Tobacco beetles?

ZEB28

I just got some cigars I ordered online and when I was inspecting them I noticed these holes in this one. Is it the beetles or just holes? Should I just toss it? Im leaving it out of my humidor for now.  Sorry if it's a stupid question I'm pretty new to this. 

Yakster

You could preventativly freeze these cigars to kill any beetles. 

See this thread:  Freezing Cigars.

BKDog

It just looks like a bad wrapper to me.

ZEB28

@Yakster @BKDog I should have mentioned I read about the freezing method here, some of the knowledge I've picked up on. The just toss it comment was more a question of do the holes cause it to canoe or smoke bad. Thank you for your feedback. 

VegasFrank

Move the band over the holes if they affect the cigars performance. if you can only cover one hole at a time hold your finger over the other one

Yakster

El Ligador cigar repair glue works well, you could use scrap tobacco from cut caps, I've just used my finger to plug the hole so it draws.

Bob_Luken

The second pic looks like it was patched at the factory. And not patched well either. The first pic just looks like a hole caused by contact with something. Beetle holes are most often symmetrical. And as long as you see no dust, it doesn't look like you have beetles. To check for beetle dust, (poop) lay the cigar, hole side down, on a white sheet of paper on a firm surface. Gently tap the cigar horizontally on the paper to see if any dust will fall out of the hole. This dust would be a fine dark red powder. Very dark.  Next tap the foot, on the paper to see if any dust falls out. And when and if you cut the head, check there for dust too.

A fun DIY project is to patch holes in cigars with glue made from fruit pectin. It's sold in grocery stores and is meant for use in canning. And you'll need to have scrap cigar wrapper leaf to make the patches. (You could cut a few inches off a churchill foot to get some wrapper for patching) Take a small amount of the powder and mix with water until you have a paste. Coat one side of your patch with the glue and slap it on. Practice makes perfect. Here's a video. 

https://youtu.be/IfxhG-Wsd44

 

ZEB28

Thank you for the responses and suggestions. I was over thinking it after looking into the beetles after finding out about them in the 102 things newbs should know thread. I'll have to pick up some pectin and give it a shot. 

peter4jc

I don't think I've ever seen any actual holes, but the photos usually depict nice little round holes; yours look too jagged and irregular.  And they may be small enough to not interfere with the smoking either.

IndustMech

I found them once, froze the fiver and pitched the one with a hole. The hole went through the cello, too.

Rhamlin

One sure way to know is to smoke it. If a little critter comes out, well then you know. But when in doubt separate it. But it won’t harm anything to smoke it unless bugs make you squeamish. Just pick off the little bugger when he crawls out. 

jlmarta

Rhamlin said:

One sure way to know is to smoke it. If a little critter comes out, well then you know. But when in doubt separate it. But it won’t harm anything to smoke it unless bugs make you squeamish. Just pick off the little bugger when he crawls out. 

Been there, done that. Nothing wrong with a little extra protein in your diet. Actually, I just picked them off with the tip of my pocket knife blade and squished them on the leg of my Levi’s. 

ZEB28

jlmarta said:

Rhamlin said:

One sure way to know is to smoke it. If a little critter comes out, well then you know. But when in doubt separate it. But it won’t harm anything to smoke it unless bugs make you squeamish. Just pick off the little bugger when he crawls out. 

Been there, done that. Nothing wrong with a little extra protein in your diet. Actually, I just picked them off with the tip of my pocket knife blade and squished them on the leg of my Levi’s. 

Hopefully I never have to do that but at the end of the day it wouldn't be the end of the world. I used to work on an orchard and would come across bugs inside the fruit halfway through eating it sometimes. It would gross out some coworkers to the point they stopped enjoying the free fresh fruit lol.

0patience

They pop when you cook them. 

webmost

Craig Smith and I talked about this over lunch a couple weeks back. Apparently, the DR is going through a beetle crisis this year. It's a cyclical thing. All the factories are affected. People are losing a lot of money fighting this. One place shuts down several days to fumigate, gets rid of them, then they migrate back in a few days from the next place. According to him, a beetle can travel eight miles, so all the factories would have to shut down and fumigate simultaneously. Concerted action is not an island virtue, so that's not apt to happen. I've heard of the same prob in PA and in FL.

Might just be the year for bug holes.

Hope they don't show up in my leaf stash.

Yakster

Might be time to start looking at freezing incoming stash.

Same thing happens here with cockroaches. They move from house to house based on who's been fumigated last.

danielzreyes

Just so you know, if you smoke a cigar with a beetle in it, you are smoking hundreds and hundreds and hundreds ...... of beetle sh*t.  

ShawnOL

But does it taste good? 

Stubble

Taste IS subjective......

Rhamlin

I’ve smoked cigars that I know had tobacco in there that someone in the field used to wipe their bum. 

VegasFrank

Those ↑ are the ones that have a "hint of manure."