Tobacco Pest Advice *Please*
I recently recieved an order I had placed on-line and when I clipped the head of the first of one of the brands I ordered I first noticed something whiteish rolled up in the interior. I took my knife and began to dig at it gently and finally started to dislodge it. What I teased out was a kind of "cottony" substance that appeared to have been white but had began turning off white from the tobacco. I clipped a larger section of about 3/4" and began to dismantle it and what I finally ended up locating was what appeared to be a web or coccon like material that was maybe about a cm in diameter (though it was more of an oblong / oval shape I guess) and inside of which was a shiny black beetley (deceased) looking thing that was maybe only 2 - 3 mm tops. Now I'm not a fan of arachnids in particular or any bug really but what concerned me here was all that I had read and heard about concerning tobacco ruining insects.
I searched through the web a bit and my best guess is that it was a Tobacco Flea Beetle but truthfully I concluded this solely from the picture. Those particular cigars were each individually wrapped, though not sealed, in cellophane but then wrapped again in bundles of 5 with cellophane and sealed there. Ultimately it was boxed with 29 other cigars though but they were all wrapped thusly, individualy and then sealed by the 5 count. Clearly the little sucker was long dead as well (I'm guessing it, or rather it's corpse, rode out the entire curing and aging process) and I saw no damage what so ever as was described and pictured in that link either.
I'll just cut right to the point: How concerned need I be about it possibly having laid eggs that could have lain dormant and could potentially "wake up" and commence infestation?. That was the one question I couldn't find a direct answer to. If I had to guess I'd say I'm 95% confident there's nothing to worry about but I was hoping I could run this by you guys and, hopefully, you all would be much more well informed and tell me for certain.
I've segregated the other 4 (I won't lie, I smoked the remainder of the little bastards "home cigar", heh) in a travel Herf and even stuck a slightly moistened square of Sp. Cedar in with em, though I have no clue if that would help anyway. Is there any reason to worry about a potential infestation from dormant eggs or anything? If so, how long should I keep em segregated?
In reading about tobacco specific bugs before I ever found the little stow away I kind of had the impression that an insect could reduce some poor schmo's $100 = $1000's collection to a sad pile of dust in mere days but also that the chances of a creepy crawly sneaking in and launching a cigar apocolypse were about the same as coming down with gram-negative bacterial meningitis.
Thanks in advance for any advice you guys can offer me on this.
Much Appreciated,
- Mayam
P.S It's also very likely that I've misidentified the bug altogether anyway so if anyone could correct that for me if needs be it would also be a huge help.
P.P.S Additionally, for what it's worth the brand and make is Alec Bradley FamilyBlend VR1 Natural, country of origin Honduras.
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Originally Posted by CoventryCat86
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