Mold's Purpose in Nature

Pretend that all humans disappeared from the face of the earth over night. Not one of us remains. What would happen?

Over the course of about 200 years, there wouldn't be any visible signs of anything man-made. Bridges, buildings, dams, houses, pavement, and everything else would be gone. How? By natural forces.

First, any remaining wild life would soon invade everything. They would go about their daily business establishing shelter and searching for food. Anyone who has had raccoons in the attic can appreciate this.

Along with animals, plant life would begin to over grow everything. Look at the power of the little weeds that grow through your driveway! Trees would grow, fall, and tear down houses in the process. All the plant kingdom would just do what it does naturally - Survive!

Mold would be an integral part of the deterioration of the human presence. It would attack every structure - just look at New Orleans that is over grown with mold even after a year since the hurricane disasters. Mold's main purpose in nature is to naturally breakdown organic matter. The organic matter is then rendered to dust. Sounds rather biblical, doesn't it?

Mold would not only thrive on the man made structures, but with forests beginning to reclaim the earth, mold would thrive within decomposing organic matter, just as it is designed to do.

Of course metal would rust and fall apart. Concrete would succumb to natural forces such as the forest moving in, earthquakes, winds, rain, and you name your "natural" disaster. The earth would reclaim everything, until there is no sign that humans ever existed.

Mold In Your Home

Mold within your home goes about its natural business just as described in the previous sections. There is one man made phenomenon - homes allow mold spores to collect in alarming quantities!

Why do homes allow mold to grow better than outside? It's because homes don't allow the mold spores to disperse outside of their walls very easily. Homes are becoming more and more "air tight" and don't have natural air currents to float the mold spores away.

Outside is a vast domain and is difficult to measure. Whereas, your 1200 square foot home with eight foot ceilings has a very finite definition. The volume of this house is 1200 X 8 = 9,600 cubic feet. Guess how many cubic feet are outside - if you come up with an answer let me know because I'll make you famous!

Your home's mold colonies produce spores, that produce mold, that produce more mold spores, and so on. The levels within your home can soar well above the outdoor natural levels. That is the basis of the problem. More and more mold spores get trapped within that 9,600 cubic feet and keep doing what they do - digest organic matter!

With an elevated quantity of mold spores within a home, not only does mold growth become a problem, but health issues can arrise. The mold that you can see with the naked eye is not one mold cell. It's 1000's of mold cells making up a colony. These colonies go about their natural business of decomposing whatever they grow on.

Also many mold symptoms are caused by the mold spores that you are breathing. If you haven't taken appropriate measures by eliminating mold, then your health will continue to erode.

Cleaning up the mold is a key to decreasing the mold contamination within your home. By keeping everything as clean and dry as possible, you will go a long way to reducing the number of mold spores floating around within your home. But keep in mind that the mold you see is often just the tip of the iceberg.

If you are showing signs of mold health problems, then you really need to get serious about how you are getting rid of mold in your home. You need to find out more information on how to destroy mold and keep it at bay. You must make some wise decisions with how you clean it up and how you keep it away. By learning how to control mold you will greatly improve your health.

How mold affects you as a human is explored later in this series.