Beetle?

[looking for knowledge]

My wife picked this up from a local B&M for father's day. Punch rare corojo. It has been in my humidor, in its celo. I noticed the hole after I started smoking. The stick feels firm, no signs of beetles....other than the hole. The rest of the sticks in the humi look fine.

My questions:
Does it look like a beetle?
Should I take it back to the B&M?

 

[grateful1]

Can't tell from the photo.(although most look like really round holes...this doesn't.)

Sure...if you don't like what they sold you.

They may take it back and give it to the distributor.

 

[Nimrod]

Do the tap test.

 

[DesertRat]

I'm inclined to think not. All beetle holes I've seen are almost perfectly round and not oblong like that appears to be. But like Nimrod said, do the tap test.

Plus beetle holes tend to go through the wrapper and into the filler much deeper than that hole appears. It looks like it is only affecting the wrapper.

 

[looking for knowledge]

Thanks guys. I uploaded more pictures, but you're correct....the hole is not round and does not go deep.

I'll have to search for the "tap test."

Thanks for your time.

-Mike

 

[Shamrocker]

The hole looks more like an indent or shallow puncture in the wrapper.

I didn't search for the tap test, but I assume you lightly tap the cigar with the hole facing down and see if any tobacco leaf crumbs fall out.

 

[ewibolo]

The hole looks more like an indent or shallow puncture in the wrapper.

I didn't search for the tap test, but I assume you lightly tap the cigar with the hole facing down and see if any tobacco leaf crumbs fall out.

Tobacco leaf crumbs/beetle dung, it's all the same, right!

 

[The Black Cloud]

Exactly. From what I've done, lightly tap down the length of the cigar, holding it over a piece of white paper. If anything weird drops out, that's trouble. From my untrained eyes it just looks like a wrapper imperfection and nothing more. Beetle holes I've seen are round and go down into the filler.

 

[StevenGarske]

Ive had a few rare corojos with the same problems...just wrapper imperfections

Its dissapointing, but only a small negative check in my book, as they are pretty tasty smokes.

One of my favs rite now...

 

[Shamrocker]

Luckily a wrapper imperfection that size shouldn't affect the smokability or enjoyment one gets from that cigar.

 

[in2xshp]

This is a couple pics of beetle holes from a cigar I grabbed out of my humi tonight. I always said "This won't happen to me, hell I'm careful. I even isolate sticks in ziploc bags when the come home." .....and look at that what got me. :angry: It wasn't that it was a real prized cigar or anything but it is just the principal.

You can see all the "crap" that falls out of the holes that was talked about.

This is what is left after looking for that little shit.....

 

[souldog]

Holy hell Sam. Great visual aid though, it helps me in learning. I just did aa humidor overhaul where I cleaned out and wiped down my desktop, cleaned and wiped down my cooler, visually inspected every cigar I had. Took me about 3 hours, but it's worth it in cases like this.

Now, another question about beetles, and maybe you can answer this Sam: Can beetles manifest in the foot of the cigar fraying out, or is that just wear and tear?

I found a couple ISOMs I've isolated and will smoke tomorrow because I'm not sure if it's a beetle or just wear and tear. Suffice it to say, there aren't any holes in the wrapper and nothing like what Sam's got coming out of the foot...

I just don't know as I haven't had the bug problem yet.

 

[in2xshp]

Jonathan, I'm not sure about the foot but it sounds like it's just from wear and tear. I have had a few of my cigars in the humi actually flare at the foot a little and split but this is the first bug problem I have ever had or seen personally. Thankfully it was in a bag of sticks that were in a large ziploc bag already.

Now the weird part, I have a wine-o-dor and it usually sits at 65/65 give or take a little. I thought having a wine-o-dor and isolating cigars in ziploc bags when they first come home would help to not have the problem I just had. I have noticed the humi going over the 65* mark lately almost to 72* before cycling on to cool back down to 65*. I don't know how much of a factor that has been but I am chalking it up to bringing home a bad stick. Last night after I saw that I tore the whole thing down and looked at all the sticks in there and yea, like you it took hours. Now all of my cigars are in the deep freezer, I am cleaning out the wine-o-dor and hoping that doing this will get rid of any others that might just be in there somewhere.

I can tell you after this all cigars that come home go into the freezer now before going into the humi.

 

[DirtyDave]

With all the posts about beetles lately I've started freezing everything. I'm taking a risk on stuff I purchased before the warm weather... Still considering freezing them too. I just know that the stuff shipped over the winter went through a deep freeze for a few days on its way here, one advantage of having cold winters I guess...

 

[Gawl]

Well I just got done going through all my boxes of smokes I got within the past couple of weeks and luckily no beetles. You guys had me scared enough that even though I checked before I had to yank em all out and check again to be sure.