Meet the beetles

[orca99usa]

I have just had my first experience with tobacco beetles. It was a fluke that I found them this early. It seems that these little devils like to do their work undercover - underneath the cedar sleeve on three Indian Tabac Limited Reserve toros they claimed. The other stick they got was a Rocky Patel Vintage 1990 Churchill (they seemed to have a taste for RP blends). I read a few posts about beetles and few had photos. I decided to share some of mine, so that others can identify the problem before it spreads. On the Indian Tabac I took to smoke this morning I could actually see a beetle larva inside a crease in the binder chewing away. Had I not picked an Indian Tabac to smoke this morning (and one of the infested ones - I have two others that are apparently fine) this might have gone undetected for a while. I check my sticks periodically but I don't remove the cedar wrapper to check underneath. Live and learn.

Two completely innocent-looking Indian Tabac Limited Reserve toros:



Until I removed the cedar sleeves. Note the wrapper damage.



They ate a pretty good expanse of the wrapper. Here you can see the prototypical bore holes a little better.



Here are bore holes on a nearby Rocky Patel Vintage 1990 Churchill they also claimed. For some reason they didn't eat the wrapper (maybe they don't like maduros):



I thoroughly checked the inside of both of my humidors and found no beetles roaming around. I put the infested sticks into a ziplock bag and threw them in the garbage. Everything else in both humidors went into freezer bags and into the upright freezer in the garage. I will probably take them out sometime over the weekend.

As far as the size of the holes, the best way I can describe it is that if you took a typical #2 pencil and pushed it into the cigar to about the point where the lead meets the wood wrapper on a well-sharpened pencil, that is about what it would look like - maybe 2-3mm across. The beetle larva I saw was about as long as the exposed lead would be.

[slyder]

those sneaky little suckers.

[d_day]

Great shots. I hate seeing beetle damaged smokes, but it's always good to share so other folks know what to look for. Here is a thread I posted some shots of my own in a few moths back.

[Andy]

those devils good smoke also

[Cigar Man Andy]

I met Ringo in a Gurkha that was gifted to me. He died young. LOL

[Nickerson]

Rotten luck man. Damn beetles.

I wonder what some huge company like Cigars International would do if they got a beetle infestation. All it takes is 1 cigar that has one.

[Legion]

Ok now you have me racing home to check all my cigars lol, but wow great photos. Thank you for sharing them.

[d_day]

Originally Posted by Nickerson

Rotten luck man. Damn beetles.

I wonder what some huge company like Cigars International would do if they got a beetle infestation. All it takes is 1 cigar that has one.

It would take more than one beetle to cause a breakout. They only do damage to the cigars in the larval stage. Once they transform into adult beetles, they no longer eat. At that point, all they do is mate and lay eggs.

[Jack Straw]

Ouch, at least you caught them early! Thanks for the great photos. I had a scare a week ago, but turned out to be a false alarm.

[orca99usa]

These sticks had been in my humidor for probably six months. Apparently conditions became just right for them to hatch out. I have just become a believer in freezing, which I never did before. The Indian Tabac I got out this morning had more extensive wrapper damage than either of the two pictured in the photo. It had missing wrapper in at least four spots, and large patches of it.

I met Ringo in a Gurkha that was gifted to me. He died young. LOL

This one looked a little John Lennonish to me.

[orca99usa]

The ones I was holding my breath while examining were my La Gloria Cubana Serie R Limitadas (one each of every Limitada LGC produced). These are also wrapped in cedar, and I made sure to remove the sleeves to check. Fortunately no damage.

[baddddmonkey]

I had a small outbreak in my humidor when I moved at the first of the year. I moved from a basement apartment to an upstairs apartment. The average temperature was about 8-15 degree increase in my apartment during the day, and my humidor actually got up to almost 80 degrees one day! I knew it was going to happen, and when it did...there was only one beetle in my humidor. I throughly checked all my stogies a few times and none of them had any beetle holes surprisingly. But they all eventually made it into ziploc baggies and into the freezer. Luckily enough I've found a better place for my humidor and everythings okay now!

[Ozone89]

Damn!

[Coop D]

Originally Posted by baddddmonkey

I had a small outbreak in my humidor when I moved at the first of the year. I moved from a basement apartment to an upstairs apartment. The average temperature was about 8-15 degree increase in my apartment during the day, and my humidor actually got up to almost 80 degrees one day! I knew it was going to happen, and when it did...there was only one beetle in my humidor. I throughly checked all my stogies a few times and none of them had any beetle holes surprisingly. But they all eventually made it into ziploc baggies and into the freezer. Luckily enough I've found a better place for my humidor and everythings okay now!

well good thing I freezed all the smokes I got from you!!!!

[baddddmonkey]

Originally Posted by Coop D

well good thing I freezed all the smokes I got from you!!!!

Hey! That was a long time ago, way before I got any of the smokes I sent you buddy haha. All the cigars I've had have been kept at ~65%-65 degrees in my cooler.