tobacco beetle? help please.......

[senor_robusto]

hey all,
i checked one of my tupper-dors (lunch box sized with about 20 odd cigars) this evening and discovered microscopic white crawlies on my cigars!!! is this the much dreaded tobacco beetle? what do i do?i vaguely remember someone saying on here before that if one has this problem, put cigars in the freezer to kill them, is this so? i've put the lunch box in the freezer already untill someone says otherwise.......

any help would be greatly appreciated!!!

alex

[senor_robusto]

.........some additional info!!! at first glance i thought it was bloom as it had the wispy apprearance associated, then i noticed the culprits moving a little (there was about 6-7)!!! they are very very small, i'm talking about pin head sized!!! i checked all the cigars and there appears to be no damage at all (no holes or anything associated with tobacco beetle)!!! i'm in a pickle since it's sunday night in that i can't get any zip lock freezer bags untill the morning!!! is it advisable to put the lunch box in the freezer in the meantime?

help please.....

alex

[bigbarneyhotdog]

yeah freeze them, probably not tobacco beetle but another little nasty. In a lunch box, and in the freezer. Keep a couple of cigars out and smoke them anyway

[EugeneSax]

No they are not. The clue is in the name: Tobacco BEETLE.

The real nasty b*ggers are identifiably little brown beetles (in their adult stage) approx 5mm long. I assume (although never seen them myself) a somewhat smaller maggot type being when they are inside the cigar eating & burrowing their way out towards adulthood.

I don't know exactly what the little white beasties you've got are, but I don't believe they are particularly hazardous to the health of your smokes. That said, could be worthwhile monitoring their number and/or taking your sticks outside one fair day & gently giving your squatters a gentle brush-off. I stand to be corrected, but AFAIK, not worth panicking over, nor drastic action such as freezer or fumigation treatment.

[Fat1]

senor- robusto, these things are nothing to worry about. They are some from of mite that feed on the glue of the cigar bands but they dont harm the sticks as far as I am aware.

I have had these in the past when my humidity has hit 70 or above (not sure what you are running at presently). I have found that once I drop it to the high or mid 60s they dissapear.

Still it isnt a nice sight so you can just brush them off and vacuum out the box for now, but the humidity is the key in my experience to keeping them out long term.

[Lascaux]

Yup no need to worry, little White critters are just mites iirc and they do nothing but nibble on the cigar band glue. I've had em a couple of times. Just brush off your cigars, and clean the tupperdor out thoroughly. If they return just rinse and repeat, theyll go eventually.

[Bigboned]

Sounds more like some type of mites, how long have the cigars been in the Tupper? Did the crawlies come on the cigars or off the Tupper? Has it been cleaned recently? Pics?

[EugeneSax]

I've done a wee bit of research and I think what you've found are probably book lice. It seems they mainly feed on microscopic fungi (mould) so they might actually be doing some good

http://jvrichardsonjr.net/insects/booklice.htm

If so - probably not something to panic about, just give your sticks & the box a bit of a gentle brush if you feel unhappy about having foreign bodies around.

Freezing would it seems be effective, but seems a to me an over-reaction to a small number of such tiny things. Obviously if brushing isn't effective & numbers multiply significantly then another approach could be indicated.

Their presence could be a sign that your humidity levels are a wee bit high.

[senor_robusto]

cheers guys, you've really put my mind at ease!!!! i've just removed the lunch box from the chest freezer and now put it into the fridge for a couple of hours, with the intentions of leaving it out overnight in my living room with the heating off...... just to bring it round to normal humidity!!!! additional info, it's a lunchbox i use to keep various singles in!!! it has a couple of cedar sheets in and a boveda 69% pack in!!! i usually air it out every couple of days!!! also, the temp has been 65-68 last couple of day......

anyway, my main panic was that it was possibly tobacco beetle in it's infancy!!! sorry i couldn't supply pics...... i would need a macro lens at best to get anything worth seeing!!! anyhoo, they seemed to be coming from the actual tobacco....... hence the panic!!!

guess i'll just have to keep a closer eye on things......

alex

[senor_robusto]

.......also, to make matters worse, i 'rescued' a punch churchill (1998 i think) from it to smoke this evening!!! bastard thing was plugged, impossible to smoke!!! that was the 2nd example of offending cigar!!! made up with it with a fantastic juan lopez no.2.......

alex

[Deano]

As said, they're not beetles or lice, they're mites that live off the band glue. No need to freeze them, just keep clearing out, or just keep brushing off your sticks.

[daverave999]

Yeah, I've had these before and they are nothing to worry about. I was quite upset when I first saw them, but they don't do any damage to your sticks. I just brush or blow them off before smoking.
Actual tobacco beetles are about the size of a match-head and very dark in colour. They look nasty too. Only seen one once and that was in a Spanish cigar shop. Made me feel quite ill!

[Eddie]

Things always look much scarier in closeup.

mcigarbgo.jpg
source:

http://www5.pbrc.hawaii.edu/microangela/mcigarbgo.jpg

[cohibaIV]

Looks like my mother in law...

[Monkey Nuts]

Thank god for this forum!

Just found a few of these little buggers while selecting some sticks to take on holiday. I was all set to freeze the whole tupperdore until I searched here.

Thanks for all your expertise chaps!