Salem

So after recently beginning to harvest my boards that I laid out to dry, I have noticed that almost 50-60% of them have gone moldy, even though my setup is what should be considered "spacious enough". I have a question: can crows somehow cause timber piles to go moldy if they spend some time near them (or for that matter, natural forageable plants that grow by default)?
Because it seems like every time I logged in there was always a crow or two messing around in there and it was just too risky IMO to do anything about them (running through the timber piles chasing the crows away would probably do more harm than good I thought).

Here's a pic of my setup (mind the endless piles of dropped moldy boards, if you can see them):

It has been stated that anything that you cannot move through will cause boards to go moldy. So a fallen tree log should not cause moldy boards. A crow on the other hand may (this is a good question). You also have to ask then do snakes, rabbits, beavers, deer and bears also cause this. I do believe there is also just a random chance that boards end up being moldy no matter what. This is what you probably want to know.

What below can cause moldy boards in a timber pile (yes/no)

Players
small game
large game
crows
frogs
crabs
salamanders
cliff walls

jakhollin wrote:It has been stated that anything that you cannot move through will cause boards to go moldy. So a fallen tree log should not cause moldy boards. A crow on the other hand may (this is a good question). You also have to ask then do snakes, rabbits, beavers, deer and bears also cause this. I do believe there is also just a random chance that boards end up being moldy no matter what. This is what you probably want to know.

Thanks for the reply!
I do know some timber piles are going to go moldy regardless of what you do, but the amount of moldy boards I'm getting seems extreme. Now this could be the norm in this game, but it would seem more to me like I'm doing something wrong.

The wiki says separate by 5 tiles. Do 6 to be safe. Even though it may look like 5 tiles sometimes you may be just within range. I do 6 tiles personally as I do not want to even risk it.

i personally just harvested over 50 pile, around 8 pile of moldy boards others were clean, i leave 6 tiles (considering the piles is already taking a 9 tiles square)
Note: the piles were dryd for a couple of days before i gathered em

Afaik things like players and animals do not count for moldy boards, but I might remember that wrong,
maybe Meow is kind enough to say it once again and then we put it in the wiki so people know and stop asking the same question over and over again.

Idk about animals, but I'm positive meow or one of the purples, said something along the lines of you could camp/have a sleepover near your boards, and they wouldn't go moldy. So players don't make boards moldy. If animals are a problem just pave the entire area.

jakhollin wrote:It has been stated that anything that you cannot move through will cause boards to go moldy. So a fallen tree log should not cause moldy boards. A crow on the other hand may (this is a good question). You also have to ask then do snakes, rabbits, beavers, deer and bears also cause this. I do believe there is also just a random chance that boards end up being moldy no matter what. This is what you probably want to know.

What below can cause moldy boards in a timber pile (yes/no)

Players
small game
large game
crows
frogs
crabs
salamanders
cliff walls

I remember one of the devs has confirmed that none of the animals, neither players, can cause the mold. However I couldn't find the quote...

This isn't in the wiki yet? Players, animals, and foragables have no effect on board piles. Only actual Structures that also have Hit Boxes, which means that leantos are also fine, but things like toolboxes, walls, and smelters are not. Natural structures count too so don't put board piles next to growing trees or whatever. Cliffs do not hurt your board piles.

What happened in this case is that you just got unlucky.

TotalyMeow wrote:This isn't in the wiki yet? Players, animals, and foragables have no effect on board piles. Only actual Structures that also have Hit Boxes, which means that leantos are also fine, but things like toolboxes, walls, and smelters are not. Natural structures count too so don't put board piles next to growing trees or whatever. Cliffs do not hurt your board piles.

What happened in this case is that you just got unlucky.

I see, thanks for the clarification

Little suggestion:
Would be neat if there was some form of feature that "warns" you when a timber pile is too close to another structure. Something that is checked server-side with the same code that timber piles function with, that way you don't have to just hope your timber pile is safe (as it can possibly be anyway) or not from mold growth. For now I'll just bite the bullet and play it safe with 6-tile spacing.
Thanks to everyone for the help ^^