Beetle's Help

[ricmac25]

A buddy gave me a couple of Robaina's he had but didn't take very good care of. They're dry and possibly beetle infested. I read somewhere about putting them in the freezer and going from there but I don't remember exactly what.

I'm looking for recommendations on what to do.

 

[FatherTiresius]

There are differences of opinion on whether freezing actually kills beetles. If your freezer gets cold enough it will kill them, but some say that home freezers don't usually get down far enough. That said, I freeze all my cigars. Here's my procedure.

I double wrap all cigars in freezer bags and put them in the freezer for 3-4 days. I'll put an entire box in there if it will fit in the bag and in that case I let it go 4 days because of the extra thermal mass of the box. After that I put them in the fridge for a day or sometimes two. Then I take them out and (still in the bag) put them in my coolerdor. After another day I open the bag and let them start to re-humidify. After a day or two of that I take them out of the bag and put them where ever they're gonna go. The idea here is to allow them to return to normal temps gradually.

I've never had a beetle problem doing this. Now that isn't to say that I would have had one if I hadn't frozen my sticks. Also I've never had a cigar damaged by the process so I figure if it does no harm and may do good it's worth it.

As for re-hydrating the sticks, you want to do that gradually too. You don't want to just throw them in your humi or you might end up with split wrappers. Once re-humidified they should be smokable, but I wouldn't expect them to ever be 100%.

 

[JOE.M.]

A buddy gave me a couple of Robaina's he had but didn't take very good care of. They're dry and possibly beetle infested.

I can understand your concern! My question would be, why do you think they might be Beetle infested? If they were, you would surly know, And if so I would toss them or sacrifice them to the lord of the flame ASAP!

 

[ricmac25]

The reason I say they may be infested is because others in the batch showed signs of being infected. These two however did not...yet.