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Last post 21 years ago by jd1. 14 replies replies.
How serious is the Beetle problem?
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goldengoose7 Offline
#1 Posted: Tue, Jul 23 2002, 8:36 AM EST
Joined: 06-28-2002
Posts: 310
The tobacco beetle that is.

We are currently suffering through a mini heatwave up here in Seattle and since we (as most Seattle residents) do not have air conditioning, I am a bit concerned about a possible beetle infestation.

Since finding Cbid, I have purchased a wide range of cigar brands that I have previously no expeience with and this is where my concern lies. I have had my humidor temperatures occassionally reach the 80 degree mark many times in the past, but the cigars I had in storage at the time were long time favorites and I have never had a problem with the bugs personally and would hate to start now.

I am not crazy about the idea of freezing every new cigar that comes into my collection, so I was wondering how much of a problem there is with cigars imported into the U.S.?

Thanks in advance for any personal experiences and input.
rookie139 Offline
#2 Posted: Tue, Jul 23 2002, 8:52 AM EST
Joined: 03-02-2000
Posts: 2,149
I've only had an outbreak occur ONCE about three years ago (in 1999)...It stemmed from a Partagas SD #4 ISOM purchased overseas and I still ended up smoking it on New Year's Eve 1999 after freezing it and all the other cigars I had for three days, then into the frigerator for two, then in a ziplock on the counter for two, etc...Still is considered to be one of the best tasting cigars I've ever smoked! (even with two pinholes visible..LOL)...I've never had any other cigars (from CBId or anywhere else) have this problem, though I know of several others who HAVE had this problem in particular with Victor Sinclair cigars on several occasions...80 degrees??...Man...I'd check your smokes carefully if the temp stayed at 80 or higher for more than two days...Scary!
rookie139 Offline
#3 Posted: Tue, Jul 23 2002, 8:52 AM EST
Joined: 03-02-2000
Posts: 2,149
Note to self: Never trade cigars with Goldengoose
(J/K bud...LOL!)
goldengoose7 Offline
#4 Posted: Tue, Jul 23 2002, 9:25 AM EST
Joined: 06-28-2002
Posts: 310
Fortunately, the evenings up here even during a heat wave are very cool, dropping back into the mid 50s at night, and the humidors all tend to drop back down to around 68 degrees by morning. So they are only at 80 degrees for about 7 hours at a time.

But I was reading on the US Department of Agriculture web site that the 80 degree reference is a MYTH. They say that the bugs can hatch at temperatures as low at 65 degrees although their development is slowed somewhat. That would seem to indicate that the potential for the problem exists for practically everyone, not just people with no A/C like me.

Historically, Seattle only gets about 25 days of 80+ temperatures spread out over an entire year and thats why most of us find it hard to justify the expense of A/C, since most of the time we don't need it.
goldengoose7 Offline
#5 Posted: Tue, Jul 23 2002, 10:49 AM EST
Joined: 06-28-2002
Posts: 310
By the way, I didn''t mean to imply that there was anything wrong with the cigars from CBid quite the contrary. So far everything I have smoked from my CBid larders have been great and arrived excellent condition.

I was just rasing this question since CBid offers such a huge selection of highly rated cigars at such great prices, I have taken advantage of this and purchased a huge variety of new (new to me but still well known) brands to try.
WSUCoug Offline
#6 Posted: Tue, Jul 23 2002, 11:34 AM EST
Joined: 04-27-2002
Posts: 103
Goldengoose, I live in the same area and have never seen a beetle in the 8 years I've been collecting. Nor do I know anyone here (in the Northwest) personally who has had a problem.

I think it is less common than people seem to think it is. But that hasn't kept me from checking all my humi's daily the past week :-)
goldengoose7 Offline
#7 Posted: Tue, Jul 23 2002, 11:53 AM EST
Joined: 06-28-2002
Posts: 310
Thanks Coug!

Good to know! You know how it is, especially if you have an EAST / WEST facing dwelling as I do. The temps rise in the morning, mellow out by afternoon and then rise again in the evening and finally cool down to very comfortable by the AM.

Considering that the sun currently rises at about 5AM and sets after 9PM, we get a lot of heat when the high pressure comes our way!

I'm just going to keep checking my boxes too and make sure I don't see any of those little critters lurking about!
WSUCoug Offline
#8 Posted: Tue, Jul 23 2002, 12:22 PM EST
Joined: 04-27-2002
Posts: 103
Of course now if you find beetles the first thing you will think is "Damn that coug! He told me it wouldn't be a problem!" I should have posted a disclaimer :-) I have also read of people putting something cold (blue ice, etc.) in their humi's during the day and taking it out in the evening to keep the temp. down. I have never tried this, though.
goldengoose7 Offline
#9 Posted: Tue, Jul 23 2002, 2:40 PM EST
Joined: 06-28-2002
Posts: 310
Ya know,


A blue ice thingy might not be a bad idea!. I might experiment with that on one of my everyday smoke boxes and see how it works! Thanks! :o)
jjohnson28 Offline
#10 Posted: Tue, Jul 23 2002, 3:27 PM EST
Joined: 09-12-2000
Posts: 7,914
Goose just make sure you have something to catch any condensation coming off of the Blue Ice thingy.
goldengoose7 Offline
#11 Posted: Tue, Jul 23 2002, 4:09 PM EST
Joined: 06-28-2002
Posts: 310
Thanks JJ! I thought about that and decided to try a variation.

I have some large ones of these and I sat the entire box on top of one with a paper towel between them. Seems to have worked pretty good as far as I can tell. I was a bit leary of putting the thing directly inside the box, thought it might be better to cool the wood from the outside in instead.
delarob Offline
#12 Posted: Wed, Jul 24 2002, 2:03 AM EST
Joined: 06-28-2001
Posts: 5,318
Maybe you could trick the beetles. You could write a cold temp on a blank hydrometer, and place it in the humidor so if a beetle does come out, he'll see the temp and run away. Or you could hang mini Bag-a-Bugs in your humi.
FishnFnatik Offline
#13 Posted: Wed, Jul 24 2002, 6:29 PM EST
Joined: 04-21-2002
Posts: 2
About a month ago noticed two cigars in my humidor that looked like swiss cheese. I removed them and placed the surrounding cigars in tupperware with a crystal tube humidifier. No furhter problems. I wondered what kind a critter had caused that now I know.
goldengoose7 Offline
#14 Posted: Thu, Jul 25 2002, 9:18 AM EST
Joined: 06-28-2002
Posts: 310
I finally decided to move all the humidors down to the bottom floor of the house (semi-basement) for the duration of this heat wave.
br> Over the years my humidors have become such fixtures in many areas of our home that they are definitely missed upstairs, but since I have so many new brands sitting in them, I figured it would be better to be safe than sorry.

Fortunately, even on the hottest day this week, the walk in closet on our ground floor was a cool 70 degrees. A bare concrete floor and the fact that our house is built into the side of a hill seems to help keep the temp down there cool.
jd1 Offline
#15 Posted: Thu, Jul 25 2002, 12:27 PM EST
Joined: 02-14-2001
Posts: 3,118
talked with a guy in a bar in West Yellowstone last year...he wanted to start a cigar business by keeping the local merchants stocked with little display humis for the touristas...he had a tobacco beetle halfway painted; looked pretty cool. 67 yellow beetle with tobacco leaves painted all over it...i've never had a problem with tobacco beetles (fingers and toes crossed) and hope i don't; i will try that blue ice thingy the next time my AC goes kaput. The last two times had to take my two coolerdors to the neighbors house...anything over 75 degrees and i get worried...even here in AZ
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