Mold is a big topic these days. Here is a recent question and answer on mold from one of the essential oils e-mail groups.

* * *

I live in military housing. We lived 2 doors down for 2 years, and moved into this house in March. I think it has mold in it. It was freshly painted and looks great, but I think they just painted over mold. I do not know how to find out if there is a mold problem, but I do know that Thieves and Thieves Cleaner should help rid the house of it. I have some questions though:

 

1. If I only have 2 diffusers, will that be effective? If I do 2 rooms at a time and run the diffuser for 2 days and move on to the next 2 rooms, will that work? Or does it have to be done all at the same time? We have 4 bedrooms and the house is around 1400 sq feet.

 

2. I know that you can run the diffuser 15 minutes of each hour and have it work, but is that true when dealing with mold? Can I do it 15 minutes of each hour, or do I need to leave it on continuously?

 

3. If I wash the walls with Thieves Cleaner, will it kill mold and mildew under the paint?

If you can help me with any of this, I would really appreciate it. Any other suggestions and thoughts are also welcome.

 

Thanks, 

Karen in California

 

* * * * *

Hi Karen:

 

Great questions!

 

Let me suggest that you get a copy of this book, Nature's Mold Rx, the Non-Toxic Solution to Toxic Mold. It is available online through the E-store on this website at http://www.MoldRx4u.com. 

 

The DVD does not answer the questions you posed.

 

There are some things that will help you in the articles and the FAQ section of our website, but to save you some time, I will answer your questions here.

 

 

1. Unless you have sampling done to tell you what levels of mold you are dealing with, this is a hard question to answer. Also, you must look on the bottom of the diffuser pump you are using and see if it is at least 3.5 Watts or higher. The new pumps with YLs diffusers are much smaller because people were complaining about the noise of the old pumps. The old pumps were 4.5 watts and provided coverage for up to 1,000 sq ft of space. The new pumps are only 3.0 Watts and they will only provide coverage for about 200 sq ft of space.

 

 

Unfortunately, these smaller pumps do not emit a large enough quantity of essential oil to be effective for eliminating mold. So, again, be sure to check the wattage of your pump. So you know, we spoke with Young Living executives at Convention and they are looking into resolving this issue, and hopefully will provide some options, but it may take a while according to them.

 

 

In general, you can diffuse for 24 hours non-stop in each room and you should see a dramatic improvement, depending on the level of mold spores in the space.

 

 

Yes, you can keep rotating the diffusers from room to room, just recognize that doing it that way may take longer to get rid of mold, because mold spores travel so easily. Also, if you have central heat and air conditioning, you might consider diffusing directly into the unit's air intake. AC and Heating Unit ductwork are usually incubators for mold. If you don't have sampling done, you may not be able to identify the source of the mold problem.

 

 

If sampling is not something you are willing to do, and if you don't own the property it might not be, or if finding the source is not a concern to you, just keep rotating the diffusers and diffusing Thieves regularly.

 

 

That may be an option, but might not be your highest choice, because if the mold is in the attic or crawl space or some place where the diffused essential oil cannot get to it, then the problem may never go away. That means you will spend more money diffusing. Proper sampling and investigation can help identify the source. See the book for more details. If you do not own the property, you may be able to get the landlord to have sampling done, but there are no guarantees.

 

 

2. If you do not have mold and are diffusing as a preventative, you can run Thieves oil in the diffuser 15 minutes every 3-4 hours 2-3 times a week. If you know you have a mold problem, this would not be sufficient. Again, not knowing the level of mold or the types of mold present makes it difficult to answer this question. If it were me and I were in the situation you described, I would have sampling done.

Then, I would immediately being diffusing at least 24 hours continuously in each room and keep the room closed up during that intensive diffusing. That will provide the maximum penetration of surrounding materials.

 

 

3. To our knowledge, the Thieves Household Cleaner will not affect mold or mildew when it has been painted over. I don't know if anyone else has a story they can share that says it will work, but we have not seen that. Diffusing on a regular basis is your best option, doing so will kill the mold even if it comes through the paint.

 

 

You are wise to recognize that mold can be a problem even when you can't see it. The Thieves products

can be purchased from my website.  Thanks for attending to MOLD which appears to be invisible at time. https://www.youngliving.org/zmohassan