tobacco beetles!
 

I got tobacco beetles in my Humidor!! I immediately put the whole humidor in the freezer for two days, then placed it in the fridge yesterday, should I have kept it in the freezer longer?

Re: tobacco beetles!
 

Don't freeze your humidor.
Freeze the cigars.
Wipe down your humidor and vacuum it well to make sure any eggs/larvae is gone.
Freezing your humidor may damage the wood.

Re: tobacco beetles!
 

Hmmm... you should be wrapping up your cigars in ziploc bags so they don't dry out. The `fridge will do that. I would recommend putting them in bags asap.

Re: tobacco beetles!
 

I agree with everything stated by my fellow BOTL's above. 48 hours at -10 C or colder should do the trick. That sucks that you got infested! I was gifted some CC's that had one beetle hole in it and I immediately froze them. It is a good practice to freeze all of your smokes! There is a really good thread to read if you haven't already. It is:

http://www.cigarasylum.com/vb/showthread.php?t=7919

Re: tobacco beetles!
 

So you jsut put them in the freeezer for 48 hours and that makes em pretty much beetle free?

edit: I see why people would do it now, those things tear up some cigars.

Re: tobacco beetles!
 

I'd give them 72 hours at least. Might not be necessary but if I have a confirmed beetle sighting, I wanna freeze them bastards.

Re: tobacco beetles!
 

If your freezer is cold enough, theoretically, yes.

Best to go longer or colder, or both to give yourself a margin of safety. Even then, it's not an absolute, just very highly likely.

Re: tobacco beetles!
 

Guys,
Great sticky on this subject.
Click Here

Re: tobacco beetles!
 

Why don't cigar manufacturers do the freeze procedure at the factories on all their cigars?

Re: tobacco beetles!
 

Most (but not all) do.

Problem is, even if the manufacturer freezes everything before shipping (and lets assume it's an infallible process, which it's not, but lets just run with that for the moment), that only ensures that the cigars are beetle, larvae and egg free up until that point. All they have to do is be exposed to one mating pair of beetles at any point thereafter in their travels from the factory to the distributor to the vendor to the customer for them to be potentially re-infested.

Some vendors (JR cigars comes immediately to mind) blast freeze all incoming shipments too. But again, once it leaves their warehouse humidor, anything can happen.

Re: tobacco beetles!
 

I think you need to deep freeze, not just freeze...

Re: tobacco beetles!
 

http://www.cigarasylum.com/vb/pictur...pictureid=3102

Don't freeze me, dammit! I've been through enough!

Re: tobacco beetles!
 

Holy random Blue Beetle reference Batman!

Re: tobacco beetles!
 

Makes sense.

Re: tobacco beetles!
 

I'll keep repeating this until the heavens: JR has not once, but twice passed on moldy cigars to me. Beetles I can live with. Sending me cigars with patches of mold is not forgivable. :p

Re: tobacco beetles!
 

1) Put cigars in zip lock bag.
2) Put bag of cigars in another zip lock bag.
3) Place in Freezer for 3 days
4) Move to fridge for 1 day to start bringing to temp slowly
5) Leave at room temp for 1 day.
6) Put back in humidor after cleaning and vacuuming it out.

Re: tobacco beetles!
 

Accidentally shipping mold seems happens to all vendors at one time or another. *shrug* Even some of the CC vendors who inspect boxes prior to shipment seem to occasionally screw up too (abet rarely).

I suspect that JR keeps their shipping warehouse at greater than 70RH. Everything I've ever bought from them has come in wet despite the fact it takes a week to get to CA. It's gotten to the point that whenever I get a box of cigars from them now, I just leave them out on the counter for a week or so to dry.

Re: tobacco beetles!
 

If you get cigars with beetles in them but they're in cello and you leave them like that in your humi is it possible for them to get out and into your other sticks?

Re: tobacco beetles!
 

yes

Re: tobacco beetles!
 

Absolutely. Cello won't even slow the little bastards down - they just munch right through it.

Re: tobacco beetles!
 

I'm paranoid now. Maybe I should get to freezing all of the sticks from my cooler and vino?

Re: tobacco beetles!
 

Many do. Any and all that enter my door go through the freezer before they see the inside of the humi. I know of many others with much more experience and vastly larger collections on this site that do the same.

Haven't had any paranoia (or beetles) since I started that process.

Re: tobacco beetles!
 

I had one beetle in one gifted stick... he was dead by the time he got to me (my cigars get frozen during shipping most days) BUT it scared me stupid. I freeze EVERYTHING now.

But when you freeze I think you should throw a thermometer in there so you know how cold it is. I don't like to guess when it comes to beetles.

Re: tobacco beetles!
 

So the freezing doesn't dry them out? Or do you put a humibag in with them?

Re: tobacco beetles!
 

It does mess with the moisture in the cigar a bit, so they need to sit in a humidor for a little while (two weeks to a month would be ideal, but not mandatory) after thawing out.

If you put a humipack in the freezer with them two things are going to happen:
1) they aren't going to absorb any of the humidity because they are frozen
2) the humipack could possibly burst and potentially ruin any cigars the goo contacts.

Re: tobacco beetles!
 

OK, Thanks