lib/PublicInbox/Daemon.pm    | 1 +
 lib/PublicInbox/EvCleanup.pm | 2 ++
 lib/PublicInbox/Inbox.pm     | 1 +

diff --git a/lib/PublicInbox/Daemon.pm b/lib/PublicInbox/Daemon.pm
index 0329bd34ed3292ea93b7db3a737bded43119bf43..9d27d2be522e908d4cca5b3d2e9c859aecea59b1 100644
--- a/lib/PublicInbox/Daemon.pm
+++ b/lib/PublicInbox/Daemon.pm
@@ -460,6 +460,7 @@ 	# this calls epoll_create:
 	@listeners = map {
 		PublicInbox::Listener->new($_, $post_accept)
 	} @listeners;
+	$PublicInbox::EvCleanup::ENABLED = 1;
 	Danga::Socket->EventLoop;
 	$parent_pipe = undef;
 }
diff --git a/lib/PublicInbox/EvCleanup.pm b/lib/PublicInbox/EvCleanup.pm
index 559730e980d528d55f065dfbc9338aa630125d57..8ed5180b76953a12b8163447e6045b3d6cf08576 100644
--- a/lib/PublicInbox/EvCleanup.pm
+++ b/lib/PublicInbox/EvCleanup.pm
@@ -7,6 +7,8 @@ use strict;
 use warnings;
 use base qw(Danga::Socket);
 use fields qw(rd);
+
+our $ENABLED;
 my $singleton;
 my $asapq = [ [], undef ];
 my $nextq = [ [], undef ];
diff --git a/lib/PublicInbox/Inbox.pm b/lib/PublicInbox/Inbox.pm
index 54a6eb32e184f71b8350454292dc4dbf06534314..b9cd4c40a6dc7541f799f0da8b520e426af7df4d 100644
--- a/lib/PublicInbox/Inbox.pm
+++ b/lib/PublicInbox/Inbox.pm
@@ -29,6 +29,7 @@ }
 
 sub _cleanup_later ($) {
 	my ($self) = @_;
+	return unless $PublicInbox::EvCleanup::ENABLED;
 	$cleanup_timer ||= PublicInbox::EvCleanup::later(*cleanup_task);
 	$CLEANUP->{"$self"} = $self;
 }