Found Beetles in a Cigar

[Hardcore]

Hey HC whats new. How do I get it to that point. Is it adding more distilled H20 or leaving the lid open for a while.

I personally like the Boveda packs or the beads. They are both relatively cheap & effective. Just make sure your humi. is seasoned first. I've used the jell & I'm not a fan.

 

[Mitch]

Thanks for all the input guys, but I'm still not sure how this happened. I often pick tubed cigars when I'm going on short trips, to parties etc. so maybe this one was out of the cool humidor at some point. Just dosn't make sense, but thank goodness it is just one and it's isolated. I've been through the bettle scare several times before, myself and with friends and am not to scared of it, I think all the reasonable precautions are made and I check them so often, I doubt I could have an issue go undetected for long term. Only thing I'm learning from this is to keep as many cigars in seperate boxes as I can, so I don't risk the whole humidor, it was such a releaf to know the trouble was tubed and that tube was in a sealed box as well.

Again thanks for the input everyone.

 

[Hardcore]

Thanks for all the input guys, but I'm still not sure how this happened. I often pick tubed cigars when I'm going on short trips, to parties etc. so maybe this one was out of the cool humidor at some point. Just dosn't make sense, but thank goodness it is just one and it's isolated. I've been through the bettle scare several times before, myself and with friends and am not to scared of it, I think all the reasonable precautions are made and I check them so often, I doubt I could have an issue go undetected for long term. Only thing I'm learning from this is to keep as many cigars in seperate boxes as I can, so I don't risk the whole humidor, it was such a releaf to know the trouble was tubed and that tube was in a sealed box as well.

Again thanks for the input everyone.

Have you tried the freezer method?

 

[Hardcore]

I did some looking online & it seems that if you see holes in your cigars you should immediately do the freezer method.

 

[Soundwave13]

I won't freeze my cigars unless necessary.

You need to do it incrimentaly unless you want to damage your sticks, or so I've heard.
(1 day in fridge, 1 day in freezer, 1 day in fridge..)

There's a thread or two around about how to do it with the best results.

 

[Hardcore]

Ok so heres a question. Are all pin holes on cigars from beetles?

 

[Mitch]

Ok so heres a question. Are all pin holes on cigars from beetles?

If they are holes and round it's a safe bet it's bettles.

Thanks for the freezer sugestion, but I think my humidors are safe, it was just the isolated stick in a tube. I've done that route before and it is lots of work. Think I might set aside a tupidor inside my humidor to isolate new smokes not in a well sealed box for the first couple of months just to protect against adding a hatched bettle.

 

[Hardcore]

If they are holes and round it's a safe bet it's bettles.

Thanks for the freezer sugestion, but I think my humidors are safe, it was just the isolated stick in a tube. I've done that route before and it is lots of work. Think I might set aside a tupidor inside my humidor to isolate new smokes not in a well sealed box for the first couple of months just to protect against adding a hatched bettle.

From what I hear if you have them loose in your humi they will kill it in 48 hours. Not just a few pin holes.

 

[Mitch]

From what I hear if you have them loose in your humi they will kill it in 48 hours. Not just a few pin holes.

Dosn't go south nearly that fast, it takes at least weeks for a single bettle to turn into a feast on your humidor, when it starts to go bad it goes bad fast, but not that fast. Remember that if you get a single bettle or even a few bettles in a cigar you put into your humidor the damage should only be what those few bettles can do. Real danger is if their eggs hatch, and if your temp and humidity is low that will not happen even if they lay eggs. So, you have one generation to deal with. If you don't keep the eggs from hatching in just a month you could have tens of thousands of bettles munching away. Control the eggs and you greatly limit the damage they can do.

 

[Hardcore]

Dosn't go south nearly that fast, it takes at least weeks for a single bettle to turn into a feast on your humidor, when it starts to go bad it goes bad fast, but not that fast. Remember that if you get a single bettle or even a few bettles in a cigar you put into your humidor the damage should only be what those few bettles can do. Real danger is if their eggs hatch, and if your temp and humidity is low that will not happen even if they lay eggs. So, you have one generation to deal with. If you don't keep the eggs from hatching in just a month you could have tens of thousands of bettles munching away. Control the eggs and you greatly limit the damage they can do.

So just keep the temp & humidity low & I should be safe?

 

[Mitch]

So just keep the temp & humidity low & I should be safe?

That and keep an eye on your sticks is all you can do. Stories of people who lost big chunks of their humidor always start with a humidor that got way to warm way too often and when they checked if for the first time in weeks they found a mess. Most people who are in there humidors regularly catch it while it's only a handful of cigars. I've never lost more than ten before I got temperature under control, and since then this is my only issue and I live in South Florida.

 

[Hardcore]

What do you do to combat them?