Beetle time line

Thewelder · May 2012

You hear about others finding beetles in their humidors but from cigars that are usually pretty new to them. I have a humidor where my newest sticks are from January. While going through it I found a little friend in my humicare jar. He happened to still be alive, and I went through all of my sticks. After searching for his home I found it in one of my ISOMs that I bought slightly over a year ago. Which brings me to wonder how long beetles can lay dormant before hatching?

kuzi16 · May 2012

i know that the life cycle is between 1 and 4 months depending on temp and humidity. i also know that the eggs tend not to hatch at temps lower than 70.
i would guess its a damn long time. i found no info on how long they can go before hatching. just keep your temp down and your RH lower than 70.

rzaman · May 2012

65 RH is the safest way to protect the cigars but I am not sure if the theory is guaranteed.

kuzi16 · May 2012

rzaman:
65 RH is the safest way to protect the cigars but I am not sure if the theory is guaranteed.

if the temp is over 80 then they can hatch at RH as low as 50% from what i have read.
good thing that the reputable factories fumigate and/or freeze tobacco to deal with this.

scarlin · May 2012

Say some of my sticks are exposed to 80+ degrees for a few hours. How long for a beetle to eat its way out of a average cigar? (Not trying to thread-jack)

kuzi16 · May 2012

a week or two. the entire life span is only a few months.
if i was to find a live beetle or a new hole in any of my cigars i would freeze the entire collection over night.

rwheelwright · May 2012

kuzi16:
a week or two. the entire life span is only a few months.
if i was to find a live beetle or a new hole in any of my cigars i would freeze the entire collection over night.

What about higher humidity but colder temps like 62 - 65 degrees?

boydmcgowan · May 2012

rwheelwright:
kuzi16:
a week or two. the entire life span is only a few months.
if i was to find a live beetle or a new hole in any of my cigars i would freeze the entire collection over night.
What about higher humidity but colder temps like 62 - 65 degrees?

I could be way off here, but I was under the impression that it takes BOTH temp and Humidity to be over 75% for some time period (no clue how long) for it to be a hospitable environment for beetle eggs to even want to hatch.

kuzi16 · May 2012

boydmcgowan:
rwheelwright:
kuzi16:
a week or two. the entire life span is only a few months.
if i was to find a live beetle or a new hole in any of my cigars i would freeze the entire collection over night.
What about higher humidity but colder temps like 62 - 65 degrees?
I could be way off here, but I was under the impression that it takes BOTH temp and Humidity to be over 75% for some time period (no clue how long) for it to be a hospitable environment for beetle eggs to even want to hatch.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lasioderma_serricorne

madurofan · May 2012

rzaman:
65 RH is the safest way to protect the cigars but I am not sure if the theory is guaranteed.

This is just wrong.

1. 65RH is too low for aging cigars, it's good for smoking not so much for aging.
2. Beetle hatching is MUCH, MUCH, MUCH more about temp the humidity. Now due to the fact the R in RH stands for relative, when temp in a humidor rises RH typically rises with it.

madurofan · May 2012

rwheelwright:
kuzi16:
a week or two. the entire life span is only a few months.
if i was to find a live beetle or a new hole in any of my cigars i would freeze the entire collection over night.
What about higher humidity but colder temps like 62 - 65 degrees?

That is the entire reason for people using wine-a-dors.

rwheelwright · May 2012

madurofan:
rwheelwright:
kuzi16:
a week or two. the entire life span is only a few months.
if i was to find a live beetle or a new hole in any of my cigars i would freeze the entire collection over night.
What about higher humidity but colder temps like 62 - 65 degrees?
That is the entire reason for people using wine-a-dors.

This is why I ask. I have the Monolith that does temp and humidity. Sometimes the humidity gets too high but I keep the temp no higher than 66, but usually lower. I found what looked like a beetle in my humi gel jar but I have found no evidence of a beetle outbreak and I went through most of them last night. No holes, no fine pepper like substance and no visual sightings. I actually lowered the temp to hover between 61 - 63 now but with the monolith sometimes you can't control humidity.

wfip51 · May 2012

The two common problems you will run into are Mold, and Beetles. High humidity can cause a mold problem, High temperatures can hatch beetle eggs. Sounds like your temp control is fine. How high is "too high" in regards to your humidity? There is no possible way the beetles can hatch in temperatures under 70 degrees.

rwheelwright · May 2012

wfip51:
The two common problems you will run into are Mold, and Beetles. High humidity can cause a mold problem, High temperatures can hatch beetle eggs. Sounds like your temp control is fine. How high is "too high" in regards to your humidity? There is no possible way the beetles can hatch in temperatures under 70 degrees.

If that is the case then I'm good. I just lowereed my temp to between 60 and 62 to be safe for now.

aeon_spiral@yahoo.com · May 2012

my settings have been 67/67 since day one and ive still got some gars from when i first started over 2 years ago like my opus x's never once seen a beetle my smoking humi i keep at 63rh/67 temp. been great ive also froze cigars properly when bought from a new B&M or from a distributor i dont normally buy from just to be safe

Beetle time line

Comments