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Barbara - Sampling the air for mold spores is useless unless samples are also taken outdoors in order to get a base level for your building. I've often been involved in such situations. Mold spore counts on a petri dish indoors or with an air sampling machine mean nothing. I had a situation where mold spores were sampled indoors and blamed on bats in the attic. When the counts were taken outdoors, they were three times the amounts indoors! I guess the bat infestation really wasn't that bad after all, at least not for the mold counts. If you want to know the kind of mold you have, then wipe samples from the object are best. Find a large hospital with a mycology department. They will plate out your wipe samples and tell you what you have. I usually donate a nominal amount to some cause the mycologist might be championing for plating out the samples. If you just get an ID to genera, that's not real helpful. You need the genus and species of mold. For instance, Aspergillus Is a very common indoor mold. There are all sorts of species in this mold genus, which really aren't that big a deal. However, the bad guy is Aspergillus fumigatus. Unless you know the species of Aspergillus, you really can't make logical decisions about isolation and remediation. I've been involved in mold remediation primarily in libraries where elevated humidity causes mold blooms on the books and other items. Books really suck up moisture from the atmosphere and create perfect micro-climates for spore germination and mold growth. The cause is usually an HVAC unit out of whack. Tom Parker -----Original Message----- From: Appelbaum & Himmelstein <aa...@mindspring.com> To: pestlist <pestlist@museumpests.net> Sent: Tue, Jul 2, 2013 12:02 pm Subject: [pestlist] sampling for mold This is a message from the Museumpests List. To post to this list send it as an email to pestlist@museumpests.net To unsubscribe please look at the footer of this email. ----------------------------------------------------------- What are the differences between wipe samples and air testing? Is one or the other easier, cheaper - or better in some other way? If there is no control data - from before a mold problem occurs - is one sampling diagnostic? Barbara Appelbaum Appelbaum & Himmelstein LLC 444 Central Park West New York, NY 10025 212-666-4630 (voice) 212-316-1039 (fax) aa...@mindspring.com website: aandhconservation.org ---------------------------------------------------------------------- To send an email to the list, send your msg to pestlist@museumpests.Net To unsubscribe from this list send an email to pestlist@museumpests.net and in the subject put: "unsubscribe" - no quotes please. You are receiving the Pestlist emails in standard mode. To change to the DIGEST mode send an email to imail...@museumpests.net with this command in the body: set mode digest pestlist Any problems email l...@collectionpests.com or l...@zaks.com ---------------------------------------------------------------------- To send an email to the list, send your msg to pestlist@museumpests.Net To unsubscribe from this list send an email to pestlist@museumpests.net and in the subject put: "unsubscribe" - no quotes please. You are receiving the Pestlist emails in standard mode. To change to the DIGEST mode send an email to imail...@museumpests.net with this command in the body: set mode digest pestlist Any problems email l...@collectionpests.com or l...@zaks.com
