Tobacco Beetles :(

[MrDowse]

Opened up my desktop humi this morning for a quick inspection and found what appeared to be a small white maggot crawling up the inside! My heart sank as I had recently added several aged and premium sticks that i had picked up on holiday.

Hopefully I caught it early as I have only lost a couple of cigars but I'm gutted as my last SLR Pacificos from the Czar sampler was Swiss Cheese alongside a couple of NC's. The only other damage was to the foot of a HdM Epi Especial which I think can be saved.

All the sticks are now in the freezer. I emptied the boxes from my coolerdor and inspected every stick...thankfully untouched. Save!

Anybody else ever experienced these things? I live in the UK so temperature shouldn't have been an issue, however I have had trouble keeping the RH below 75 in this humidor and wondered if that might be the cause...

[Fuzz]

Might just have been a wood mite. Normally you don't see the larval form of the tobacco beetle. Then again, better safe than sorry.

[MrDowse]

Sadly not, I've seen wood mites and they are really tiny (pinhead size). This was much bigger. I squished the thing with my finger, it was like a tiny caterpillar/maggot.

Include the fact that several cigars were riddled with mini bullet holes and I'm in no doubt it was a beetle larvae

[TheMcG]

Aw man that sucks!

and you've made me worried about my stock... but im in the wrong city to even go check them! they damn well better survive until i can check on them in january.

[Cohiba Stevie]

If you can pick it up and squash it between your fingers, it was not tobacco beetle. Tobacco beetle larvae are tiny and they are usually not seen.

[MrDowse]

Sheesh, i appreciate the fact that people are trying to reassure me but i didnt imagine the holes in my cigars or the bug. The thing was about 3mm long and looked exactly like pics and info available on the net. It ate my cigars. It's dead. It's buddies are currently shivering in the bottom of my freezer.

[Scdalak]

As long as your Cigars dont look like this, you are in good shape!

[MrDowse]

Ahem. That's exactly what they looked like.

[Scdalak]

Ahem. That's exactly what they looked like.

[Jszeto]

Sorry about your cigars my friend. Tobacco beetles are such a scary thought.

[IcedCanuck]

That really sucks bro! Hope you're able to save the rest of your stash.

[Rushman]

as many have said here, the holes sound exactly like beetles, but the larvae type thing doesnt sound like a beetle larvae - too large, usually never seen in that state.

Sounds like you have/had beetles and who knows what the larvae thing was.

Better to bag, fridge/freeze/fridge anything that was int he same area that could have been contaminated, holes or no holes.

Better safe than sorry.

[CaptainQuintero]

More importantly....where are you getting these tropical levels of heat in the UK?!

Sorry to hear about your sticks

[drzubia8]

I had the same thing happen Sunday night. I decided I could spare 1 stick so I unrolled it and found that white squishy larvae that you spoke about in the filler. My heart sank and I was so disgusted I had to fight the urge to dump the entire contents of my humidor. Common sense prevailed and I was able to salvage most of my stock.

[MC4]

How does something like this happen anymore? I thought Habano S.A. freezes everything before shipping them out?!!

[Squarehead]

If you have only one hole in a stick you still can smoke it after the freezer/refridgerator treatment.What I did was,I used the cut off cap of the cigar and made a plug out of it.No problem.

[El Presidente]

I have seen tobacco beetles that looked like they were on steroids and worked out intensely in the beetle gym. Thankfully I haven't seen one for a few years.

Pain in the arse mate. Freezing is the best way to go. Clean out the humidor with odorless alcohol. Replace the humidifier if it is sponge based.

[Smallclub]

Tobacco beetle larvae are tiny and they are usually not seen.

Of course you can see them. This one was about 2mm long.

On this picture you can see a pupil, an adult and a larvae:

[cybermadhatter]

sorry for your loss.

I had an outbreak last summer, as it was hot and humid and my humidor went over 80 degrees.

some boxes that I hardly smoke out of or look at were affected.

drove me mad,, and I threw away about 65 cigars total, after inspecting everything.

All went into the freezer after that.

They even chewed through plastic to get to some cigars in five finger bags. Un freaking Real!

Yuck.

Planetbetter

[MrDowse]

Cheers guys. It's my fault really, the NC's were actually some cheap sticks someone picked up for me from the Canary Islands. I think they were the source, rather than the Cubans in the humidor. I Inspect my sticks regularly and I saw some signs a couple of weeks ago (little piles of cigar dust by the NC's) just before i left for my holidays but i couldn't see anything else so assumed it was me bumping them around which was causing the dust piles. I inspected again when i got back and saw nothing. Added several new purchases to the humi (including BHK52, RYJ Hermosos #2, Boli 108 ). Came back 4 days later and the damage was done

Temp wise i think they can hatch at 65˚F so all they needed was the humidity and they had that in spades. I need to get some 65% beads for this humi to match the ones i have in my coolerdor. Hopefully that will prevent any future outbreaks in box. In future i won't be taking any chances. If the sticks i currently have in the freezer surive the freezing process ok then everything i own is going in

[demiurgic]

Wow! hungry suckers huh?

I was not going to freeze the several boxes coming home, but thanks to you, everything is going into the freezer for a few days.

Thanks for posting this valuable info...let your fellow BOTL's gain be yours as well brother! All the best!

[Murri]

Just found my first cigar with a beetle hole a SLR serie A HQ box.

Didn't see it until I heard a funny sound suring the first few puffs.

Had a hole right at the band and a small tunnel under the band.

Pitched it then went to check everything else in the coolidor.

It was the only cigar in that box showing any signs of beetles.

Just happened to be the first one I picked out of the box to smoke.

I froze the box back in March when delivered.

Just to be sure it's back into the freezer.

learning to hate the little buggers.

[smokum]

Your humidity is really high. You must get hat under control in whatever way is best. I would not keep my CC with NC. CC need a much cooler temperature and much lower RH is recommended too.I keep mine albeit in a Aristocrat humidor at 62F and 68%RH. In the summertime I use Damp Rid to get rid of humidity if needed. Not sure if that product is available to you.

[Orion21]

After reading all of this I am going to freeze all of my cigars. Its going to be a huge project, but I am kind of attached to them.... :-)

[Ryan]

Anybody else ever experienced these things? I live in the UK so temperature shouldn't have been an issue, however I have had trouble keeping the RH below 75 in this humidor and wondered if that might be the cause...

Good luck with getting rid of them, as people have said, freezing is the way to go. It's safe with a little care.

You're wondering about humidity being the cause, it's something I wonder too.

While it's completely logical that higher temperatures will lead to increased insect activity I'm not sure that humidity has anything to do with it at all, other than the possibility of very very low humidity drying out the eggs so much they become unviable and I'm not even sure that that could happen, at least within a cigar.

Does anyone have any evidence that higher humidity can lead to increased beetle activity?

I have a feeling that it's one of those things that somebody said once by accident and it became "a thing".