Tobacco Beetle Experiences

[Paddy]

Up until today I have never seen a beetle hole in person.
As posted on the today's smokes thread, I really enjoyed the
new blend of Flor del Todo as a cheap smoke.
I won a five'er on C-Bid along with a few other samplers.
The package arrived today with the samplers in good condition, but the five'er
of Flor del Todo are riddled with beetle holes. Three have two to three good size
hole and two look OK. I binned the entire 5 pack just to be on the safe side.
Thought of contacting the Devil Site, but I just might lay off the cheapies for a while.

[mrtr33]

Thought of contacting the Devil Site, but I just might lay off the cheapies for a while.

I'd still contact CI. From what I've heard, they have excellent customer service.

[Cigarbear]

Definitely contact them. They'll send replacements or credit you the charge. Best customer service ever

[Paddy]

I'll do that and get the credit. I'm going to stay away from the cheapies for a while.
I normally don't smoke dollar cigars, but I'm trying to fill up a huge humidor to stable out the RH.

[ilikefishes]

Beetle hatching has more to do with temperature than humidity.

Will

This could not be truer. It actually is all about temperature. When the leaf is rolled and the eggs are on it the future is set. Then you order sticks from your favorite on-line dealer. When they ship them in UPS or something similar, then the temps in the back of those trucks get above 85 f. This causes the beetles to hatch and then you done. The best way to keep from loosing a tremendous investment is to freeze new cigars for three (3) days, refrigerate for three (3) days, lay on your counter for three (3) days and then place in your humidor. I am sure you could probably skip the last two steps, but it makes the shock to the cigar leaf not as drastic. If you are not going to smoke the cigar right away do this with every stick you are going to put in your humidor. When I do the math, I have more than $1,500 in my humidor. I could not even tell you how I would feel if I lost all my "special occasion" cigars.

[ericbee]

I saw an "organic" cigar being marketed recently. One of the points was no pesticides. I started to think back to this thread, and wondered if they were more likely to get beetles. But do cigar companies ever use pesticides?

[badwhale]

I saw an "organic" cigar being marketed recently. One of the points was no pesticides. I started to think back to this thread, and wondered if they were more likely to get beetles. But do cigar companies ever use pesticides?

Plasencia ~ those are organic.

Yes, some spray the crops.

Will

[mail man]

Plasencia ~ those are organic.

Yes, some spray the crops.

Will

That would explain why I can't put som brands down.

[ashauler]

That would explain why I can't put som brands down.

Perhaps it explains more than that!

[mail man]

Perhaps it explains more than that!

Nah, I think that would come down to being dropped as a baby...and as an adult.

[badwhale]

Decided to bump this thread.

On a whim tonight, I decided to get my whole stash out, and re-inventory / sort everything. I was in a box that I'm keeping closed for about a year, and low and behold, I saw a hole in a torpedo. I knew that wasn't there when I got them.

I noticed a dead beetle (it was crispy) laying in the box, so I pulled that box and set it aside. I didn't notice any other activity on any of the cigars I was handling / sorting.

Later, I saw another torpedo with another hole, and it had a live one in it. I chucked those two, and took the garbage out. The rest of them, after thorough inspection, went in a zip lock, and are in the freezer.

This room in the house gets very hot in the summer. Flat rubber roof above, and not a good layout for air circulation from the AC in the kitchen. Might have to invest in a window shaker for the room.

[Roham]

Wow!! I just voted! Never voted before lol, but what a great old gem of a thread. Anyways, I have seen a few holes in my time, and one actual dead dry crisp beetle. Never really took any precautions before or after and have been "lucky" so far. Calgary is a fairly dry city though(except for the floods recently).

[ggiese]

A few years back I was in Nassau, Bahamas in one of the cheesy cigar shops (selling Kooban cigars and all sorts of crazy "stuff") along the cruise port area. I chuckled when I came across a "bruised and reduced" box of ratty cigars - most of which had multiple patched up beetle holes.

The other freaky story I have was when I attended a large herf in Central Illinois. There must have been several hundred cigar smokers attending. One of the participants (never met him before) approached me and offered a cigar from a brand new box he'd won in a raffle (something like domestic Partagas - nothing special). He'd already passed out nearly half he box. I lifted a cigar out from the bottom row (untouched and solidly packed) and it broke apart in my hand. He pulled all of the bottom row out and every cigar in that row was destroyed by beetle damage. And beetle larvae were everywhere! Needless to say - people were freaking out because a number of attendees had some very expensive rare aged and collectable Cubans (e.g. Davidoff and Dunhill Cubans). The poor guy was nearly tackled to the floor and tossed to the curb...

[CptnBlues63]

Whew! I'm glad you refreshed this Will, I hadn't seen it before.

Luckily I've yet to see any beetles, or holes, in any of my cigars but I'm definitely going to inspect them all this weekend. Sadly, that won't take me near as long as I wish it would take!

Since starting to smoke cigars I refrained from buying too many during winter months because I was concerned about them freezing. Now I no long have concerns and will likely swap that around to doing most of my purchasing during winter where I know the cigars will freeze a couple times over before I take them home!

[SPEEDRACER]

Mine were untreated cigars - fake Cubans, and, once, a bundle from an Internet vendor.

Once there was a supply-chain issue - e.g., a few folks had problems with Graycliff 1666 last year. Both of the ones I had, had holes. (The 1666 is not made where the rest of the Graycliffs are made)

Its kind of like cedar-wrapped cigars and mold - you can worry about it and do something, or not worry about it.


What? You didn't know mold grows under those little cedar sheets that some manufacturer's wrap their cigars in?

Are some cigars somehow treated for beetles at the factory? Or is this in reference to them not being home treated (freezing, etc)? I only ask because this mentions "untreated cigars" and I've never heard of any that were treated..?

[SPEEDRACER]

And for the record, I chose the last option, BUT it was several years ago, and I only had 5 or 6 cigars stored in a mason jar at the time so "destroying everything" wasn't much of a loss...