Swinburne researchers have turned old, unwanted mattresses into safe and sustainable building insulation materials using fungi. The team grew a common fungus together with shredded mattress foam to create a new material that is solid and lightweight. Their research is published in the journal Scientific Reports.
It’s an ongoing fight in my area to keep fungus off the walls. I’m not sure what stops this mattress-supported fungus from attacking the sheetrock the way mold does.
Next question is how do rats like it? Rats love insulation for nesting. For this reason, I cannot even insulate my roof. If the insulation doubles as protein-rich food for rats, it’s obviously a problem. But if the fungus they are using could also serve as an accumulator for a substance that would poison rats (arsenic?), then they might be on to something.
For the first part, I suppose the answer is that the products made from mycelium (like insulations, packaging, furniture etc) they are dried beforehand, and the fungus dies. If it is not dried well, you get mushrooms. So, in a giy (grow it yourself) project, if the fungus used is an edible one, the failed projects gives you lunch. This is a process: Flower Pot from Mycelium and Cardboard
For the second part, about the rats, I really don’t know but I will keep an eye out for this topic.
I did not know that drying ensures a final death. I would have thought that the spores could reproduce as soon as conditions are right.
Looks like an interesting video… wish I could see it. Youtube (and various frontend variants) treat me with hostility the past year or two.