Bitten by Beetles

[Ducati]

After mildly inspecting the desktop humidor this morning, it appears that at least one of the recent additions from my last order has beetles - wouldn't you agree? The things went right through the cello.

FYI - The humidor is consistently at 65F and 66%, give or take a point up or down.

I'm assuming the following procedures tonight when I get home:

1) Inspect all cigars for beetle damage. Discard sticks with obvious holes.
2) Move the rest to the freezer inside a ziplock freezer bag (or two).
3) Keep smokes in freezer for 3 days (one site said 30 days).
4) Clean out humidor with rubbing alcohol (?) and distilled water. Vacuum any bits of tobacco out.
5) Move smokes to fridge for 1 day (same site said 7 days).
6) Move smokes back to humidor (if temp/hum hold).

Sound about right?

I'm tempted to take this stick outside today during lunch and fire it up just for the hell of it.

 

[Alwayslit]

Freeze 3 days.....better below 0. then the fridge 1 day. Good luck.

 

[Danilo]

sounds right... get em in the freezer as soon as possible... you don't want anything else to get going. 3 days in the freezer is more than enough, and then 1 in the fridge, then back to the clean humidor!

 

[DeeDubya]

Don't forget that you can bring beetles into your home in other food sources. A paragraph from an article on the beetle:

Preferred Habitat:

Cigarette beetles commonly infest dried tobacco and tobacco products - hence their name. They also infest raisins, figs, dates, ginger, pepper, nutmeg, chili powder, curry powder, cayenne pepper, paprika, yeast, drugs, legume seeds, barley, cornmeal, flour, soybean meal, sunflower meal, wheat, wheat bran, rice meal, beans, cereals, fish meal, peanuts, dry yeast, dried flowers, leather, woolen cloth, and bamboo. They also may damage the leaves and bindings of books when feeding on the paste, or overstuffed furniture when infesting the straw, hair, etc.

I keep most boxes closed in my humidor and inspect each monthly. Hopefully I would catch an infestation before they had a chance to spread to other boxes. Yes, they can actually eat through a box.

If I do find a beetle or larvae, he will immediately suffer execution with a guillotine cutter.

 

[Ducati]

I actually couldn't resist tearing the cigar up - so much for $10 - and found dozens of tunneled holes in the binder and filler.

I'll separate the wrapped/non-wrapped ones tonight (who knows what they'll look like by the time I get home at 7) and freeze them. I'll tuck a few away in my travel humidor or ziplock for use over the weekend. Sucks!

 

[swat253]

Hate to hear that. Good luck with your resolution process.

 

[rduke10]

That sucks. Hope you don't have anymore you have to get rid of. Good luck.

 

[Hendy]

Make sure you double bag them before freezing. I put about 8 sticks in a quart size freezer bag and them about 2 bags of 8 in a large freezer zip lock. 48 hours at less than 25 degrees and then 24 hours in the fridge.

After that, let them sit on the counter for about an hour (in he bags) and then put back in the humi.

My .02.

 

[jwyatt55]

After mildly inspecting the desktop humidor this morning, it appears that at least one of the recent additions from my last order has beetles - wouldn't you agree? The things went right through the cello.

FYI - The humidor is consistently at 65F and 66%, give or take a point up or down.

I'm assuming the following procedures tonight when I get home:

1) Inspect all cigars for beetle damage. Discard sticks with obvious holes.
2) Move the rest to the freezer inside a ziplock freezer bag (or two).
3) Keep smokes in freezer for 3 days (one site said 30 days).
4) Clean out humidor with rubbing alcohol (?) and distilled water. Vacuum any bits of tobacco out.
5) Move smokes to fridge for 1 day (same site said 7 days).
6) Move smokes back to humidor (if temp/hum hold).

Sound about right?

I'm tempted to take this stick outside today during lunch and fire it up just for the hell of it.

Never had a beetle problem (knock on wood) but are you supposed to use rubbing alcohol on the inside of you humi? Other than that everything sounds about right.

 

[SkinsFanLarry]

Never had a beetle problem (knock on wood) but are you supposed to use rubbing alcohol on the inside of you humi? Other than that everything sounds about right.

I've alway been told that a ammonia/water mixture is better than alcohol.

 

[Vegan702]

Do you guys freeze all the sticks you receive, i.e. singles from people, boxes bought, tubos, etc? I don't know if I have the room in the freezer for everything and it might take weekes to cycle the inventory through the freezer.

 

[Ducati]

I'm sorry - I meant ammonia as Larry stated.

My wife went through the sticks and called me; no visible damage to speak of. I'll bundle them up tonight and freeze those buggers out.

 

[Starz26]

Want some westies?

After freezing, I took one apart and the larve were dead but still juicy. Squeezing them cause black stuff to ozze out. Now I will not ever smoke one I know has been infested.....

 

[jwyatt55]

Want some westies?

After freezing, I took one apart and the larve were dead but still juicy. Squeezing them cause black stuff to ozze out. Now I will not ever smoke one I know has been infested.....

Yum :razz:

 

[CWS]

There are cigar beetle eggs in basically all tobacco. Just a matter of getting the right temp and humidity to hatch. Personally i dont mind the snap, crackle and pop of a few beetles versus tossing a very good aged stick.

 

[Vegan702]

Can you stick them in tupperware instead of zip lock bags in the freezer?

 

[alden]

Good Luck with the Beetles.

Every time I see a beetles thread my stupid OCD kicks in and I want to go home a check my wineador and humidor.

 

[BrandonJ]

You want to limit the air space as much as possible, even better would be vacuum bags..
imho

 

[dpricenator]

bummer,.... I got one beetle in a bomb once, and quickly baged up and froze my entire stash. I did however smoke the Olive MB2 that had the beetle. A little pop about half way though, and he was done for. The rest of my smokeshave been fine ever since. I do inspect the cigars in bombs i receive just to be certain.

 

[LiLo]

There are cigar beetle eggs in basically all tobacco. Just a matter of getting the right temp and humidity to hatch. Personally i dont mind the snap, crackle and pop of a few beetles versus tossing a very good aged stick.

Is that really true?? If so i had no idea. That's kind of scary.