places, so it’s often found in bathrooms, laundry rooms, basements, and wet carpets. It’s absolutely toxic and it can be deadly if you’re exposed to it over a long period of time. Professional black mold specialists must be brought in to remediate Black Mold.
Trichoderma
Even though Trichoderma causes sneezing, asthma, coughing and lung infections, it’s also another allergenic mold that if left untreated can cause structural damage to your home, because it loves to rot wood. The white and green mold lives and grows in carpets, wallpaper, wooden furniture, floors as well as garden soil.
Mold remediation is necessary for your health, as well as your home’s health.
Ulocladium
Damp places aren’t the only place allergenic Ulocladium grows, it’s also happy to live in the air. Since it can be inhaled, it affects the human respiratory system causing asthma and hay fever symptoms. If you notice brownish, blackish or greyish fluffy substances growing in your home – clean it with antimicrobial chemicals.
Once things are cleaned, consider using a dehumidifier in your home to help ward off the return of the mold.
Handle Mold Issues Before it Harms Your Health
If you’re experiencing allergy symptoms like stuffy noses and sore throats, along with coughing and sneezing, especially after water damage to your home, mold is probably the issue. If mold isn’t taken care of by professional mold remediation specialists, more serious health problems can arise such as asthma, and infections. There’s even chances of chronic conditions such as cancer when mold is left unhandled.
Never take on mold clean-up yourself, especially if you’re already showing health symptoms. Let the highly-trained expert mold remediation specialists identify, clean-up, and protect your home and health from mold.
Get Help with Mold Today!
Mold is highly toxic! Call us for professional mold remediation.