Comments on: Do Bacteria Glow in the Dark?

By: Jessica Knowles

Jessica Knowles — Sat, 24 Apr 2021 05:28:12 +0000

Hello I am having a hard time trying to figure out what is all over my roommate and myself at first I noticed it in his hair then all over our belongings in the whole apartment but under the UV light only they look like little worms and they glow fluorescent orange,blue and green and I’ve been trying to Google all week long but I am coming up with zero answers

By: Revive

Revive — Fri, 28 Oct 2016 23:10:32 +0000

In reply to Revive.

oops – forgot to mention why. I am building a simple box fax indoor air purifier using a Merv 13 20×20 filter and would like to use UV LEDs in a shroud for the box fan. If it is a worthwhile addition. thanks :)))

By: Revive

Revive — Fri, 28 Oct 2016 23:06:16 +0000

Does anyone have knowledge of using LEDs on air borne?

By: BSC Lorrie

BSC Lorrie — Thu, 03 Mar 2016 06:46:37 +0000

Thanks for your article. I clean floors and more, and had been considering the NCIS light effect. I had a feeling it was too good to be true! I liked the comment section…ended the sad news with a little chuckle.

By: Dominic

Dominic — Mon, 15 Feb 2016 21:37:54 +0000

Yes, I know ATP, but for a presentation it would be nice to be able to show it visually. In sales, we know that a visual experience marks the memory more than than just data. I would use the ATP to confirm the results but I would like them to see the results. So the questions remains… Thank you

By: Rectofossa

Rectofossa — Thu, 11 Feb 2016 20:57:55 +0000

In reply to Dominic. UV really isn't a good way to demo this. Consider ATP swabbing? Not so specific but will give a numerical indication of how effective the product is.

By: Dominic

Dominic — Fri, 04 Dec 2015 17:16:30 +0000

Hi Rectofossa,

very interesting article, thank you. It gave me an idea. I am not a germ freak. I want to make an experiment for a sales demo to show the efficacy of a disinfectant.

I would really like to be able to use a visual method to show it. The UV light would be great because it is printed in the visual memory (strong effect).

The idea would be to contaminate a treated sample and a non treated sample with a bacteria (let say chiken salmonella) and see if the treated sample leads to less future bacteria growth. After some time, I would be able to show under UV the population difference.

The questions are:
Does the idea makes sense to you?
Which bacteria I could use that is easily accessible (ex: chicken salmonella) and would be visible under UV light? What wavelength do I need for that specific bacteria?
Finally, besides the growth of the bacteria population, I would like to show that the disinfectant can kill. Does the UV light only shows alive bacteria or both alives and dead ones?

Thank you

By: Rectofossa

Rectofossa — Sat, 12 Sep 2015 17:13:06 +0000

In reply to Diane.

Hi Diane,

Black light and glow powder can be great for stuff like hand wash training (to show people what they miss and how stuff spreads) but I’d recommend a cleaner / sanitiser (that cleans and kills bugs too) that’s tested to a standard. In Europe it’s EN1276, over the pond anything that’s FDA-approved as a food surface sanitiser.

Spray it on, wipe it off WITH PAPER, NOT A CLOTH, and don’t worry about glow powder etc. Seriously, cloths are the work of the devil. Don’t wash raw chicken. Don’t get too paranoid – and if you do, only eat deep-fried food, only drink alcohol, remove all your teeth and observe good hand hygiene.

Apart from that, coughing and sex are the biggest risk. So if anyone coughs on you while you’re having a shag you’re dead. Sorry.

Happy to answer further stuff.

RF x

By: Diane

Diane — Thu, 10 Sep 2015 20:09:38 +0000

Hi… Thanks for the read. I don’t know I understood everything, but it was interesting nonetheless! :)

I have a question, though. If I wanted to test the effectiveness of a cleaning product, could I dirty up a surface (i.e. with raw chicken), put some glow powder on it, and then clean it with a variety of different cleaning agents? And if I put a black light on it, would a non-glowing surface mean it took off the germs? (And conversely, if it does glow, that the cleaning agent in question did not do an effective job?)

Or does a non-glowing surface mean that it cleaned up the surface well, but that proteins from the raw chicken *may* still exist?

Thanks in advance.
-DKNJ

By: Magoo

Magoo — Mon, 27 Apr 2015 07:31:21 +0000

C Diff. Family member & I contracted it. Worst thing I ever had. Trying to disinfect home so I’ve read as much as I could read about it. I don’t even know if I’m killing it. Spores that live for months, maybe years? I sure wish someone would invent a waterless soap or wipe for a person’s hands that kills it, or a way to kill it on fabric! What are we in, medieval times. I never knew such a thing existed! Here I was worrying about Ebola! So handheld UVs are mostly a novelty. Interesting write-up. Thanks! That’ll save me some money for another gallon of germicidal bleach!