Been making wax dirt for a few years and made some with a cement mixer this year. Seemed fine and loaded it into buckets with lids. Made a second batch the same way, stored in buckets with lids and checked them today. Most of the buckets were moldy with white fuzzy mold on the top and smelled like mold. Now what? Useless and get rid of it? Air it out for a few days? Not supposed to be sunny here for the ten day forecast so leaving it outside with a stretch of sunny weather was considered also. Not sure if this would cause digging out avoidance at sets. What do you all suggest?

Throw it away. You will have nothing but digging at it if you use it. Your dirt must have had a bit of moister in it when you waxed it. Or too warm yet when you put it in the sealed buckets. After you have put it into buckets you should let it breath also.

I’d toss it. Go to Home Depot and get paper lawn leaf bags. That will let it breath.

I doubt many if any animals care about some mold in trap bedding, argue with me if you wants would use it with gusto.

Or reheat it.

Can't you reheat it to kill the bacteria then put it out to cool down and dry out?

I would let it air out in the sun for a few days and then give it a try on a couple of test sets. Waxed dirt is too expensive and time consuming to make just to throw it away on the off chance that it might cause some avoidance. Cedars are naturally occurring everywhere I have been, I would throw some cedar branches in the container with it as well. I do that on occasion with clean traps in a tote and have had no negative response from it.

Its not an off chance that it will cause avoidance. Its 100% chance he will have problems.Digging for sure! It it time consuming and expensive to make. But so is setting out a line to have nothing but troubles. Once the mold and mildew odor is in there ,its there to stay. A few days of airing out will not fix this problem. Im just trying to save this trapper alot of problems and profanity.

Agreed. If there's any smell, more common than mold in the woods, I've never heard of it! Might even be an attractant.

Any mold in the woods is different than the mold created in the waxed dirt. I guarantee that he will have digging at his traps. A moldy, mildew smelling spot over a trap with what should have an attraction to get him to step in the correct spot is not natural! Animals know the difference! I speak of experience, not speculation! Im telling you jaxsonholler, Dont use moldy wax dirt!!!!!

This happened to me once. I reheated it in my cement mixer and as it cooled down a bit I threw dry cow manure into it and let it mix. At the set I threw it around a bit so it wasn’t just at the trap and then sprayed fox or coyote urine over the area. I caught coyotes with it but not as many as I usually did.

Thanks all for the replies. As mentioned one thought was to make a bigger pattern over the trap bed with it like I’ve done with peat moss to keep the focus away from right over the trap. I’m sure the best bet is to toss it but I hate to do that. Really nothing to lose by reheating I suppose and see what happens

Maybe use it for coon sets instead of yotes