If you notice a perfectly circular pinhole in one of your favorite cigars, it may already be too late.
Tobacco beetles are troublesome pests that ruin cigar collections of all sizes and calibers, poking holes and hatching larvae that leave even the most durable tobacco leaves useless.
They appear and thrive in humidors and other storage areas that are left either too warm or too humid. While many factories and larger cigar manufacturers have tried everything from cooling systems to oxygen depravation in an attempt to rid cigar collections of these nasty insects, often times these efforts prove fruitless.
Simply put, if even one cigar in a tightly packed collection has been impacted by the rarely visible tobacco beetles, then the entire set of cigars is in danger.
Through quick action, however, some of the collection can be salvaged. One option that has seen some success of late among cigar owners is freezing. First, place all potentially impacted cigars in a tightly sealed Ziploc bag. Leave the cigars in a freezer for three days to kill any remaining beetles, and be sure to transition your cigars to the refrigerator for at least 24 hours so as not to change the cigar?s internal temperature too rapidly.
During this 24-hour grace period, feel free to clean your humidor with a damp cloth, but not with a cleaning agent, which can ruin both the wood of the humidor and the cigar collection.? After this final clean, feel free to place your salvaged cigars in the humidor once again.
In the future, be sure to not set the humidity of the humidor too high and look for even the smallest of pinholes in order to maintain the well being of your cigar collection.