Damn Cigar Beetles

rwheelwright

phobicsquirrel

I wonder where the beetle came from? Maybe had eggs in the humi?

laker1963

rwheelwright

rwheelwright

So, I did a little investigating today after work. It looks like I have a little bit of that tobacco shed that they say is a byproduct of the beetles eating the tobacco. There was very little. I checked every Grand Age and Warlord that I had. Looking at them I could not see any holes in the cigars or cello but I did find one that looked like the tobacco shed was inside the wrapper. This leads me to believe it came from the Grand Age. I found another dead beetle or two but they may have been there last night. I still have the cigars and the humidor outside. I have a remote control temp guage inside the humi and the base sitting with me. It gives me the highs and lows plus current temp. It lookes like it get to around 18 for the lows and 53 for the highs. It is currently at 35 right now. I am still going to put these cigars in the freezer soon. I guess unless I take the cello off each and every one I will not know what other problems I have until I go to smoke it. Guess time will tell.

dutyje

So, now.. back to your humidity. You say you have read that keeping your cigars at a higher humidity is better for aging. Where did you read this? Did they give a specific number? The reason I ask is that most people here find that they prefer to smoke their cigars around 65%... however, some will age cigars at 70% -- in other words, your interpretation of "higher" was "higher than 70%" ... however, what you read may have said that "higher" was relative to a smoking humidity of 65%. I doubt any respectable source would advise you to store cigars above 72% humidity.

gmill880

The Grand Burro Master speaks the truth .....you may now depart with this knowledge ....after leaving three cigars in the gold bowl before his feet (minus those 'effin beetles)

Randythunder

You got any pics of the bettles?

rwheelwright

gmill880

Also rwheelwright remember after about 3 days in the freezer they need to go in the refrigerator for a day to keep from shocking them-let them readjust ...so the wrappers don't slplit from the temp change

phobicsquirrel

what does this shed look like? also, since your RH was in the high 70's your temps were there too? Just checking as my mind got lost in all the paragraphs.. I really feel for ya, what a crap shoot to deal with.

kuzi16

rwheelwright

rwheelwright

phobicsquirrel:

what does this shed look like? also, since your RH was in the high 70's your temps were there too? Just checking as my mind got lost in all the paragraphs.. I really feel for ya, what a crap shoot to deal with.

I think my temps were around 75. For some reason, my room gets a little hotter than the rest of the house. I do have the humi in front of a window but the shade is down all the time. THis window has my AC in it so temps aren't a problem in the summer when I have the AC on.

jomommass1

Ob boy! Even though my RH is 69 and my temp is 70 you got me nervous about the dam beetles. Im tearin apart my humi just to be sure...

kuzi16

rwheelwright

I've inspected all my other humidors but not thuroughly. Once I am done with this exercise, I am going to go through each one and freeze their contents. I won't worry about cleaning the humis if I don't find evidence of an outbreak. I'll just deal with the cigars. Most of my other humis have a hard time staying about 68 even with multiple devices in there. I sometimes have to wipe part of them down to bring them back up to 70. This will give me the chance to reseason each one at a time and try to do a better job at maintaning 65-70. My next step is putting them in a closet but I have so many and not room in my closet that it would be extremely difficult.

phobicsquirrel

what a pain in the butt. I find it tough to stay at 65-68 too. though maybe I should just get more beads and keep them all wet. though in the guidelines it says to not wet them all. Kuzi do you wet all the beads?

kuzi16

rwheelwright

It is a good thing I froze all of my humidifaction devices. I had a jar of the gel at the bottom. I opened it today and found a bunch of the larva in there. I threw it out and will buy a new one.

kaspera79

rwheelwright:

It is a good thing I froze all of my humidifaction devices. I had a jar of the gel at the bottom. I opened it today and found a bunch of the larva in there. I threw it out and will buy a new one.

Oh man, is nothing sacred anymore ? Good thing you caught that one.

phobicsquirrel

rwheelwright

dutyje

Last I checked, 24 was below freezing. If you can sustain that for 48 hrs,you're in great shape.