Tobacco beetles can not only eat your cigars down to dust, they can cost you a pretty penny. While not a new pest for cigar lovers, it is the leading insect that threatens stored tobacco. These critters do not discriminate. They will attack tobacco at any stage of manufacturing, up to retail and travel to your humidor.
Though it is the most common, the tobacco beetle is not the only predator that preys on tobacco. Several other insects such as the tobacco moth, the tobacco worm and at least 12 other species of insects feed on the plant. Many of these insects were trapped either in tobacco factories, warehouses or found on cigars left in room temperature inside homes.
The tobacco beetle, which is larger than the cigarette beetle, is mainly a tropical species. It is identical to the cigarette beetle except that it is larger and is black instead of brown. The tobacco beetle attacks cured tobacco in much the same way as the cigarette beetle. The tobacco moth is sometimes a serious pest of flue-cured tobacco on the farm, farmers say. Infestation may begin even in the curing barn and continue until the tobacco is marketed. Most damage occurs in the pack-house, where the tobacco is bulked before being graded. Infestation may develop from moths flying from commercial storages or farms nearby, or it may be already established on the farm and carried over from year to year in scrap tobacco, peas or beans, stock feeds or other host foods. Tobacco dealers and manufacturers constantly practice insect-control measures and maintains damage-free on insect infestations.
Having a humidor is not a guarantee as friend from Davie found out. Despite stashing away his stogies in his safe haven, he returned and found his Cubans with holes like a strainer. That’s because the illegal cigars were not properly cured and the insects were not destroyed before the cigars were put away, allowing them to multiply. “I couldn’t believe my eyes,” he said. He lost hundreds of dollars on the coveted cigars “ For a while I thought someone had opened the humidor or I thought someone had sold me a dud.” But a friend explained to him that Cuban cigars are the most prone to developing beetles because they don’t fumigate their tobacco. The don’t take the same preventive measures as the other countries do. But if you do have Cuban Cigars beware!
Below are steps to eradicate tobacco bugs in your humidor and how to prevent them from returning.:
1. First, double bag all the cigars that were in the humidor with the contaminated cigars, even those which don’t have holes. They probably have eggs and larvae. You can also use tupperware containers. One inside the other (Because of the extra moisture produced by the freezing, the extra bag or container will act as a deterrent for the moisture the freezing might produce). In a regular frost free freezer the temperature should be 10 F. to 15 F. above Zero. If in a deep freezer the temperature should be -10 F. Keep the cigars in the regular freezer for 30 days and in the deep freezer for 15 days.
2. While the cigars are in the freezer, clean your humidor with a vacuum. Leave it empty and open for at least a week. The bugs will die without its food source, the tobacco.
3. When it is time to remove the cigars from the freezer, transfer them to the refrigerator for 24 hours. Then let your cigars reach room temperature as they sit outside for another day. Return your cigars to your humidor and humidify them again. Be patient, don’t try to speed up this process.
4. When ever you come across Cuban cigars freeze them immediately, following the steps above. Better safe than sorry.
Long ashes everyone.
Jim Bennington has been caring for the cigar and pipe smoker for 30 years in Boca Raton Florida. For More information go to www.bocabenningtons.com