Friday eve I found holes and larvae in a certain bunch of cigars, and live adults wandering my tupperdoor. There were exit holes chewed thru the cellos, also. All contents are now in my freezer. (Had to clean out the freezer to make room!)

I just want to praise the lowly plastic soda straw for sucking the excess air out of the freezer bag! (Found this suggestion by "rck_1", from six months ago.)

Zip the bag down to the soda straw at one end, "withdraw the air", and quickly pull out straw while completing the zip. My wife laughed that I could've save the $100 I spent on that Seal-and-Save vacuum food bagger.

Just wanted to thank everyone for the discussions here, and praise the search function (duh). I am probably now a freezer on all new purchases.

Any comments on smoking the survivors of the infested brand, dead bugs and all, after freezing? I assume that up till discovering holes I've been smoking live ones... hate to trash them, they were pretty good.

coda

i think they add some body to the smoke, but i used to smoke bad frogs, and usually my first cigar of the day is the one i left in the ash tray the night before.

what do i know about cigars.

What I've done is cover the holes with tape and then remove when the ember gets near. X

I threw away the most ravaged cigars; I now wish I'd kept them to use their remaining wrappers for patching the less damaged ones.

That's what the Ciagar Afficianado reviews are referring to when they comment on tastes of "roasted meat".

Barry

Coda,

What was the brand, so we all know what to look out for?

Robert

Robert,

The infested cigars were purchased from Rodriguez Cigar Factory in Key West (their brand, unbanded). I've had them about two months; I've smoked quite a few already, and I'm certain the holes are recent. Not sure if the eggs hatched in Key West or here --- my indoor temp does get up to 76 deg F. But the Rodriquez shop is an open-door place, and the cigars seem to be at whatever the temp and humidity is that day, usually warm and high. Still, I like their cigars; I guess I'll just have to inspect and freeze before storage.

However, after close scrutiny of ALL of my cigars, I did find some "cigar sawdust" and a dead beetle in a box of Don Manuel robustos, purchased from CBID. No holes seen (yet) but the evidence is pretty damning. They're in the freezer with everything else, also.

Perhaps I shouldn't have accused the Rodriquez shop storage; I was there only in the relatively cool morning and the door was open. They may air-condition as the day warms up. I'll check next month when we visit KW again.

Coda,
Them nasty buggers can hatch at 71-72 degrees given the right environment!!! Like I probably said in my post 6 months ago, Freeze everything unless you plan on smoking it within a week of purchase!

Happy Herf`n
Rob

Rick,

I am a recent, devout convert to the freeze everything rule! I've read that some factories freeze their cigars for protection, so properly done it must not be too rough on them.

And thanks for the tips.

your welcome, and dont call me Rick. LOL

Happy Herf`n
Rob

"Ya'll hear that? We're usin' code names."

Sorry, Rob. The "rck", and the beer, threw me off.

No problem at all, your not the first to do it!!!!

Happy Herf`n
Rob