Tiny bugs in my cigar boxes

[Evan]

I was rearranging my humi today and noticed in one of my cigar boxes, that I had some very small bugs crawling around inside the box.
I pulled out all my other boxes which is only 5, and found 2 more boxes with 1 bug each inside.

The first box that I found had only 2-3 bugs that I could see and after 1-2 minutes in the open, they scurried for the cracks and corners of the box vanishing from site.
I was screwing around trying to take a picture of them and they were able to evade me.
So then I did what I should have done immediately and killed all the bugs that I could see.
I was able to take a pic of one of them as best I could.

They are way too small to be beetles or even larvae and there is no noticeable damage to any of my cigars.
My wineador is at 67* with 68%RH (I'm doing experiments to try to lower that)

All the boxes that had the tiny bugs were placed into the freezer just to be safe.
But does anyone know what kind of bugs these are?
Dust mites maybe?

 

[Skitalets]

That looks exactly like a beetle to me...

 

[Craig Mac]

Hard to tell but.....

Here is what a tobacco bettle looks like

 

[Knickerbocker]

freeze everything immediately. ziplock plastic bags. but in freezer for 24 hours. then left them defrost in the fridge for 12 hours. put them inside of the produce or some other type of drawer. then put them back in your humi

 

[Hoshneer]

Prayers sent...

 

[CO Smokes]

Looks like it could possibly be a beetle but its very hard to tell and that is wayyyy smaller than any beetle I've seen. Like Dave said, freeze everything ASAP just in case. There may be no damage now but it doesn't mean there won't be. Best of luck with whatever it may be

 

[Tobacco Giant]

freeze everything immediately. ziplock plastic bags. but in freezer for 24 hours. then left them defrost in the fridge for 12 hours. put them inside of the produce or some other type of drawer. then put them back in your humi

I'm far from an expert, but I've read 3 days in the freezer is necessary.

OP - they're probably just baby beetles. They have to start at some size and get bigger.

It doesn't sound like your temperature is to blame, I'm guessing the sticks may have been gotten to while at the b&m, while shipping or at some other point (not sure where you got them).

 

[D Quintero]

wow !
I didnt know they got that huge. kinda rosado cool lookin...
keep as pet and feed' em dog rockets?

 

[reinadocigars]

Good luck...verdict here from other BOTL members is sound...

 

[Evan]

Here's a picture of beetles. The bugs I encountered were like 10x smaller than this.
I could barely see them.

...And from what I've seen and read, larvae is not much smaller than this picture right here.
If my bugs are smaller than tobacco beetle larvae, then they certainly aren't' tobacco beetles.... RIGHT?
OH god. OH GODD!!! What do I do... haha
For real though, I'm scared :sadstare:

 

[Craig Mac]

Are there any holes in any of the cigars?

 

[CigarGavin]

Freezer and Fridge combo is best bet. Throw out the boxes that had the bugs and clean out the humi while you wait for the couple day freezer/deforost. Makes sure you go over everything with a fine tooth comb or they are going to come back :timebomb:

 

[Evan]

Can anyone really say for certain that these are tobacco beetles? I don't think they are.

 

[CigarGavin]

I cant say for sure having never experienced them myself (Knock on wood for future) but a poor analogy that I can think of off the top of my head is; if you think the humidity is too low in your humi but the hygrometer says its fine, do you leave it or recalibrate the hygrometer to make sure. I would play its safe an just clean/check everything. My 2 cents

 

[Evan]

At this point I feel that sticking my cigars in a freezer would be more harmful than a benign bug.

 

[Craig Mac]

At this point I feel that sticking my cigars in a freezer would be more harmful than a benign bug.

Why is that? Many here regularly freeze every shipment they get in and see no harm in doing so. Personally, it seems you may not want to accept that you have bettles. I have never had that issue so I can't say with 100% certainty that they are beetles, but if you open a box of cigars and see bugs, my guess would be that they ARE beetles.

 

[CigarGavin]

At this point I feel that sticking my cigars in a freezer would be more harmful than a benign bug.

I can understand that; I've never put my stuff in a freezer... but I've also never had a problem. I would have some hesitation about throwing them in a freezer too

 

[Evan]

What precautions need to be taken when freezing cigars?
I'm not in denial.. I just really don't think that they are beetles based on the size of them.
They were found in a box that I've had for almost 6 months and there is 0 damage to any cigars in that box.
Based on their behavior, I think they are more interested in the cedar than the cigars.

There was a thin layer of tissue paper and all the bugs were underneath it.
They were as far away from the cigars as they could be and still be in the box, lol.

 

[sofc]

I would be hesitant to freeze my cigars too (for no valid reason.) However, I did not come here looking for advice.

 

[jimmypa]

I know there is mixed thoughts on freezing, but I've done lots of research on it and it seems that if done properly, it will not effect the cigars. I was skeptical at first too but now I've froze certain cigars just as a precaution and smoked one before freezing and after and noticed no difference at all. Good luck brother!