Mitch
BOM 2/09-Keeper BOTtLe
Seems like this is a common area of misunderstanding so I thought I'd take a stab at explaining it. So, please critique me and let me know if I'm close to the mark on this one. If so maybe it can be added to the bottom of the cigar primer thread?
There is common understanding of why its beneficial to keep temperatures down, the main one being the dreaded tobacco beetle. Although, avoiding ever getting a beetle egg or live beetle in your humidor is unlikely if you will do this long term, colder temperatures will do two great things for you if this happens.
First is that the egg does not hatch at colder temperatures, so even if you end up with a cigar with an egg in it, the egg will not hatch and you will smoke the cigar never knowing the peril you just avoided. Cigar makers go to great length to make sure that they do not ship cigars with beetle eggs in them. But despite all their efforts some of those tiny eggs, the size of a pin head, do make it through alive.
The second is that if a female beetle gets into your humidor it can lay 100 eggs during its short life span, but those eggs will never hatch. You will find youve lost some cigars to what that one adult beetle ate, maybe a few, maybe even a dozen, but the devastation stops there. At higher temperatures laid eggs can hatch in one week with larvas that will be laying eggs of their own in about two months.
Every beetle story of major heart ach Ive ever heard has been caught after the second generation of beetles has made it to adulthood. If you ever find a cigar with a few holes in it, be thankful you caught it so early.
It is not hard to believe that a small area of say three cigars could go unchecked for a couple of months, I know Ive got boxes I havent opened in years and trays I hardly ever disturb. So, if a couple eggs that have been dormant for years hatch; they eat a cigar or two and lay some eggs. Those eggs hatch into larva, but still the damage is very local, until about two months later when a hundred or more beetles become adults, can travel, and can lay eggs that will hatch in one week etc. One beetle can have a hundred children and thousands of grandchildren. I have a good friend who in one shot, once lost thousands of cigars. He did not have temperature control and traveled for long periods with work.
The temperature of 70 degrees is a happy number that is low enough to safely prevent beetle eggs from hatching, while high enough to not slow the benefits of aging cigars. If you live up north and keep your humidor in a basement, temperature may be a minor issue during the summer or none at all. If you live down south and have to run youre A/C eight months of the year, you may want to consider yourself warned.
A VinoTemp set up is under $300 bucks, if you have more than $300 bucks worth of cigars you are going to store long term, you might want to start doing math. My only beetle problem before I got temperature control cost me about 15 good cigars and the time effort and stress of freezing and thawing over 600 cigars. The only scare Ive had since I went temperature control cost me two cigars and I didnt even consider freezing my cigars, I just isolated the cigars from that tray for a few weeks.
I edited out the bottom part on on Relative Humidity, I had some confusing information that should not be passed on without clarification. check out Plushes post below for a link to the relative humidity debate. At this point I don't agree completely with either side, but I'm gonna try to come up with something that seems to match real life.
Here is what I'm doing. When I have a better idea, I'll come back to this.
[ame="http://www.botl.org/community/forums/showthread.php?t=37633"]Myth Busters Relative Humidity - BOTL Cigar Forums - Brothers of the Leaf[/ame]
Mitch
There is common understanding of why its beneficial to keep temperatures down, the main one being the dreaded tobacco beetle. Although, avoiding ever getting a beetle egg or live beetle in your humidor is unlikely if you will do this long term, colder temperatures will do two great things for you if this happens.
First is that the egg does not hatch at colder temperatures, so even if you end up with a cigar with an egg in it, the egg will not hatch and you will smoke the cigar never knowing the peril you just avoided. Cigar makers go to great length to make sure that they do not ship cigars with beetle eggs in them. But despite all their efforts some of those tiny eggs, the size of a pin head, do make it through alive.
The second is that if a female beetle gets into your humidor it can lay 100 eggs during its short life span, but those eggs will never hatch. You will find youve lost some cigars to what that one adult beetle ate, maybe a few, maybe even a dozen, but the devastation stops there. At higher temperatures laid eggs can hatch in one week with larvas that will be laying eggs of their own in about two months.
Every beetle story of major heart ach Ive ever heard has been caught after the second generation of beetles has made it to adulthood. If you ever find a cigar with a few holes in it, be thankful you caught it so early.
It is not hard to believe that a small area of say three cigars could go unchecked for a couple of months, I know Ive got boxes I havent opened in years and trays I hardly ever disturb. So, if a couple eggs that have been dormant for years hatch; they eat a cigar or two and lay some eggs. Those eggs hatch into larva, but still the damage is very local, until about two months later when a hundred or more beetles become adults, can travel, and can lay eggs that will hatch in one week etc. One beetle can have a hundred children and thousands of grandchildren. I have a good friend who in one shot, once lost thousands of cigars. He did not have temperature control and traveled for long periods with work.
The temperature of 70 degrees is a happy number that is low enough to safely prevent beetle eggs from hatching, while high enough to not slow the benefits of aging cigars. If you live up north and keep your humidor in a basement, temperature may be a minor issue during the summer or none at all. If you live down south and have to run youre A/C eight months of the year, you may want to consider yourself warned.
A VinoTemp set up is under $300 bucks, if you have more than $300 bucks worth of cigars you are going to store long term, you might want to start doing math. My only beetle problem before I got temperature control cost me about 15 good cigars and the time effort and stress of freezing and thawing over 600 cigars. The only scare Ive had since I went temperature control cost me two cigars and I didnt even consider freezing my cigars, I just isolated the cigars from that tray for a few weeks.
I edited out the bottom part on on Relative Humidity, I had some confusing information that should not be passed on without clarification. check out Plushes post below for a link to the relative humidity debate. At this point I don't agree completely with either side, but I'm gonna try to come up with something that seems to match real life.
Here is what I'm doing. When I have a better idea, I'll come back to this.
[ame="http://www.botl.org/community/forums/showthread.php?t=37633"]Myth Busters Relative Humidity - BOTL Cigar Forums - Brothers of the Leaf[/ame]
Mitch
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