Walter Hayhurst started CitriSafe because he found himself horribly sick from something invisible that he didn’t know could make him sick — mold. As a pharmacist, he began to try to find solutions to do 3 things. 1 – cleaning up your body, 2 – cleaning up your environment, 3- boosting your immune system. He also focused on another key element of getting better from mold sickness, testing regularly for mold.

It is important to test regularly for mold.

When we suspect a mold problem, thorough testing of our environment is essential. However, once you’ve found a mold issue and are taking steps to address it, repeated and regular testing is essential to get better from mold. To that end, CitriSafe, in partnership with ImmunoLytics Lab, has created a simple and affordable Mold Test Kit to help you get better from mold.

Using the CitriSafe Mold Test Kit.

Using the CitriSafe Mold test kit takes just an hour of your time and results are ready in less than a week. You can get going with just a few steps.

1. Consider where and what to test.

Mold grows in areas with moisture. Like in your bathroom and laundry room. Mold is also very likely to grow when you’ve had a “moisture event”, that is a roof leak, flooding, pipe leak, etc. Focus on some of the common areas you think of where water accumulates, or you’ve had a moisture event, and also areas where you spend the most time, like your bedroom. If you have a known trouble spot from previous testing, you’ll want to test that area periodically.

2. Using our affordable mold test plates.

The CitriSafe mold test kit includes gravity test plates. These are small petri dishes, with a special agar substance, that gathers mold in the air, by gravity falling on the plates. These test plates allow you to test rooms, cars, as well as things like furniture and pets. Testing is simple for rooms as you simply leave them out for an hour. For surfaces, perform a tap test to stir up any mold and allow them to rest on the plates. We also include a swab to test visible mold. See the guide for how to test visible mold. 

 See our Mold Test Kit Guide for videos and detailed instructions.

3. Don’t forget to seal and label your plates.

Closing up the plates and labeling all of your samples is a critical step. Our kit includes plate sealing stickers, but you can also use two pieces of transparent tape on each cover of the mold plate to ensure unwanted particles don’t fall on the plate. Then using our labels with a permanent marker or sharpie, write a brief description of the area “kitchen”, “bathroom”, “laundry”, etc. this will help our laboratory during analysis.

4. Analyzing what you’ve found  & knowing when to send to experts.

Keep your samples in your Test Kit’s foil bag and store them in a dark place, at room temperature for 5-7 days. After those 5 to 7 days, check your plates for mold growth. It will be gross, but that should motivate you to get your mold problem under control. Here is a summary of what you can expect to find:

0 to 4 colonies:
a normal range for sinus health.

5 to 8 colonies:
cause for concern-illness is probable in individuals who are susceptible.

9 or colonies:
the area is hazardous. Illness is likely in individuals who are susceptible.

If you find more than five colonies, we would encourage you to send your old plates to a laboratory like ImunoLytics for analysis. For an affordable price, they will identify the types of mold found and an Indoor Environmental Professional will help you determine if it is a health problem and figure out a plan to get mold under control. 

Test early and test often.

Finding mold in the first place is important, but continuing to evaluate your mold situation by an objective standard is critical in getting better from mold.  We have worked to make our CitriSafe Mold Test Kit one of the easiest and most affordable ways to test for mold and we hope it plays a part in your mold recovery. We encourage you to review the complete Mold Test Kit instructions, with videos and tips from our friends at ImmunoLytics. May you use it to help find your issue and get on the road to recovery.