Why You Need to Avoid Summer Humidor Hazards

So, now that the majority of the nation is experiencing temperatures in excess of one hundred degrees, there are certain hazards that one should avoid in order to protect your prize cigars. With the increased temperatures comes an increased risk to the infestation and growth of the damned Lasioderma Serricone, otherwise known as the cigar beetle. These little critters have devastating effects on cigars in particular as they feed on dried tobacco leaf only. They were notorious for ruining many cigarettes and cheap cigars before these products became infused with different chemicals which these cigar beetles, similar to cigar aficionados, find unpalatable; therefore, the biggest risk now is to premium cigars. The cigar beetle consumes leaf through all four stages of its life from egg, larva, pupa, to adult; however, the largest amount of damage comes not from consumption, but from its byproducts such as dust, its corpse, and its "refuse," or what you might call crap. Right now you're glancing at your cigar aren't you? So, how can you tell if these little bastards have infested your humidor?


Symptoms of the cigar beetle include:

• A hard draw
• An uneven burn
• Dust in your mouth when you first draw
• Brown dust on the floor of your humidor
• Little brown bugs flying out of your humidor
• And a rumored "popping" sound as the cigar cherry hits the larva

The cigar beetle really enjoys compacted leaf or completed cigars, it makes no difference, however, it does most of its damage to the wrapper leaf. The tiny eggs, which are impossible to see as they are 1/50 of an inch, are laid and when hatched let loose a worm-like larva. This larva is what wreaks the most havoc on a cigar turning your robusto into its restaurant. After several weeks of chowing on your Churchills, it surrounds itself in a cocoon of it's own food and crap and is cemented into place by its own secretions. Glancing at your cigar again right? At this point it goes into hibernation while it morphs into a pupa and becomes harmless. The final stage is the adult cigar beetle which doesn't consume the leaf as much as it tunnels its way through your prized cigars until it escapes to fly away. However, this cigar beetle can burrow its way through adjacent cigars going from stick to stick or, once freed from the cigars, fly from one box of cigars to another...awesome right?


Now, lets say you have an infestation, how do you deal with it? It's a safe assumption that if you suspect one cigar is infected, all cigars in your humidor are infected, that's just how it goes. It is not recommend that you use something like an insecticide based on pyrethrum which must be fogged and leaves a sickeningly sweet smell on your cigars. To add insult to injury, the cigar beetle not only enjoys tobacco, dog food, book binding paste but also pyrethrum. Great. Pheromone traps are another popular remedy but these only get the flying adults. So what do you do? Simple. Immediately remove all of your cigars from your humidor and seal them in a vapor lock plastic with a similar vapor lock and stick them in your freezer. This ensure that the temperature gets low enough to kill them, while at the same time, the vapor lock seal keeps the moisture in your cigars. You also want to place your humidor into the freezer separately. Set the temperature as low as possible. You want to keep both in the freezer at the lowest temperature for at least two to three days. After the two or three days, bring the ambient temperature to zero degrees and, leaving the cigars sealed and in the freezer, pull the humidor out. While your cigars take a freezer nap, take your humidor and scrub it down, removing all dust and I recommend using canned air and, being careful not to turn the can on its side or upside-down, blow out cracks, nooks, and crannies to ensure all dust and refuse is gone. Then, make a strong ammonia-water solutions and wipe down around all areas of the humidor, again, ensuring you get all cracks, nooks, crannies. The benefits of the ammonia solution is that it is particularly hard on cigar beetles, and your sinuses, however, it will not scent or flavor your cigars once dried. Once your humidor has been sterilized, and the cigars have spent about two days at zero degrees, ever so slowly return the cigars to ambient temperature in order to prevent cracking and thermal shock. Then take the cigars out of the freezer and make sure to do it on a day with low humidity to prevent the moisture in the air from collecting on the wrappers which can mottle or pucker your cigars. Before returning your cigars back into the humidor, visually inspect each one to ensure any infected cigars aren't returned to the humidor.


With these few steps in mind, should you ever find yourself fending off the hordes of the Lasioderma Serricone, the sinister cigar beetle, you'll have the means to hold those beetles at their beachhead and exterminate them.