Extreme mycophobia

[urbpan]

What you do if mushrooms grew out of the wall of your apartment? I hope you would call your landlord right away and see about getting the plumbing (or the leak on the roof--Vegas just suffered pretty major rainstorms) fixed, 'cause the water that nourished that fungus is coming from somewhere. Instead this woman called a "third party testing company" to see if her family was in any danger from the mushrooms, and then contacted the local news--who made it their top story.

"They're gross. They're disgusting. I'm horrified," said Barbara Ruz. "I almost feel scared to be at home. From school, I brought home masks to cover our faces because I was so freaked out."

This a reminder for me of the general public's attitude toward mushrooms, and how remarkable it is that I can teach a class 4 times a year on what these things are and what they do. I think if many people had their way they'd obliterate mushrooms from the face of the earth.

To be fair, the tenant did call the property manager, and the response was inadequate--they picked the mushrooms and painted over the spot, missing the essential problem: sufficient moisture in the walls of a house in the desert to grow mushrooms.

Lucky for them, they appear to me to be Coprinus mushrooms, which are usually produced by a short-living fungus that feeds on a rich, quickly exhausted food supply. What that food supply might be is another mystery that should probably be solved along with the water source issue.

Comments

[bedfull-o-books.livejournal.com]

Friends of mine had mushrooms growing from between the linoleum tiles in their kitchen. After taking pictures and picking the mushrooms they called the landlord, who proceeded to lay down more plywood over the linoleum and put down new tile. (Yes, really....)

The step-up from the dining room to the kitchen was considerable, indicating that the landlord had done this at least once before.

No freak-outs over the mushrooms. They were pretty upset about the "fix" though....

[lyonesse.livejournal.com]

i'm an inverterate mycophile (former webmaster for nama) who married a major mycophobe. for a wedding gift he went to psychotherapy about his phobia, and now we can walk in the woods together in the rainy weather, even if he still won't eat what i pick :)

(eta i once also had Peziza domeciliana growing in the floor mats of an ancient, decrepit car, in the pacific northwet. it was entirely explicable, but i was secretly kind of charmed, so i just left them there ;)

[urbpan.livejournal.com]

Wow--what was the source (if any) of his mycophobia?

[lyonesse.livejournal.com]

childhood allergy testing -- he was told to "avoid mushrooms" (during the testing, he's not allergic) and overgeneralized. i blame society :)

[tiranna.livejournal.com]

The summer camp I went to housed everyone in little wooden cabins. We came back after a day trip to find cute little mushrooms growing in the bathroom. We all just took pictures and the mushrooms died pretty soon after.

[ziggysinamerica.livejournal.com]

My boyfriend freaks out whenever he finds mold growing on food in the fridge or the fruit bowl. He's concerned with spores being ingested or inhaled and then ending up with a fungal infection. To be fair, for months he believed he had contracted a highly-resistant yeast infection in the hospital, but it turned out to be the symptoms of long-term nerve pain. (That's the short of it at least.)

But anyway, can you get sick from having moldy food sitting out?

[urbpan.livejournal.com]

You would have to be really allergic to mold for spores from food mold to hurt you. How does he feel about bleu cheese, or, you know, bread? I discovered recently (you probably don't want to tell him this) but in order to turn cocoa beans into chocolate, they are fermented in a process that involves between 11 and 24 different organisms, mostly yeasts, including Candida krusei, a known human pathogen. Once you get your chocolate, none of those organisms are around (they mostly die during the fermentation process) but I thought it was interesting.

My wife will eat cheddar cheese which has contracted our local mold and is turning into something else entirely.

BTW intentionally moldy food (like bleu cheese) contains antibacterial compounds; the mold produces them to keep the bacteria off its turf. Even mold from food spoilage shouldn't be scary: that green mold on an old orange is our old friend Penicillium. I wouldn't eat spoiled fruit, because there may be bacteria evading the mold that would make you sick. Plus it would taste nasty.

Aaaaaaanyway, the kinds of molds that grow on food are not going to cause an inhaled spore disease. Inhaled spore diseases exist, but humans don't get them unless they are immuno-suppressed and/or work in a high risk environment (places with huge amounts of bird droppings, for example).

Was this helpful, or did I just make things worse?

[ziggysinamerica.livejournal.com]

Nope, that's pretty much what I thought: it's difficult to contract an inhaled spore disease. Now he's saying that the issue is because the mold spores are concentrated in one place.

His other concern is with mold allergies, which I guess is more valid.

[djinnthespazz.livejournal.com]

Valley fever is an air borne fungal infection, but it's pretty rare - even here in its home of the low desert...

[djinnthespazz.livejournal.com]

But in other news, now there is a lot of thought that if we DIDN'T have mushrooms, we would also not have trees. That's a bit sobering to think about.

http://www.ubcbotanicalgarden.org/potd/2010/03/mycorrhizal_networks.php

[cottonmanifesto.livejournal.com]

this kind of made me laugh because the reason that mold is growing on your food is because the spores are in the very air that you breath.

[brush-rat.livejournal.com]

That.... uh in my beat. It's a tad embarrassing for you to be the one to find that and post it. I'll redouble my efforts to ferret out the east Vegas mushroom beat.

[urbpan.livejournal.com]

I wondered about that. Not trying to step on your toes, honest. I found it because I have a google news alert for "fungi" + "mushrooms."

And yeah, mushrooms grow out of someone's house in Vegas and I figured you'd call me!

[http://users.livejournal.com/purplebunnie_/]

The black mold we get here drives me nuts, but only because it's a constant cleaning issue. If I had mushrooms growing out of my wall, I'd be very concerned about what (if anything) died in my wall.

I think mushrooms are nifty, and often tasty.

[urb-banal.livejournal.com]

My ex husband had a friend, John Cage, who loved mushroom and he educated us.

He never ate them however, not the wild ones because he said there were too many varieties to ever be sure. He died of old age.

[ndozo.livejournal.com]

Periodically there will be a spate of OMFG-we're-all-gonna-die! stories about Stachybotrys mold in houses. They usually talk about babies bleeding in their lungs and all those weird symptoms that people get from weird things. And the "remediation" company ads exploit the general hysteria. The fact that insurance companies are desperate to exclude mold damage coverage seems to fuel some conspiracy theories about cover-ups of the "real" effects of "toxic mold."

[mildmannered.livejournal.com]

I think I'm most amused by the tone of the TVnews people.

"Action News cameras spotted mushrooms growing in a tenant's living room inside at apartment on Nellis near Lake Mead....We will continue to monitor if this situation gets resolved."

Thank God for Action News.