Bugs on my cigars!

[Mckucci]

I just read a post about Freezing your cigars, and it reminded me of a situation I encountered last year.

I had written this article, so I figured I'd post it here in case anyone else came across this issue!!

I recently opened a brand new box of Diplomatico #2’s I had purchased on a trip to Cuba. I slowly broke the seal, and opened the box. Beautiful chocolate brown cigars, with an amazing aroma of sweet fresh tobacco. However, I noticed something – something that no cigar collector ever wants to see. There were small critters crawling over my cigars! My heart skipped a beat as the thought crossed my mind. Was it the dreaded tobacco beetle, coming to infest my humidor and feast on my cigars?

Not quite. What I’ve come across is much smaller than the infamous beetle. A little white translucent bug about .5mm in size. Upon a first glance I started to worry. I quickly pulled every single box out of my humidor and started inspecting them. Every inch of every cigar, every corner of every box – but there were no holes and no damage to my cigars. I found these little critters in about 4 of approximately 50-60 boxes in my humidor. There weren’t very many, maybe 1-2 in each box. But what were they?

After closely inspecting this small white critter, I came to the conclusion that they are just wood mites.

Yes, “just” wood mites. They look a lot worse than they actually are. Thankfully, these little guys do not feed on cigars! So what are they doing in my humidor? The wood mite is a harmless insect that actually prefers water and feeds of the glue of cigar bands. They also like mould, but don’t get any ideas – they won’t salvage your mouldy cigars!

These mites require temperatures between 3 – 35 °C, an RH of 60%+, or a moisture level within 15%. Sounds like a humidor is the ideal climate for them, doesn’t it? The good news is that a cigar usually only contains about 12% moisture. So the thought of these guys crawling up into your cigars is just not favoured by them! They typically just run around the box, and on top of your cigars. With that being said, they will not hurt your tobacco. However, they are quite unappealing to see. I mean, who enjoys opening a nice box of cigars to finding bugs crawling on them? Not me, that’s for sure!

So what can you do to eradicate this situation? Well, you can either leave them running around, as their life span is typically only 4-8 weeks. Or you can wipe the visible critters off your cigars and freeze them. What you need to keep in mind is that freezing your cigars won’t always kill them. In the wild, some mites crawl into trees in colder climates and freeze. These mites eventually unfreeze and continue about their business. So It may take a few tries, but eventually they’ll disperse. (I vacuum-sealed and froze my cigars for 10 days (while I was away on a cruise) and this solved the issue!

Here is a short video I took, so you can see what I saw!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r0KAQiXFMSo

[Geo17pip]

Good write up! A few weeks ago I recieved a nice box of PSD4's and they were a couple crawling on the cigars so I freaked out thinking they were beetles and froze them. I emailed the vendor and explained what I saw and he confirmed they are harmless wood mites. phwww All good now so far. Next time you see them just yell out Beetlejuice Beetlejuice Beetlejuice and they will disapear.

[shlomo]

Anybody buying cigars in Cuba would be foolish not to open and inspect while at the Casa. Their storage facilities (I refuse to call them humidors!) are abhorrent and mold and bugs are rampant.

In fact, even boxes opened and inspected prior to purchase should be very closely watched over the next few years for mold and bugs.

[Mckucci]

Anybody buying cigars in Cuba would be foolish not to open and inspect while at the Casa. Their storage facilities (I refuse to call them humidors!) are abhorrent and mold and bugs are rampant.

In fact, even boxes opened and inspected prior to purchase should be very closely watched over the next few years for mold and bugs.

The funny thing is, they were opened and inspected in Cuba before coming home and again before entering my Humidor. I had a box already that I was smoking through, so I put these away on the bottom shelf and left them to rest. It wasn't until about 6 months later they appeared in the box... I now have over 5000 Cigars in my humidor, the majority of them in boxes. every couple months I pull every box out and inspect them for traces of bugs. They were found upon one of these routine inspections.

[shlomo]

The funny thing is, they were opened and inspected in Cuba before coming home and again before entering my Humidor. I had a box already that I was smoking through, so I put these away on the bottom shelf and left them to rest. It wasn't until about 6 months later they appeared in the box... I now have over 5000 Cigars in my humidor, the majority of them in boxes. every couple months I pull every box out and inspect them for traces of bugs. They were found upon one of these routine inspections.

You go through 5000 cigars every two months?!?!

[...]

You go through 5000 cigars every two months?!?!

His own porn stash

[Mckucci]

You go through 5000 cigars every two months?!?!

Haha, yeah.... Not necessary all at once... I have multiple shelves in my humidor, they are all categorized by country of origin. Typically I'll go through one shelf at a time. It's an ongoing process, I love cigars. the smell, construction etc. So going threw them is something I truly enjoy doing. I could spend hours in my humidor just looking and inspecting the cigars, and I do... lol.... The wife laughs at me for it, but she knows its what I love to do!

[Skyfall]

Just for anyone else reading, UV rays are the best way to kill wood mites immediately. Solution: Sit your box of cigars out in the sun for a few minutes. Problem Solved!

[melies]

You go through 5000 cigars every two months?!?!

Wait... Do you not?

sorry couldn't´t resist lol!

[Lasabar]

Every time someone says that wood mites are harmless to cigars I think of them still crawling around my stash and shitting all over the place.

Knock on Spanish Cedar I have not had mites ever.

[maxcjs0101]

I notice that they will normally be in cabs of 50.

[soutso]

Excellent post. Thanks for the video, it confirms ahat I've seen in recent boxes. I freeze mine and it seems to work.

Do these mites lay eggs and continue on for generations? If they die after few months without reporoducing I won't bother freezing them.

[IPORTER]

I have these bad boys walking around my overflow desktop hummie scaling my cigars. I have frozen them many times, rubbed down the hummie viligantly, but the SOB's are breathing like wildfire.

Agree 100% that no damage is done to cigars albeit a few loose bands from the critters chomping on the glue.

I will take Skyfall's advice and sit the humidor out in the sun and see what happens!!!

Good post!

Cheers, Ian.

[Mckucci]

Excellent post. Thanks for the video, it confirms ahat I've seen in recent boxes. I freeze mine and it seems to work.

Do these mites lay eggs and continue on for generations? If they die after few months without reporoducing I won't bother freezing them.

I'm not sure, I got rid of them last year when I froze the cigars for a week.. I have not seen them return since! Maybe I just caught them early, as I do routine checks of my inventory

[liger930]

Indeed just found them swarming my RASS cab split with a buddy. They've spilled over into the drawers too....

[earthson]

Wow - thanks for the photo and video! I just opened one of my humis and found these little bastardos. I freaked for a second and then used FOH's search function. Saved me a load of stress!

I think I can pinpoint exactly why this happened to me, too. Due to it being winter here and us running the furnace regularly, the overall room RH is ~45%. One of my humis is a desktop and new to me. I've noticed it hadn't been holding humidity like the rest, so I set a shot glass inside with a small amount of water. Not 24 hours later and my hygrometer read 76% and I had these little buggers running around.

Everything from this humi is in the freezer and I'm going to give the humi itself a dose of sunshine tomorrow. Other 3 humis checked out OK.

So, I guess, thanks for everyone who helps to contribute to FOH and keeps us abreast on their trials and triumphs!

[oliverdst]

That video, aren't they "paper/wood" bugs?

[jimjim]

Can anyone confirm leave it in the sun method? I tried it today but these guys just gravitate towards the bottom the box.

[VRATJV07]

So this happened to me last night and I almost had a heart attack.  

Opened the humidor to check on a box of 2017 Partagas EL for a possible NYE smoke.  Low and behold I see these little critters crawling all over the cigars.  I proceeded to check EVERY box in my humidor at 2 o'clock in the morning haha

I was going to bag and freeze about 4 boxes when I found this thread.  I had a gut feeling that these were not cigar beetles because of their size.  Thanks again to fellow FOH members for this thread.