Killing fuzzy mold in a decoy?

L

Lee L.

Active member
I hollowed out a white cedar wood duck decoy and in the process tore out a small chunk of wood. I screwed it back together until I was ready to finish it out. I put the decoy on the floor with the rest that I had hollowed out. My shop has a gap under the door that creates a draft on windy days and this decoy had it's tail pointed towards the door. The weather has been damp here lately but never thought much about it. Yesterday I picked this decoy up and was going to repair the tore out chunk. When I cracked it open it had white fuzzy mold growing on the inside. It looks like cottonwood fuzz and is just in small patches. How would I go about killing this stuff?

Thanks!
 
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So a question if I may?

Do you think the wood is picking up new moisture while setting on the floor or was it still wet, higher than normal moisture content for decoy carving, when you carved the decoys?

When I dried some wet/green wood I had a mold develop on some of the solid blocks of wood even with a fan moving the air and daily moisture venting from the drying room.

Just wondering if the wood was wet enough to make an ideal mold enviornment inside the decoys after it was hollowed?
 
So a question if I may?

Do you think the wood is picking up new moisture while setting on the floor or was it still wet, higher than normal moisture content for decoy carving, when you carved the decoys?

When I dried some wet/green wood I had a mold develop on some of the solid blocks of wood even with a fan moving the air and daily moisture venting from the drying room.

Just wondering if the wood was wet enough to make an ideal mold enviornment inside the decoys after it was hollowed?
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I was wondering the same thing. Perhaps the moisture content in the wood is still to high from when the wood was harvested and it needs more drying time. That being the case it could move a lot, crack, warp, etc., so that mold may have saved some headaches down the road after the carving is completed.
 
Lee,
Sounds like this might have been Summer cut wood as opposed to Winter cut wood. I've seen lots of mold grown on Summer cut Bass wood since there's still a lot of moisture in the wood. During the Fall the sap empties out of the tree (for the most part) and you get a drier cut wood that will dry properly.
I'd try some Clorox, dry it out and then carve that area out of the decoy prior to assembly.
Lou
 
Thanks for the replies!
I took the whole rig apart and checked each one. Most had it but some didn't. The hen to the first decoy did not have any and she was cut from the same board as the first decoy. These were carved and hollowed last month and show no signs of checking or warping. Strange that it happened to only certain decoys.
 
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Which winter? If it was cut last winter I doubt it is dry yet, especially given the thickness.
 
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Order was placed in 2008. Got the order in 2010. Cut out and carved a month ago. Wood was very dry and boards were 2" thick. Strange that some birds from the same board had it and some did not. There is an explanation for it but I just don't know what it would be.
 
White cedar, which is the wood you were using, usually air dries, even 3" thick, in a year or so to a low enough moisture content for decoy carving. The inner part of the cedar, even when first cut has little moisture as compared to basswood, pine, etc.

I know that the cedar you got was cut in winter, because it was cut in the UP of Michigan, and the logger who cut it can only get into the cedar swamps in the dead of winter, on frozen ground.

I have seen some white mildew or moldy looking residue on the outside of planks when I got them back from the kiln, but never had it grow or pop up on the inner part of the hollowed decoy between the time I hollowd it and the time I glued it up. I certainly ahve never seen anything like little cotton balls. But I live where my humidity is normally 50% or much less for most of the year, and around 40% or less when I am carving, The suggestion to use bleach is a good one, if what you have is mold or mildew. But if the mold looks like little cotton balls, it sounds almost like spder egg pods more than the mold/mildew/white residue NOS I have seen on cedar planks.

Weird and puzzling, but living near a swamp in Arkansas, who knows what spores may be blowing around? Hopefully they will not hatch out into Zombies to start the zombie apocalypse..........
 
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