Beelte Damage????

[BamBam]

As I was delivering a box of Chateau Fuente Maduros to my Buddy today, we found a beetle in his humidor. Not only did we find the beetle, we also found the sticks where the beetle had been.

No they couldn't go for the cheap sticks. They went for his CAO Sopranos Tony Sopranos editions. These things are like 20$ a pop. They had distincty holes where the beetles had been. To add to this we also found mold on the foot of these sticks from where his humi had shot up into the high 70's RH.

I had him put all his sticks into the freezer. He's gonna use the 24-48-24 routine of fridge and freezer time.

My question is are these sticks salvageable if they already have beetle damage, let alone mold on the foot?

Also he gifted me one of these CAO's a couple months back. I went home and checked mine and found no beetle damage. My Humi stays rock solid at 65% RH. Why were his damaged and mine not? Rest assured my stick is getting the freeze also so I don't lose it. Could it have been the RH problem he had that hatched the beetles?

[Cigarmark]

Chances are, he let the temp rise above 75 degrees. Eggs are often present in the tobacco but I don't think they harch till they ht the upper 70's.

[mike32312]

Can you smoke beetle eaten sticks. IMHO yea. I personally don't think you'll be able to tell a huge difference. Am I right or wrong guys?

[Coz77]

Correct me if I'm wrong but....I always thought that beetles eat form the inside out. So the CAO Soprano was probably the one infected. As far as hatching conditions I think they like warmer air temps 75 or higher. My humi sits in basement and never goes over 65...Knock on wood I've been lucky so far.

If I were you id freeze everything and use the 24-48-24 rule...good luck, better safe then sorry.

Mold should be OK if you can brush it off and it didn't travel to far up into the cigar. Clip about a half inch off the foot if you still see mold ...toss it.

[Martix_agent]

I hada beetle infested stick once that was unsmokable due to the hols in the wrapper. all the smoke went out the holes instead of into my mouth I chucked it after about 10 or so draws.

[pusherman]

I had a LFD Factory Press I picked up a herf a while back. It had a few beetle holes in it. So, after I froze my humidor and all my sticks I smoked it.

Tasted like a ham sammich .

....

It wasnt bad so I nubbed it.

-pm

[smokeyscotch]

Originally Posted by Cigarmark

Chances are, he let the temp rise above 75 degrees. Eggs are often present in the tobacco but I don't think they harch till they ht the upper 70's.

Even though the RH spike was only noticed, I bet the temp spiked too. I have noticed any time my humis have ever had a temp rise, the RH rose too. This is prime habitat for beetles and mold. Sorry bout your friend's sticks. The bright side is he caught it, and can save the rest of his stash. And, you can prevent damage to yours.

[jkorp]

I probably wouldn't smoke a stick that had exit wholes, you know that thing is going to be filled with beetle poop. I don't mind roasting an egg, larvae or beetle, but I have not desire to smoke chit.

[massphatness]

Beetle Ligero

[BamBam]

Originally Posted by Coz77

Correct me if I'm wrong but....I always thought that beetles eat form the inside out. So the CAO Soprano was probably the one infected. As far as hatching conditions I think they like warmer air temps 75 or higher. My humi sits in basement and never goes over 65...Knock on wood I've been lucky so far.

If I were you id freeze everything and use the 24-48-24 rule...good luck, better safe then sorry.

Mold should be OK if you can brush it off and it didn't travel to far up into the cigar. Clip about a half inch off the foot if you still see mold ...toss it.

You are right. What I forgot to add to this was that the owner of the B&M I frequent told us that the box these came from had beetle damage. He told my buddy that he froze them, and he gave him a buy 3 get 1 free deal, since he was trying to unload them.. So he knew when buying them they had beetle problems. The mold didn't appear to be that bad yet, didn't even see any "hair" or whatever on the mold. Hopefully he can salvage them. As for the rest of my sticks including the CAO I found no beetle holes, so I should be good as I am freezing the suspect stick.

[SilverFox]

Beetles do not hatch as a result of Humidity but rather they will hatch at temps above 65F while super dry conditions will kill the larvae, your cigars would also suffer the same fate. Freezing is the key but it has to be cold enough and long enough to split(kill) the eggs.

On smoking beetle damaged sticks my understanding is it all depends on the extend of the damage also something to remember is that the dust that falls out of a beetle damaged cigar is post digested tobacco from the larvae (excrement) or better known as beetle poop. Gives a whole new meaning to smoking s.hit.

[BamBam]

Originally Posted by silverfox67

Beetles do not hatch as a result of Humidity but rather they will hatch at temps above 65F while super dry conditions will kill the larvae, your cigars would also suffer the same fate. Freezing is the key but it has to be cold enough and long enough to split(kill) the eggs.

On smoking beetle damaged sticks my understanding is it all depends on the extend of the damage also something to remember is that the dust that falls out of a beetle damaged cigar is post digested tobacco from the larvae (excrement) or better known as beetle poop. Gives a whole new meaning to smoking s.hit.

PM sent with a question.

[sikk50]

I've never personaly smoked a beetle that I know of...but I hear they give a pretty nice pop when the burn. There's plenty of guys out there who have done it, so I doubt its going to kill you, unless you have a food alergy to beetles

[oceanelect4]

i did the ref/freezer/ref on some cigars that were infested. wanted to see if it would work. i put them in a seperate humidor with sticks i didnt care if i lost. ended up they later came back and infested other sticks. so now i just throw any away that have problems. im in the camp that they have to be frozen below zero to get rid of them for good. just my opinion

[SilverFox]

Originally Posted by oceanelect4

i did the ref/freezer/ref on some cigars that were infested. wanted to see if it would work. i put them in a seperate humidor with sticks i didnt care if i lost. ended up they later came back and infested other sticks. so now i just throw any away that have problems. im in the camp that they have to be frozen below zero to get rid of them for good. just my opinion

The fridge freeze fridge works on the condition that you have the right combination of cold and time less cold means more time. The getting rid of obviously infested sticks is a good strategy but you won't always no the infested stick until the larvae eats its way out of the cigar. Here are the general recommendations I personally double it and go from there.

5c (41f) requires ~12 days (275 hours)
0c (32f) requires ~9 days (220 hours)
-5c (23f) requires ~4 days (100 hours)
-10c (14f) requires less than 24 hours
-15c (5f) requires less than 24 hours
-20c (-4f) requires less than 24 hours