Tobacco Bugz

Tobacco beetles can not only eat your cigars down to dust, they can cost you a pretty penny. While not a new pest for cigar lovers, it is the leading insect that threatens stored tobacco. These critters do not discriminate. They will attack tobacco at any stage of manufacturing, up to retail and travel to your humidor.
Though it is the most common, the tobacco beetle is not the only predator that preys on tobacco. Several other insects such as the tobacco moth, the tobacco worm and at least12 other species of insects feed on the plant. Many of these insects were trapped either in tobacco factories, warehouses or found on cigars left in room temperature inside homes.

The tobacco beetle, which is larger than the cigarette beetle, is mainly a tropical species. It is identical to the cigarette beetle except that it is larger and is black instead of brown. The tobacco beetle attacks cured tobacco in much the same way as the cigarette beetle. The tobacco moth is sometimes a serious pest of flue-cured tobacco on the farm, farmers say. Infestation may begin even in the curing barn and continue until the tobacco is marketed. Most damage occurs in the pack-house, where the tobacco is bulked before being graded. Infestation may develop from moths flying from commercial storages or farms nearby, or it may be already established on the farm and carried over from year to year in scrap tobacco, peas or beans, stock feeds or other host foods. Tobacco dealers and manufacturers constantly practice insect-control measures and maintains damage-free on insect infestations. Experts recommend that the farmer should market his tobacco as soon as possible to reduce the possibility of the crop becoming infested with the cigarette beetle or the tobacco moth.

By adequate sanitation, he can do much to prevent insect infestation. Immediately after the crop is sold, the packaging and grading room should be thoroughly cleaned and the walls brushed. All scrap tobacco should be hauled away and destroyed. Neither feed nor seed should be stored in the pack house. The loss of goods to a manufacturer when a consumer buys insect infested merchandise is difficult to evaluate. There is also no estimate of the amount of tobacco damaged yearly by stored-product insects. “I wouldn’t know where to begin,” said Bennie Cochran, an Entomologist at North Carolina State University. “This one thing I know, it is far more than anyone can imagine. I would bet that every avid cigar smoker who stores cigars in their homes, at one time has been a victim of the tobacco beetle, bud worms or tobacco moth. These insects attack the principal types of cigarettes, cigar, chewing and snuff tobaccos, as well as most forms of manufactured tobacco. Burley and Maryland tobaccos are less likely to be attacked, but occasionally these types are severely damaged by the insects. The larva burrows through the tobacco, making rather clean-cut holes, and leaving a fine powder behind. Flavor is impaired and the cigars and cigarettes are further made unfit for smoking by the holes on the wrapper or paper, which prevent a satisfactory draw. The larvae, sometimes known in the industry as worms or grubs, are almost microscopic in its initial stage, The worms are caterpillars that begin their lives as eggs hatched into larvae at the top of the plant. These larvae feed on the plant, and unless quickly detected, will eat away a box of a dozen cigars in a matter of weeks.

BELOW ARE STEPS TO ERADICATE TOBACCO BUGS IN YOUR HUMIDOR AND HOW TO PREVENT THEM FROM RETURNING

1. First, double bag all the cigars that were in the humidor with the contaminated cigars, even those which don’t have holes. They probably have eggs and larvae. You can also use tupperware containers. One inside the other (Because of the extra moisture produced by the freezing, the extra bag or container will act as a deterrent for the moisture the freezing might produce). In a regular frost free freezer the temperature should be 10 F. to 15 F. above Zero. If in a deep freezer the temperature should be -10 F. Keep the cigars in the regular freezer for 30 days and in the deep freezer for 15 days.

2. While the cigars are in the freezer, clean your humidor with a vacuum. Leave it empty and open for at least a week. The bugs will die without its food source, the tobacco.

3. When it is time to remove the cigars from the freezer, transfer them to the refrigerator for 24 hours. Then let your cigars reach room temperature as they sit outside for another day. Return your cigars to your humidor and humidify them again. Be patient, don’t try to speed up this process.

4. When ever you come across Cuban cigars freeze them immediately, following the steps above. Better safe than sorry.
Long ashes everyone.