So I went to go light up a cigar that was gifted to me last night. Went to go take the first draw after lighting it up and noticed that I really want's getting any smoke, but it ws smoking good at the end. Purged it and skoke went out, took a long hard draw and heard a "weeeer" and noticed a whole about 1" for the bottom of the cigar. :-)
Looked closer and noticed a little larva borrowing in. NOT GOOD!!!
I have just checked the rest of my humidor and no sign of any others. My question is:
This freezing the cigars technique, is it too late to do this to make sure they didn't travel through the humidor? It was gifted a few weeks ago so it might have had time to work it's way into others.
The other question is does leaving the cello on the cigar help deter them from getting into the cigars?
[Reply]

No to both questions. Freezing will kill the little bastards. Freeze EVERYTHING, humi as well if you can. You want to make sure to freeze any cigar boxes along with the cigars.

Beetles can eat through cello.
Posted via Mobile Device
[Reply]

Deffinitely can't freeze the humidor!! It's a 250 ct treasure chest.
[Reply]

You don't need to freeze your humidor. They lay eggs in/on tobacco only, not wood. Hence, tobacco beetle.
[Reply]

This is true.

Just make sure to inspect the humidor. It won't be infested (as in beetles living in the wood), but if an egg/larvae/beetle fell out of a cigar and into the humidor itself, then you'll be right back to where you started.

Sorry, I should have further explained my logic with my first response.
[Reply]

I read you can lightly wipe down the humi with distilled water or grain alchohol. Maybe someone else can chime in on this.
[Reply]

yes, i would definately wipe it down with some distilled water after taking cigars out and freezing them. just like when you season a new humidor.

also, freezing really won't kill the little buggers - unless you go way sub-zero temps, which most of us can't do in practical applications. but the freezing should knock them into deep hibernation and as long as you keep your humi at the right temp, etc, you'll be fine.

for the op, i'm curious - this was a non-cuban cigar that had the beetle? we usually only hear about this happening in CCs. did you have any CCs in your humidor?
[Reply]

Just vacuum it out, that'll be sufficient. Wiping with water can cause the grain to raise which can, in turn, potentially tear the wrapper leaf on uncelloed cigars, and it certainly won't do anything to affect beetles. Alcohol might be good for mold, if that were the problem, which it isn't.
[Reply]

I had a beetle-ridden Ashton from an Ashton rep a few weeks ago. As he said "They've been in their baggies with a humi pack....in my car."

He traded it out for one that didn't have 4 holes for me :-)
[Reply]

It was a PDR-VLR. Don't think that it was Cuban, and no, I don't have any Cubans in my collection as of yet.
I will be putting them in the freezer in the next couple minutes.
Thanks for the help!! I'll let you know if anything else comes out to say HI!!
[Reply]

Freezing will kill beetles, eggs and larvae. Lower temps will kill faster, but freezing for an extended period of time, 72hours or longer will kill completely. OldSailor has an extensive post about freezing archived here.
[Reply]

Fixed it for you. And if the OP would read that thread it would answer a lot of the questions he asked and give him the methods by which to solve his concerns.
[Reply]

Good to hear you caught it in time!!!
[Reply]

yeah, much later after i posted i realized i mispoke about killing the live beetles. but, i don't believe that a typical freezer will kill the larvae, will it? from what i've understood, it just helps ensure dormancy (is that a word)?
[Reply]

Is it just me or is the beetle topic popping up more & more??? I keep all my humi's around 65% rh same for the temp.

So my question is:

What is the ideal conditions for these bastards???

I kind of remember hearing 70-plus, not sure???
[Reply]

All of these and more questions have been covered here:

http://www.cigarasylum.com/vb/showthread.php?t=7919

Quick answers are:

Freezing will kill all stages of the beetle.

Humidity doesn't have much of anything to do with beetle life cycle. Temperature is the key.
[Reply]

Thanks Wayne, I knew it was one of those old Canucks. :-)
[Reply]

I did start reading this thread/article. I have starte dthe freezing process. i do keep my humidor at about 65-70 degrees and at 65-68% RH. I just think that it was that one stick that was gifted to me. I will be seeing the person tomorrow and worn him about it so that he can look at his humidor and him to start the process too.
Thanks guys!!
[Reply]

Count yourself lucky that the rest of your stash wasn't ruined. Freeze & good luck!
[Reply]

I was giving my cooler and humidor a once over and noticed a couple of tiny holes on a couple of sticks. When I say tiny I mean it, they look like pin pricks. I'm guessing they must have just hatched out. I'm half tempted to smoke the little bastards. I'm sure burnt bug sh*t is great for my health.
[Reply]