Last Friday the county had the money for beaver bounty, so I dug the tails out of one of my freezers for cashing in. Unbeknownst to me the freezer somehow came unplugged. Well a week later I discover/smell this. Lost a few pelts but not many because I use that freezer more for holding tails, castors, and such. I store my castor in a paper bag and of course the thawing ice soaked the bag and castor. Anyway, the castors got wet and have developed a bit of mold. Question is are these slightly molded castors ruined or can I rehang 3 or 4 days and they'll be fine?

While I don't have any experience with moldy castor, I would wipe the mold off of them with a vinegar soaked rag and then hang them up to dry.

Hang that castor on a line and wipe the mold off

Why vinegar?

They can be cleaned up using linseed oil too.

Because it prevents the growth of mold.

Thanks for the replies. Headed to town shortly to get some vinegar.

Refreeze them and kill the mold.

I wouldn't wipe them down with vinegar it might just ruin your castor. Just wipe it off and re freeze.

They went bad, toss them in a box and send them to me for proper disposal! I’ll PM my address!!! Lol.

I thought it might too. Think I'll hang for a full day to semi dry and refreeze.

Yeah don't take my word for it, lol. I personally don't see how it could hurt, but I don't want to be responsible for ruining your castor either, lol.

YT, vinegar on leather I can see but vinegar on castor makes me nervous. Especially when castor is about the best thing going in the south other than the live market.

Well If the castor takes on the vinegar smell then your screwed.

I had some castor get REALLY moldy one time. I cleaned it to appear perfect. Only problem was that it wouldn’t attract a barn rat, much less a beaver or other target critter. I just had a freezer quit on me last summer. It was probably a month or more before I realized it! I had 18 gutted beaver carcasses in there as well as several boxes of boned beaver and cat meat, close to a hundred biological specimens, and a bunch of fur. The castor in there was partially dried before freezing and suffered no harm. The rest would have given a hyena the dry heaves!!

Lol 114...been there....I’m not going to begin on some of bait making escapades...lol Disastrous.

I have seen moldy castor at one castor buyers place.He still will buy it.He separates it from properly handled castor,and he cleans off the mold later.it is then shipped to the end user with the other castor.He may deduct for his time to clean them,I never asked.
He does clean off the mold before passing it on to his user.
He said mold doesnt affect the castoreum.
If the castors are rotten they are no good.Castors left in a wet condition and not frozen or otherwise preserved, will rot.

I think I caught them in time. Other than some being slightly molded they seemed to have the proper smell.