This is not good!

[FDNYGUY360]

I have been having problems with my Digital Hygrometer, so I went and got the Xikar Crystal Jar to hopefully keep my mind at ease until my new digital gauge arrives.

So i'm looking in my humidor and I noticed this little black spot on the cedar that keeps catching my eye and im tryna get a good look at this spot and it moves .... i'm not high or drunk but it moves .... i get a better look and its what I think is a beetle .... very small but obviously a beetle that I have seen so many times in magazines.

Last week I bought a Padilla at the local Smoke shop and I noticed a small hole on the side very similar to the burrowing holes these T.B.s make so I returned it and he gave me another one and I looked at it and it too had a hole ... so he gave me these 2 Padilla Signature 1932 sticks (in the picture). After inspection I felt they were ok but I should have followed my gut feeling and taken my money back!

I also bought about 2 months ago these generic no name sticks at 2 bucks a pop for people I know will want to smoke at my poker nights ,also in the pics, ( i'm selfish when it comes to my cigars as I know these people dont usually smoke cigars, so why waste my good ones?) I figured these are from the same place I got the padilla's, so let me check them out, so I used my guillotine and I noticed this very obvious white speck in the new opening that got my attention and made me wonder if it was a breeding sac or something that the beetle might have made and so I opened up the cigar and I find this rock in side ..... a rock? Here are some pics ..... I dont think this should have been in there can someone help me with this ... cuz i dont believe there should be anything but tobacco in there!

Grey on one side very smooth and other side was rough and white .... almost like a broken piece of concrete and very Jagged. Its about 1/4 inch wide and thick and a little longer than 1/2 inch ....

Sorry None of my pictures are less than 205 kbs so I cannot post them! If I figure out how to reduce the sizes using Aperture on my Mac then I will post them up.

[Trevor2118]

An extract from my website. Note that there are 4 stages of the beetle life cycle.

For an updated version, see

[link]http://www.cubancigarwebsite.com/7-cigars.htm#Cigar_Pests_&_Problems[/link]

Tobacco Beetle

The tobacco beetle, Lasioderma serricorne, can cause devastation to cigars. By the time that they are discovered, the damage is done. If not contained, your whole stock can be ruined.

Tobacco beetles thrive in temperatures in excess of 18ºC / 65ºF. Their 12 week life-cycle starts off as microscopic eggs, that hatch into larva, that later pupate, and finally emerge as an adult beetle. The larva is a ~4mm long white grub, that lives for about two months inside the cigar, feeding on the tobacco. The adult is a 2-3mm long brownish-red beetle, can fly, lives around three weeks, and does its damage by chewing its way out of the cigar. Female beetles chew their way back into the cigar to lay eggs, up to 100 at a time.

This pest was traditionally fought by fumigation of the finished cigars before packing. The chemical used kills the tobacco beetle in all of its four stages of its life-cycle; and is not toxic, leaves no residual, and has no taste or effect on the cigar.

However, as fumigation has not been 100% effective (and as the use of such chemicals may eventually be banned) Habanos since circa 2005 freezes their cigars during warehousing. This is expected to totally eradicate this pest from finished cigars, however notwithstanding this, there are occasionally reports of beetle infestation current boxes.

Prevention is to keep correct storage temperatures and isolate new cigars from non-Cuban cigars and from cigars produced before circa 2005.

In the absence of storage conditions below 18ºC / 65ºF, consideration should be given to freezing newly received cigars. A conventional household freezer normally operates around -15ºC / +5ºF, so (wrapped / zip-locked) cigars should be stored for several days. Allow a transition by moving the cigars from the freezer to the fridge for several days before returning to the humidor.

Hope this helps.

[FDNYGUY360]

Thanks Trevor that does help a lot ... but the thing about the rock inside the cigar ... whats that all about? Has that ever happened to anyone? whats the weirdest thing anyone has ever found in their cigars? lol how weird.

[Trevor2118]

» Thanks Trevor that does help a lot ... but the thing about the rock inside the cigar ... whats that all about? Has that ever happened to anyone?

» whats the weirdest thing anyone has ever found in their cigars? lol how weird.

I am wondering if this is the pupa. Literature says that the pupa is a protective cocoon built around the lava. I wounder if protective equates to hard. Try cutting it open.

BTW I have added information and photos to the website, that includes a pupa.

[link]http://www.cubancigarwebsite.com/7-cigars.htm#Cigar_Pests_&_Problems[/link]