Fungi contamination - (Sep/25/2006 )

BIG TROUBLE!
There are fungi in our incubators! We have also seen lichens! So spores must be abundant! What can we do to kill the spores? Is it true, that we will have to do three autoclave steps with 37°C-pauses in between? Sadly some of the people in the lab are unwilling to throw away their cells in order to autoclave all the incubators!

you could try concentrated bleach.... and a UV lamp is there is one.

but autoclaving is far superior. (if you can)

Is it possible free up just one incubator (but moving all its contents to the others). Maybe the flask and plates within the incubators need a wipe down with bleach if spore contamination is that high.

We have just moved everything to one incubator. But still: one of our coworkers has contaminated cells, which she (as she puts it) can't dispose. So she has one incubator for herself. Problem is: Her incubator is immediately beneath ours, so the spores are all over the place... Thanks for the advice eith cleaning the flasks with bleach though...I have also used Incidin (additionally).

i guess priority would be to have your coworker colony purify her cells as quick as possible and dump the entire flask of contaminated media.

This situation can not go on. A former labmate of mine had a running battle with contamination (bacteria and fungal). She lost in the end.

You can try with CR-36. Do a sterilize cicle and then clean the incubator with CR-36. Be careful because this product has dangerous components. And try to clean the incubator once a month.