Evening star., 1945-08-04
This and That
By Charles E. Trace1oeU

Three factors, two of them little
suspected, make the mildew nuisance
worse.
In addition to unusual humidity, lack
of air motion and shutting up houses
to help keep them cool are responsible.
Closing up home during the heat
OF day Is an old-fashioned practice
which does keep a house bit cooler.
and in ordinary summers 1t Is not SO
bad, at that, but it cuts off any chance
OF air movement. And that is bad IN
damp weather.
If one insists on closing up the home.
liberal use of electric fans, to keep
the air in motion, may be advised.
Moving air dries.
Building up of mildews' and moulds
is partly due to the lack of the drying
effect of moving air.
In the old Washington summers.
when the famous Southern breeze was
more or less permanent institution,
there was not so much mildew, except
where homes were kept too tightly
closed.
Today we lack that breeze, and so
the only thing to do is to keep the
house open. Even this will not do so
much good when there are too many
trees and shrubs too close to house.
Even our suburbs today are maturing.
Nearby Maryland and Virginia COM
munities are now from IS to so years
old. Great trees have grown and
spread and small paintings of ever
greens in situations close to the house
what the real estate men love to call
foundation plantings-have grown "all
over the place"
The old saying was that everybody
talks about the weather but nobody
does anything about it, Much the same
may be said about evergreen pruning.
There Is much talk as to how, why
and when to prune, but it is the usual
practice to do nothing about it at all
Great trees transpire many hundreds
of gallons Of water day, taking it in
during the heat and dropping it down
during the night.
Evergreens cut off what little air
movement there is.
This results in mildew getting a foot
hold not only on leather articles in
closets but also on rugs and overstuffed
furniture, on books and record album
covers Fortunately, the records them
selves are not often attacked, but
sometimes they are.
Calcium chloride, in various sorts of
containers, will help a great deal if
placed in the basement. An old bucket,
a wire contraption over it, and the
chemical placed on piece of burlap
over the wire-this is a simple home
made device which works as well as the
fanciest one to be bought.
But this has its limitations, especially
if the basement leaks, as so many of
them do in the suburban areas.
The only answer is eternal vigilance,
open windows and doors and more air
movement.
The electric fan, placed daily so that
the air in rooms where things are in
clined to mildew will be stirred up, is
one of the best solutions. An electric
lamp permitted to burn will help dry
out the air. A lamp turned on in q
closet often means the difference be-
tween clean and mildewed articles.
Red and green cloth suffer more than
other book bindings. Various types of
materials used on phonograph record
albums are susceptible. The best way
for the first signs of nildew and then
to wipe it of at once with tissues, rub
bing lightly.
In this way most of the damage and
most of the smell can be averted, but
care should be taken to do the cleaning
so that none Of the mildew is distrib-
uted to other articles. The tissues used
should be taken out of the house and
burned at once.
Mildews, moulds and athletes foot"
are all related and form an interest
ing group but one which causes much
damage and trouble. Its members are
difncult, to get rid of If allowed to 60
unmolested. Here again 1t is question
Of the famous ounce Of prevention, with
careful daily inspection, the use of
lamps and fans and wide-open windows
and doors during humid weather. Re-
moval Of trees which are too close to
houses and cutting back Of dense shrub
berry will do much to help.