Tobacco Beetles

Tobacco beetles, cigar bugs, or scientifically known as Lasioderma serricorne; This little nuisance can cause destruction of your beloved cigars. With minimal warning and the proper weather conditions the tobacco beetle can turn your cigars to dust. If suspect of a tobacco beetle infection there are measures you can take and prevent a full blown attack.

Let’s Understand the Tobacco Beetle
The tobacco beetle is quite small in size; on average growing between 2-3 mm in length. Size comparisons are often made with the size of a pinhead. Life cycles are in a four stage 10-12 week process: egg, larva, pupa, and adult.

The female adult will eat through the wrapper of the cigar and bury itself in the tobacco to lay its eggs, approximately 100 eggs. Shortly after, 6-10 days, the eggs will turn to larvae. Larvae will survive by eating your tobacco and ruining your sticks. I will not go into too much detail of the pupa and adult stages – but these bugs will then start to reproduce and the chances of hurting your other cigars will increase.

L. serricorne thrive in very warm clients above 70 degrees (F), however the L. serricorne beetle has been found in temperatures as low as 65 degrees (F). I also want you to know, and please take note, the tobacco beetle CAN FLY.

Evidence of Tobacco Beetles
It is very important that you always check the cigars in your humidor (or similar storage device) for tiny holes on the outside wrapper. This will be your first – and hopefully your last indication of the bug.

The second thing you may see is a light black dust that will either be next to the cigars – or if the cigar is tapped it will fall out. This is tobacco beetle do-do.

Found Tobacco Beetles ? – Do This
You must immediately isolate the infected cigars from the cigars showing no wear. Please keep in mind the tobacco beetles can fly – move – and just generally get around. If the infected cigars were sitting next to others you must consider the others also infected. For boxes – the cigar bugs shouldn’t have moved from one closed box to another. You must check your cigars and make a judgment. I choose to error on the side of caution and place all nearby cigars and cigar boxes in the “contaminated” pile for cleaning.

Take the cigars, remove them from the box they are in (or humidor) and place them in a freezer bag (double bag). To reduce the shock of cigars I slowly introduce cigars into the cold (they can only live in warm weather; freezing will kill the tobacco beetle).

• Place the freezer bag of cigars in the fridge for one day.
• Move the cigars into the coldest part of your freezer for 3 days.
• Return the cigars to the fridge for one day.
• You can then bring them back into the humidor.

Many have suggested you do this process twice to ensure the tobacco beetles have been killed.

….ONLY AFTER YOU….

Clean the humidor. When you start the process of freezing your cigars you should also start to clean your humidor.

• Remove everything from the box and wipe it down with a clean cloth and distilled water. Vacuum the inside and make sure all bits of tobacco are removed (the food source).
• Place the humidor in open air and allow it to try; removing all humidity.
• Allow it to sit and dry out for about a week.
• You will of course have to re-prepare the humidor to accept the cigars again.

Prevention
The infection of tobacco beetles happened because your living situation was just right. Make sure the cigars are not too warm or too humid. Many smokers will try to keep the temperature of cigars at 69 degrees (F) or lower. When lowering the temperature you will have to adjust to the proper humidity, 70 percent rule no longer applies.

Quick Note On Cuban Cigars
I was told that all Cuban cigars should be immediately treated as if they are infect because of the curing process they go, or don’t go, through.

Cigar Bands On or Off?

Do you smoke with the cigar band on or off? This is a cigar question that is asked by many in the hobby.

The quick answer is this: Old European etiquette says remove it, however you really might want to keep it on.

Cigar bands as of late have become quite the marketing tool. Bands from Alec Bradley, Perdomo, CAO and many others are elaborate. The embossed, multi-colored, even gold specked bands are not only predominately placed but are also securely glued on the cigar (I wouldn’t want my expensive cigar band to just come off either).

For this vary reason alone it is not unheard of to damage the cigar wrapper attempting to pull off a band so that you can comply with “proper etiquette”.

So let me make a suggestion: Leave your cigar band on while smoking – at least for a little bit.

Smoking with the band on will allow to heat from the cigar / smoke to weaken the glue. Thus you can then pull the cigar band off and not ruin the actual stick. Not only will you not damage the cigar, but you will have a perfectly removed band that can be used for collecting.

Modern cigar makers have also stated that smoking a cigar with the band, or without, is a personal choice.

Hygrometer Calibration

You have invested hundreds if not thousands in cigars, lighters, cutters, a smoking jacket, trips to Cuba for the forbidden sticks, and a humidor. Spending lots of money on cigars and accessories is easy; taking the time to make sure you protect your investment will take some time. The most important thing you can do is calibrate your hygrometer to get the most accurate reading possible inside the humidor.

The following methods will describe the “Salt” calibration method; you only need to perform the high test to have a fairly close reading. I am a perfectionist – so I will provide you with an optional second step for the must accurate calibration.

Salt Method Calibration (High Reading):

Place Morton Canning salt (a few tablespoons worth) in a small mug, glass, or container and mix in some distilled water. Make sure you do not dissolve the salt. The desired result should be a “sludgy”, “gooey”, semi-solid mixture.

Place this mixture inside a zip lock bag (I prefer sliding lock to ensure complete closure) with your hygrometer inside. Make sure the hygrometer is facing up (so you can read it) and that no water or mixture comes in contact with the meter (this will throw off readings). Now seal this zip lock bag with an even larger bag to ensure that no additional air may enter in.

The proper stabilization time of this mixture will take approximately 12 hours. At this point your hygrometer should read in the 75% range. I would perform this test various times to get the average, and use this as the tuning number. (Ex: 70% = 5 points, 74% = 1 point, 72% = 3 points. 9/3=3. Adjust by 3 percent.) If your hygrometer allows tuning it is usually done by turning the screw on the back with a small screwdriver.

You are now ready to use it to measure your humidity! – Unless you want to know how exact it really is…

The Low Calibration:

We are going to follow the exact same steps as above, however this time we are going to use something called Magnesium Chloride Flakes (eBay this). The flakes are inexpensive and when mixed with distilled water (the same “sludge”) it creates a constant humidity of 33%.

Calibration of your hygrometer should happen twice a year.

Why Does This Work: The mixture of Salt and distilled water and Magnesium Chloride and distilled water has a fixed vapor. The vapor will create a constant humidity regardless of the amount of mixture if the mixture still remains a solid. Temperature plays the minutest role in the amount of humidity created; over a 25 degree window of 60-85 degrees (F) the change is .xx % in the reading of 75.xx %.

Bloom, Plume, and Mold

Bloom or Plume (same meaning) is a cigar term that describes crystallization due to the rising of tobacco oils from within the cigar to the surface. The air will then dry the excretion creating the crystallized or dusty appearance. Bloom / Plume can appear slightly different on various cigars because every manufacturer will use a different wrapper leaf, filler, curing process, etc.

Cigar bloom / plume will not effect the cigar taste. The discussion, or the need for the bloom / plume, is that the cigar must be resting for a good period of time under great conditions of temperature and humidity. Meaning aging has already played a role in the cigar you are about to smoke. Aging is a wonderful thing: Read this.

Mold:
Cigar mold, like any other mold, is a fungus. Mold will generally appear on cigars when the relative humidity in the humidor surpasses 80%. Please do not get confused with the common misconception that mold is a certain color; mold can be green, blue, light yellow, and even white.

Visually cigar mold is more “fuzy” or “hairy”. If the scientist in you so wishes to see the spots up close you should really notice that there is a definitive structure to the mold. There will be stalks holding up additional spores that are waiting to “jump” and contaminate anything and everything nearby (isolate the infected cigars ASAP). Growth wise the cigar mold will grow in small clusters that causes a spotted look unlike bloom / plume that will cover the entire cigar.

Save the moldy cigars:
It may be possible to salvage the cigars if the mold is caught in its early stages. If however the mold is at the foot of the cigar, and we can presume inside the cigar - it can not be saved. Lightly wipe the cigars down with some alcohol (others have suggested water will do). Allow the cigars to rest at room humidity for approximately 36 hours and verify that the mold is not growing back. You may have to allow more time at room humidity before placing back into the humidor. Extreme measures can be used such as placing them in the refrigerator or freezer inside of an airtight tupperware container (cold temperature stops growth). If no mold reappears after the cigars have been re-humidified, you may smoke it.

Be careful with storing them in the freezer as you may “shock” the cigars and permanently ruin their taste. You may want to gradually step to the fridge, then freezer for a short period of time. Reverse the process to move them into a humidified state: Read This.

If the cigars were in the humidor:
The wood inside the humidor is now also susceptible to carrying mold spores inside the wood. You will have to remove everything from the humidor and wipe the entire interior down with isopropyl or denatured alcohol (start with a small amount). While this will kill any mold / mold spores in the wood. Be aware that this could also leave a slight stain on the humidor’s wood.

Aging Cigars

Aging cigars is a game of patience and discipline; however this game can pay off with great rewards. Most reputable cigars that are on the market have already been through some sort of aging process from the time the tobacco leaves are cured to the time they arrive to you (or the retailer).

This does not mean that you can not benefit from additional aging. Additional aging will generally better allow the tobacco leaves to “marry” creating the truly blended smoke. Beneficially this will also dissipate many of the elements that might cause a cigar to be “bitter” or have an awkward aftertaste.

Time frames will vary by the type of tobacco, wrapper, quality and the most important: Personal Preference.

Time Frames:

• The General – Cigars on all levels will see a noticeable change with just 2-3 months of aging.

• Somewhere In the Middle – Because we are being general and all things are NOT created equal you will have to rest cigars at various intervals. Full bodied cigars love to sit at 2-5 years for my personal taste. Milder cigars can be great at 5 months to a year. This is not saying that heavier cigars can’t be fully ready at 5 months or vice versa.

• The MAX – It is said that a cigar will never gain anymore benefit from aging once it has been resting for 10 years. Cigars in this type of life cycle must be full bodied due to the fact that tobacco is a natural product and will become mellow.

How to Know When It’s Ready: Smoke it. You are the owner, you are the smoker. It will be your responsibility to pull a stick out at different time cycles to smoke it – test it – and see how you think the cigar is doing.

Quick Notes:
All cigars must be aged in a properly humidified environment using the 70/70 rule. This rule states that the cigars should rest in 70% percent humidity at a temperature of 70 degrees F.

There are no set rules and your personal taste is involved - so please check the sticks at various times.

Bad cigars will not become great because of aging, but taste will change (so you never know).

Some cigars, in my opinion, taste better “fresh”.