Mold Mythbusters: Does Vinegar Really Kill Mold?

Does vinegar kill black mold? The answer is sort of. I'm Dr. Diane Mueller. I'm a Lyman mold expert and an answer to this question. Vinegar can kill black mold. However, and I say this with a huge caveat, because when we take vinegar and we put it on black mold, let's say we have black mold on our ceiling, on our shower tile, when we take vinegar and we throw it on that black mold, those mold spores spread. It's almost like this last ditch effort of the mold to survive, and the mold goes, and the spores can spread around the room. So what can happen is what you see of a patch of mold, that vinegar might kill that patch. But if you spray these spores all around the room now, next time you have a really humid day, those spores are going to be activated, they're going to start growing, and it can lead to a much worse problem down the road. So it temporarily might seem better because the black mold is gone as far as what's visible. But remember, just because you don't see it does not mean it's not there. And you want to be very careful because the more you spread the mold around, the. The more it will take a lot of money from a professional to come in and fix it. So it's a really big. There's a really big urge in the DIY mold world to just be like, okay, this should be like a $5 vinegar fix. Put on some gloves, scrub the heck out of it, use some elbow grease, and be done. But the problem is what you're doing much of the time is creating a temporarily improvement for a long term worst problem. So you really want to work with professionals on this. It's more expensive. But if you have a small problem and take care of it correctly, it never becomes a big problem. If you have a small problem and take care of it incorrectly, it could create a problem that is literally 10 to 100 times more money than a small problem would be. So it always seems like a big deal sometimes to be like, oh, my gosh, I'm gonna go and hire this remediator for something that seems like I could just put vinegar on and be done. But it is not that simple. You can really worsen that problem and you're taking a huge chance, especially if you are reactive to mold. And some people react to mold, some people do not. So sometimes we. One of the things that I see is that people don't make that connection and they just think, oh, I just want to kill this. It's aesthetically gross. I want it out of the bathroom. So I'm just going to do what I need to do and move on without making the connection that black mold is connected to so many different health problems. So you're really, you know, putting a level of risk. You're taking a level of risk for yourself, for your other household members by not taking care of this correctly. So really worth the time, really worth the money, even though I know sometimes it can be quite expensive. So please do consider that if you need any help working through this, please do call my clinic for a free discovery call to see if we're the right fit to help you through these problems. And that's it for now. I hope this has been helpful. Please don't keep me a secret. Please subscribe and share this with your friends and family. Definitely need to get this this word out there because a lot of people are doing this incorrectly and creating a long term problem for themselves that makes a lot of health problems, that creates a lot of health problems, but also a lot of financial stress long term as well due to spreading the mold around and making it worse. All right, everybody, I'll see you in the next one.