Damn Cigar Beetles

rwheelwright

So, I get home last night and I decide to check on my 300 ct dome humi. Would you know that I saw a little beetle in there. It is the same type I saw in that new Don Carlos 30th anniv humidor I got last month. I'm not positive that it was a cigar beetle but I am not taking a chance. So, I take the two trays out put the cigars in bags and I found another one. I put the cigars at the bottom of the humi in their chests (Gurkha Grand Age and Warlord) and the few straglers in bags. I lifted the bottom grate in the humi and found another one. I did some inspection of some of the cigars and I could not find any damage at all. Most of the cigars in that humi are in the cello. 2 are in glas tubes. Those are Partagas Limited Reserve Decadas. One 1996 and one 1997. I did have 4 Shaggy Naturals, 4 Shaggy Maduros and 3 Master Select XOs in there that are not in cello. I checked them and they all looked ok.

So, I took the humidor and trays along with the two chests of cigars and I put them outside last night. The temps dropped to 14. When I left there were around 33 today. I left the humi open so it would get a lot of the cold air. This morning it was in direct sunlight so I closed it. I wanted to put it in the freezer but I can't fit it. I put the rest of the bads in the freezer plus I put two tupperdors in there too.

I guess my question is, after leaving the humi out over night (I will leave it out tonight too), is there anything else I should do with in incase there are eggs in there? Once I take these cigars out of the freezer I am going to take the two chests and put them in bags and put them in the freezer too. I just want to be done with this as quick as possibe and don't want a chance of them coming back. Freezing cigars is easy enough but cleaning a humi may be more difficult. I wish I found this earlier because the temps were much colder last week. Oh, another question: Can beetles get through the cello? I guess I am going to have to start freezing everything I order from now on. This humidor is one of my main aging humidors and the rh is usually on the high side, 74 - 75% sometimes even as high as 78%. That is when I open the lid and let it sit for a couple of hours. When I checked yesterday, it was at 72 and when I checked last week it was 68%.

phobicsquirrel

I wonder where the beetle came from? Maybe had eggs in the humi?

laker1963

rwheelwright:

So, I get home last night and I decide to check on my 300 ct dome humi. Would you know that I saw a little beetle in there. It is the same type I saw in that new Don Carlos 30th anniv humidor I got last month. I'm not positive that it was a cigar beetle but I am not taking a chance. So, I take the two trays out put the cigars in bags and I found another one. I put the cigars at the bottom of the humi in their chests (Gurkha Grand Age and Warlord) and the few straglers in bags. I lifted the bottom grate in the humi and found another one. I did some inspection of some of the cigars and I could not find any damage at all. Most of the cigars in that humi are in the cello. 2 are in glas tubes. Those are Partagas Limited Reserve Decadas. One 1996 and one 1997. I did have 4 Shaggy Naturals, 4 Shaggy Maduros and 3 Master Select XOs in there that are not in cello. I checked them and they all looked ok.

So, I took the humidor and trays along with the two chests of cigars and I put them outside last night. The temps dropped to 14. When I left there were around 33 today. I left the humi open so it would get a lot of the cold air. This morning it was in direct sunlight so I closed it. I wanted to put it in the freezer but I can't fit it. I put the rest of the bads in the freezer plus I put two tupperdors in there too.

I guess my question is, after leaving the humi out over night (I will leave it out tonight too), is there anything else I should do with in incase there are eggs in there? Once I take these cigars out of the freezer I am going to take the two chests and put them in bags and put them in the freezer too. I just want to be done with this as quick as possibe and don't want a chance of them coming back. Freezing cigars is easy enough but cleaning a humi may be more difficult. I wish I found this earlier because the temps were much colder last week. Oh, another question: Can beetles get through the cello? I guess I am going to have to start freezing everything I order from now on. This humidor is one of my main aging humidors and the rh is usually on the high side, 74 - 75% sometimes even as high as 78%. That is when I open the lid and let it sit for a couple of hours. When I checked yesterday, it was at 72 and when I checked last week it was 68%.

From what I have read about Beetles, I would think that the cello is not any protection at all. The Beetles / eggs would have been in the tobacco itself, inside the cigar (s), and have moved into the Humi, not the other way around. I believe your Humi at 74 - 75 sometimes as high as 78% RH has a lot to do with it. What are the temps. that go with those RH readings? I am betting they are high as well.
If you can freeze everything that comes into contact with your cigars, including all your Humi's, trays or whatever you should be able to kill them off. I am betting that the Eggs within the tobacco (the beetles are within many different cigars as eggs) have hatched due to temp./ RH in your humi. That suck's bud. But freezing should end the process, from what I have read about beetles. Good luck, and keep us posted.

rwheelwright

I agree that the rh has a lot to do with it. Temps were probably around 70. It is just interesting that I have had this humi for months and even though the rh has been hi I have not seen a single beetle until now. I read that as far as aging goes, higher rh is better than lower. Now, maybe not as high as 78 but not in the 60's either. Somewhere between 72 and 75. I can put the trays in the freezer but I can't fit the humi. I'm gonna talk to my brother in law and see if he has room in his freezer to put my humi in there. I even put the humidifiers in the freezer for now.

It is interesting to note that there were only 3 that I saw and that no damage was done. My guess is that they came from some of the cigars that were not in cello but I could be wrong. Now, I am not positive that these were tobacco beetles but they were pretty small. I'll just have to freeze each humidor and it's contents going forward and then freeze whatever new stuff I get in. Everything I inspected looked fine so I think I got to everything in time. I hope..................

rwheelwright

So, I did a little investigating today after work. It looks like I have a little bit of that tobacco shed that they say is a byproduct of the beetles eating the tobacco. There was very little. I checked every Grand Age and Warlord that I had. Looking at them I could not see any holes in the cigars or cello but I did find one that looked like the tobacco shed was inside the wrapper. This leads me to believe it came from the Grand Age. I found another dead beetle or two but they may have been there last night. I still have the cigars and the humidor outside. I have a remote control temp guage inside the humi and the base sitting with me. It gives me the highs and lows plus current temp. It lookes like it get to around 18 for the lows and 53 for the highs. It is currently at 35 right now. I am still going to put these cigars in the freezer soon. I guess unless I take the cello off each and every one I will not know what other problems I have until I go to smoke it. Guess time will tell.

dutyje

So, now.. back to your humidity. You say you have read that keeping your cigars at a higher humidity is better for aging. Where did you read this? Did they give a specific number? The reason I ask is that most people here find that they prefer to smoke their cigars around 65%... however, some will age cigars at 70% -- in other words, your interpretation of "higher" was "higher than 70%" ... however, what you read may have said that "higher" was relative to a smoking humidity of 65%. I doubt any respectable source would advise you to store cigars above 72% humidity.

gmill880

The Grand Burro Master speaks the truth .....you may now depart with this knowledge ....after leaving three cigars in the gold bowl before his feet (minus those 'effin beetles)

Randythunder

You got any pics of the bettles?

rwheelwright

dutyje:

So, now.. back to your humidity. You say you have read that keeping your cigars at a higher humidity is better for aging. Where did you read this? Did they give a specific number? The reason I ask is that most people here find that they prefer to smoke their cigars around 65%... however, some will age cigars at 70% -- in other words, your interpretation of "higher" was "higher than 70%" ... however, what you read may have said that "higher" was relative to a smoking humidity of 65%. I doubt any respectable source would advise you to store cigars above 72% humidity.

They actually didn't give a number but they said higher than 70. I think it was in a cigar magazine and they were talking about how they were storing cigars for 20 - 30 years for customers. I think it was somewhere in England. Now, I don't necessarily keep them that high, the humidor just seals really well that is why I would open it and check often.

I took the Grand Age and Warlord to my sisters and put them in the deep freezer they have. I checked everyone again and found one that had the shavings inside the cello and found the hole. My brother in law said, "give me that one. I won't know the different." So, I did.

gmill880

Also rwheelwright remember after about 3 days in the freezer they need to go in the refrigerator for a day to keep from shocking them-let them readjust ...so the wrappers don't slplit from the temp change

phobicsquirrel

what does this shed look like? also, since your RH was in the high 70's your temps were there too? Just checking as my mind got lost in all the paragraphs.. I really feel for ya, what a crap shoot to deal with.

kuzi16

the shed from beetles would look like tiny flecks of crumbled dry leaves.

im not sure what else to tell you if you cant get it in the freezer. Maybe in the other direction...
turn the oven on to about 160 or so maybe 180 and put the humidor in there for about 25-30 min. this shouldn't be hot enough to hurt the wood and probably not hot enough to hurt the finish (but im not 100% on that part) but it will be hot enough to kill any bugs.

rwheelwright

kuzi16:

the shed from beetles would look like tiny flecks of crumbled dry leaves.

im not sure what else to tell you if you cant get it in the freezer. Maybe in the other direction...
turn the oven on to about 160 or so maybe 180 and put the humidor in there for about 25-30 min. this shouldn't be hot enough to hurt the wood and probably not hot enough to hurt the finish (but im not 100% on that part) but it will be hot enough to kill any bugs.

I have been thinking about that. I have also been thinking about cleaning the little bit out of my sisters freezer that is part of the fridge and putting it in there if it will fit. It's not a deep freeze freezer but should still do the job. She doesn't have much in there and I should be able to move the few things in there to the deep freeze once my cigars are done.

rwheelwright

phobicsquirrel:

what does this shed look like? also, since your RH was in the high 70's your temps were there too? Just checking as my mind got lost in all the paragraphs.. I really feel for ya, what a crap shoot to deal with.

I think my temps were around 75. For some reason, my room gets a little hotter than the rest of the house. I do have the humi in front of a window but the shade is down all the time. THis window has my AC in it so temps aren't a problem in the summer when I have the AC on.

jomommass1

Ob boy! Even though my RH is 69 and my temp is 70 you got me nervous about the dam beetles. Im tearin apart my humi just to be sure...

kuzi16

i keep my RH at 65% for that reason alone.
Its almost impossable to keep my house below 70 all summer long. I kinda gave up. If i ever get another humidor, it will be a wine fridge.

rwheelwright

I've inspected all my other humidors but not thuroughly. Once I am done with this exercise, I am going to go through each one and freeze their contents. I won't worry about cleaning the humis if I don't find evidence of an outbreak. I'll just deal with the cigars. Most of my other humis have a hard time staying about 68 even with multiple devices in there. I sometimes have to wipe part of them down to bring them back up to 70. This will give me the chance to reseason each one at a time and try to do a better job at maintaning 65-70. My next step is putting them in a closet but I have so many and not room in my closet that it would be extremely difficult.

phobicsquirrel

what a pain in the butt. I find it tough to stay at 65-68 too. though maybe I should just get more beads and keep them all wet. though in the guidelines it says to not wet them all. Kuzi do you wet all the beads?

kuzi16

nope 80% wet in the winter
20% wet in the summer

rwheelwright

It is a good thing I froze all of my humidifaction devices. I had a jar of the gel at the bottom. I opened it today and found a bunch of the larva in there. I threw it out and will buy a new one.

kaspera79

rwheelwright:

It is a good thing I froze all of my humidifaction devices. I had a jar of the gel at the bottom. I opened it today and found a bunch of the larva in there. I threw it out and will buy a new one.

Oh man, is nothing sacred anymore ? Good thing you caught that one.

phobicsquirrel

kuzi16:

nope 80% wet in the winter
20% wet in the summer

good to know thanks buddy.

rwheelwright

So, I got a question for all of you. I couldn't find a good way to freeze my humidor in a reasonable amount of time so I took a bottle of compressed air and cleaned it out. If any of you are familiar with compressed air, you know that if you turn it upside down and spray it will release a freezing liquid that can cause frostbite if you get in on your skin. So, I used the rest of the bottle upside down and sprayed all the corners and cracks to the best of my ability. I did have it in the fridge, turned as cold as it would go for over 24 (almost 48) hours with 3 ice packs in it. Temps got to around 24.

Do you think that this would be good enough?

dutyje

Last I checked, 24 was below freezing. If you can sustain that for 48 hrs,you're in great shape.