moon rot n
See quots.
1995 (1997) Turner Chesapeake Boyhood 130 seVA (as of 1950s), In the days before nylon came into use, linen or cotton net had to be hung to dry when one got home or it would go through a rot. Mitt called it a ‘moon rot’, and you would call it spontaneous combustion. Ibid 163, Moon rot—a process similar to spontaneous combustion that can affect a net or a pile of fish whether the moon is out or in. 2002 in 2021 DARE File—Internet FL, I once heard an old-timer commercial mullet fisherman in Florida talk about how you shouldn’t net mullet on a full moon because they would get “moon rot” once you took them out of the water (makes their flesh mushy and no good).