diff --git a/packages/SwingSet/src/vats/comms/state.js b/packages/SwingSet/src/vats/comms/state.js
index ab38531237a..400244dbd33 100644
--- a/packages/SwingSet/src/vats/comms/state.js
+++ b/packages/SwingSet/src/vats/comms/state.js
@@ -429,6 +429,10 @@ export function makeState(syscall, identifierBase = 0) {
     if (type === 'object') {
       if (isImport) {
         removeImporter(lref, 'kernel');
+      } else {
+        // deleting the upstream/export-side mapping should trigger
+        // processMaybeFree
+        lrefMightBeFree(lref);
       }
     }
   }