diff --git a/gtsam/inference/BayesTree.h b/gtsam/inference/BayesTree.h
index 85bc710b1..6637370cc 100644
--- a/gtsam/inference/BayesTree.h
+++ b/gtsam/inference/BayesTree.h
@@ -27,6 +27,8 @@
 #include <gtsam/base/FastVector.h>
 
 #include <string>
+#include <queue>
+#include <deque>
 
 namespace gtsam {
 
@@ -111,6 +113,25 @@ namespace gtsam {
     /** Copy constructor */
     BayesTree(const This& other);
 
+    ~BayesTree() {
+      for (auto&& root: roots_) {
+        std::queue<Clique*> bfs_queue;
+        std::deque<Clique*> topological_order;
+        bfs_queue.push(root.get());
+        while (!bfs_queue.empty()) {
+          Clique* current = bfs_queue.front();
+          bfs_queue.pop();
+          topological_order.push_front(current);
+          for (auto&& child: current->children) {
+            bfs_queue.push(child.get());
+          }
+        }
+        for (auto&& clique: topological_order) {
+          clique->children.clear();
+        }
+      }
+    }
+
     /// @}
 
     /** Assignment operator */
diff --git a/gtsam/inference/BayesTreeCliqueBase.h b/gtsam/inference/BayesTreeCliqueBase.h
index f72412590..6e50182c4 100644
--- a/gtsam/inference/BayesTreeCliqueBase.h
+++ b/gtsam/inference/BayesTreeCliqueBase.h
@@ -25,8 +25,7 @@
 #include <string>
 #include <mutex>
 #include <optional>
-#include <queue>
-#include <deque>
+
 
 namespace gtsam {
 
@@ -99,28 +98,7 @@ namespace gtsam {
     }
 
     // Virtual destructor.
-    virtual ~BayesTreeCliqueBase() {
-      // default destructor will cause stack overflow for deletion of large trees
-      // so we delete the tree explicitly by first BFSing the tree to determine the topological order
-      // and then clearing the children of each node in topological order
-      // Only work in single threaded mode
-      std::queue<This*> bfs_queue;
-      std::deque<This*> topological_order;
-      bfs_queue.push(this);
-      while (!bfs_queue.empty()) {
-        auto node = bfs_queue.front();
-        bfs_queue.pop();
-        topological_order.push_front(node);
-        for (auto& child : node->children) {
-          if (child.use_count() == 1) {
-            bfs_queue.push(child.get());
-          }
-        }
-      }
-      for (auto node : topological_order) {
-        node->children.clear();
-      }
-    }
+    virtual ~BayesTreeCliqueBase() {}
 
     /// @}
 
diff --git a/gtsam/inference/ClusterTree.h b/gtsam/inference/ClusterTree.h
index a517951a0..63a1b5a96 100644
--- a/gtsam/inference/ClusterTree.h
+++ b/gtsam/inference/ClusterTree.h
@@ -171,18 +171,18 @@ class ClusterTree {
     // use default destructor which recursively deletes all nodes with shared_ptr causes stack overflow.
     // so for each tree, we do a BFS to get sequence of nodes to delete, and clear their children first.
     for (auto&& root : roots_) {
-      std::queue<Cluster*> q;
-      std::deque<Cluster*> nodes;
-      q.push(root.get());
-      while (!q.empty()) {
-        auto node = q.front();
-        nodes.push_front(node);
-        q.pop();
+      std::queue<Cluster*> bfs_queue;
+      std::deque<Cluster*> topological_order;
+      bfs_queue.push(root.get());
+      while (!bfs_queue.empty()) {
+        auto node = bfs_queue.front();
+        topological_order.push_front(node);
+        bfs_queue.pop();
         for (auto&& child : node->children) {
-          q.push(child.get());
+          bfs_queue.push(child.get());
         }
       }
-      for (auto&& node : nodes) {
+      for (auto&& node : topological_order) {
         node->children.clear();
       }
     }