Agar plates for air quality testing

gnolan

I have no idea where to post this so i have chosen here!

Does anyone know where i can get agar plates to test the air quality at home for dust spores and fungus spores and that kind of thing? I've not idea how to go about it so feel free to speak to me in as patronizing a manner as required!

Tree

I suppose the obvious question is what are you looking for? General curiosity or looking for a particular bug, etc

Plates are available to pick up fungi vs specific bacteria, and more again. In a laboratory you could either make your own drift/settle plates or order them from some crowd like lip. Not sure if there's much point in doing it at home, as there's ooodles of bugs in a house, where checking the cleanliness of your cleanroom/fume hoods is a bit easier as you'll pick up less random junk (or at least you hope to)

gnolan

Tree wrote: »

I suppose the obvious question is what are you looking for? General curiosity or looking for a particular bug, etc

Plates are available to pick up fungi vs specific bacteria, and more again. In a laboratory you could either make your own drift/settle plates or order them from some crowd like lip. Not sure if there's much point in doing it at home, as there's ooodles of bugs in a house, where checking the cleanliness of your cleanroom/fume hoods is a bit easier as you'll pick up less random junk (or at least you hope to)

Well, specifically i'm looking to see if there is more than a normal amount of airborne fungus spores in the house, that could be caused by damp. Now you have to realise that i know very little about this, but have reason to believe that this may be the case.

Can you give a link for where to get these plates, and any costs associated that you might know of. Thanks a lot

Gaspode

Its hard to show that there is a higher than 'normal' amount of moulds or other organisms in the air in your house unless you have something to compare it to.
If you can see physical signs of dampa nd mould in the house (black, pink or green discolouration on the walls or ceilings, esp in bathrooms, bedrooms or the kitchen) then you wont need air plates really.

You could contact a company such as Fisher or these guys LIP. Not sure if they'll deal with private individuals though. you still have the problem though of incubating the plates safely, getting the results, and then deciding if they are above/below normal.

If possible, get a professional in to do this - there are safety implications involved with incubating agar plates in your home.

Capt'n Midnight

you might want to check on the Home and garden forumn about damp http://boards.ie/vbulletin/forumdisplay.php?f=875

you could pick up a hygrometer to check humidity and a dehumidifier to treat it at most of the bigger hardware stores

Dfens

You might be able to purchase media from the following vendors LIP Diagnostic Services, Ocon Chemicals or Fisher Scientific. For general purpose media try TSA (Tryptone Soya Agar), for fungal species you can try SDA (Sabouraud Dextrose Agar).

It is probably best to get a professional to do this for you though as outlined by other posters previously. You need to be able to quantify the amount of viables/spores present , know what normal range limits are like.
Settle plates can be left open for 2-4 hours, you need to choose the sampling spot wisely, but by their nature these are based on the chance that an airborne floating spore/microbial will 'settle' on a particular surface area that is only a few inches in diameter. For cleanroms, air quality is rountinely monitored for microbials using a special instrument which measures counts of microbials per cubic meter of air & would be a more accurate measurement technique.
You will also have the issue of incubating these plates at a specific temperature (20, 25 or 37 degrees celcius) for a defined time period before counting any colonies that may grow, also you may like to see about identifying the particular fungal species (would involve laboratory equipment and testing methods).

Have you tried your local public analyst lab for advice? You could try these guys who specialize in cleanroom environments testing, they may be able to help or point you in the right direction:
EMS
Autocal

RecessionJohn

gnolan wrote: »

I have no idea where to post this so i have chosen here!

Does anyone know where i can get agar plates to test the air quality at home for dust spores and fungus spores and that kind of thing? I've not idea how to go about it so feel free to speak to me in as patronizing a manner as required!

I work for a company that supplies prepoured plates but as all the other posts suggest it'd be better and safer to get an independent lab's advice first. In the meantime try buying a moisture meter and this can indicate if walls/floors etc are damp (or not, as the case may be) and is an inexpensive way to go.