Can we talk? About beetles.

[smokin.joe]

On 2/23/2019 at 6:36 PM, El Presidente said:

Cuban divans/stores are full of beetles. 

Habanos can freeze as much as they like. The minute those boxes enter the stores/divans, they are open to re-infestation. 

Freeze everything from Cuba. 

A friend just returned from the Habanos Festival and toured the La Corona factory. He noticed the large freezing room was not operational due to a mechanical issue. Another reason to freeze your cigars that originate from Cuba.

[GotaCohiba]

I freeze everything regardless of source

Including cigars that I purchase from friends or trades

Not intended to offend, but too much invested to let them buggers in my stash

[SammyO]

And when you say “freeze” how long would you freeze for? And what do you freeze them in ziplocks bags? The actual box? As you can tell, I’ve never froze them before lol

[Cigar_83]

Also, what would a beginning stage of beetle infestation or even in a single cigar look like, a pinhole? The photo on the first page is really obvious but what about in the initial stages? 

[SokaKiel]

Not sure if this was once the home to a bunch of beetle larvae but nobody was home! My ‘el cheapo’ give-away Cutter sliced right through it.
This Mag 54 has no beetle holes on the outside so they all might be dying of smoke inhalation and sudden cremation right now!







In the last pic you can see that this pack of ‘eggs’ went a few layers deep into the cigar and I only shaved off the top. In the cap I found another two layers of eggs. All empty but no tunnels or holes to be found. So again, not quite sure if this was tobacco beetles at all. But I rather find this kind of natural stuff in my cigars than the odd piece of plastic string, paper or hair (it all happened in the past)!


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[Chef]

22 minutes ago, SokaKiel said:

Not sure if this was once the home to a bunch of beetle larvae but nobody was home! My ‘el cheapo’ give-away Cutter sliced right through it.
This Mag 54 has no beetle holes on the outside so they all might be dying of smoke inhalation and sudden cremation right now!







In the last pic you can see that this pack of ‘eggs’ went a few layers deep into the cigar and I only shaved off the top. In the cap I found another two layers of eggs. All empty but no tunnels or holes to be found. So again, not quite sure if this was tobacco beetles at all. But I rather find this kind of natural stuff in my cigars than the odd piece of plastic string, paper or hair (it all happened in the past)!


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Protein!

[kevpro]

Does anyone know how fast a beetle outbreak can happen?

 

For example, I will be in Cuba for a week this summer so should I avoid buying custom rolls on the front end of the trip and instead wait until the end as they would likely get above 70F in the Casa with ziplock / Boveda storage. Or is 5 - 6 days a short enough time frame to get home and freeze without concern?

[Tollickd]

I am very paranoid about these so I have a wine cooler never gets above 17c each box is sealed in a ziplock bag with a bovida bag! One year in and they are in perfect condition!


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[jeremiep89]

I am very paranoid about these so I have a wine cooler never gets above 17c each box is sealed in a ziplock bag with a bovida bag! One year in and they are in perfect condition!


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Plastic and wood don’t stop these buggers!


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[Tollickd]

Well in the summer it gets up to 40c here and the cooler stays at a nice 17. It seems to be working at this point!


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[El Presidente]

27 minutes ago, kevpro said:

Does anyone know how fast a beetle outbreak can happen?

 

For example, I will be in Cuba for a week this summer so should I avoid buying custom rolls on the front end of the trip and instead wait until the end as they would likely get above 70F in the Casa with ziplock / Boveda storage. Or is 5 - 6 days a short enough time frame to get home and freeze without concern?

You would be unlucky.

Keep in mind your customs will already be rolled (likely) so they have been sitting around in the same temps as your casa. 

[jeremiep89]

Well in the summer it gets up to 40c here and the cooler stays at a nice 17. It seems to be working at this point!


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I mean they’ll chew through boxes and plastic bags! 17c is great temp though, I wouldn’t worry.


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[CaptainQuintero]

1 hour ago, Tollickd said:

I am very paranoid about these so I have a wine cooler never gets above 17c each box is sealed in a ziplock bag with a bovida bag! One year in and they are in perfect condition!


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  Is your wine cooler a refrigeration unit that you turn on! There's so many different words that been different things to different people, talk about nations separated by a common language

  if it's one you turn on to make it cold, depending on your house humidity you might need to take steps to deal with water build up

[JIK]

Just freeze every cigar you get as soon as it comes through the door. Only cigars I do not freeze are singals, those go in a temperature controlled wineador.  I have frozen many cigars and they smoke great (just let them thaw out first ) I vacuum seal (not required) and toss in the freezer for three days, from there the boxes thaw out on the counter and then go straight to my tupperdors. 

[GotaCohiba]

I’m a 3 day in the freezer guy myself 

[koosh]

I can understand the need to freeze everything once you get bit by the beetle but has anyone smoked a lasioderma beetle-ridden cigar where the flavors were enhanced?

[Mluminos]

This is why I keep everything a cool 65/65. Never going to have to worry about beetles. The obsession with 70/70 is something I never understood, it just sounds like a recipe to ruin cigars. I dont feel as though you should aim for 70/70 but rather accept it as a margin of error.. aiming for something between 60 and 70 and being okay if it occasionally fluctuates up to 70. 

 

Especially true for shop owners, I havent been to my B&M in over a year since one of the sales reps showed me how proud he was that some of their stock had "plume"

[BJRPorter]

Even pesticide use and or fumigation is not a 100% guaranteed killer of beetles, eggs, and larvae. Spray today, beetles come in tomorrow.

Freezing will work best for killing,

Proper storage is always your best deterrent.

I’m in agriculture / food service. Insects, weeds, critters, mold, mildew, and the weather and storage conditions that feed and grow them, are daily considerations.

Pests evolve and adapt quickly. While we learn to deal with them, they go through hundreds of generations of evolution. What works today, is not guaranteed to work tomorrow.

[koosh]

4 minutes ago, BJRPorter said:

Even pesticide use and or fumigation is not a 100% guaranteed killer of beetles, eggs, and larvae. Spray today, beetles come in tomorrow.

Freezing will work best for killing,

Proper storage is always your best deterrent.

I’m in agriculture / food service. Insects, weeds, critters, mold, mildew, and the weather and storage conditions that feed and grow them, are daily considerations.

Pests evolve and adapt quickly. While we learn to deal with them, they go through hundreds of generations of evolution. What works today, is not guaranteed to work tomorrow.

So are you saying if that today we freeze our cigars to kill the beetle, tomorrow we may have to boil them?

[BJRPorter]

Lol. If I were to guess, we may have to freeze for a longer period of time sometime in the future. It’s amazing how pests adapt. Some pests are totally unaffected by existing pesticides. I’ve been out in the fields, with ten other people, and we all had Dustbusters trying to suck up bugs. We had to stop planting that variety of kale.

[koosh]

1 hour ago, juri said:

I live in buffalo the weather takes care of the freezing part for me lol

i did just get a box of 10 punch punch tubes one of them had a pin sized hole I it, so I bagged them all stuck them in for freezer for a couple of days, took it out a day in the fridge and just going to keep them in a traveling humidor as quarantine .... I did smoke the one with the hole and it was fine and then being in tubes before that as say a box also helped

Now I am scared and I often wonder if the beetles will adapt to the Buffalo climate after reading BJRPorter's professional research and findings on pest adaptation in the field.

[Mgarci96]

Just found my first beetle on this Montecristo no 4 box of 10 that just arrived in the mail. It's a December 2021 box. Gave it a few taps and the beetle came right out.

[MossybackR]

53 minutes ago, Mgarci96 said:

Just found my first beetle on this Montecristo no 4 box of 10 that just arrived in the mail. It's a December 2021 box. Gave it a few taps and the beetle came right out.

Was it dead or alive?

[KCCubano]

8 hours ago, Mgarci96 said:

Just found my first beetle on this Montecristo no 4 box of 10 that just arrived in the mail. It's a December 2021 box. Gave it a few taps and the beetle came right out.

You will have to find another protein source for the day

[KarlJ]

It appears to be universally accepted that freezing is the fool proof method of prevention. 
So what negative impact is perceived by people who chose not to freeze?  I guess I don’t do it because I think it’s gonna hurt the integrity and taste of the cigars.  Am I wrong?