Yikes! Beetles?

[Juanote]

I was lucky enough to have access to a -20°F freezer when I had a beetle incident, so I can attest that wiping down humidors with ammonia solution & freezing the cigars for 72 hours followed by a staged unfreezing process (0°F freezer followed by refrigerator) did not harm cigars (in fact they smoked very nicely afterwards) and wiped out any beetles. I hear dry ice will also get you there.

 

[Jared Nomack]

I've been meaning to update. I isolated the LFD that had the hole, in a ziploc with a Boveda 69, to observe. And I have inspected all the other cigars that were in that humidor on an ongoing basis. No more holes in the LFD, none in any other cigars, no signs of "powder" etc. At almost two weeks, I'm inclined the think this was an anomoly of some sort.

 

[jbfurdog]

I was lucky enough to have access to a -20°F freezer when I had a beetle incident, so I can attest that wiping down humidors with ammonia solution & freezing the cigars for 72 hours followed by a staged unfreezing process (0°F freezer followed by refrigerator) did not harm cigars (in fact they smoked very nicely afterwards) and wiped out any beetles. I hear dry ice will also get you there.

Have not seen ya around lately. Glad to see ya my man!

ETA: perhaps I’ve missed some posts.

 

[CMontoya79]

Blue waffles

 

[CigarStone]

I was lucky enough to have access to a -20°F freezer when I had a beetle incident, so I can attest that wiping down humidors with ammonia solution & freezing the cigars for 72 hours followed by a staged unfreezing process (0°F freezer followed by refrigerator) did not harm cigars (in fact they smoked very nicely afterwards) and wiped out any beetles. I hear dry ice will also get you there.

Thank God I have never had to go that route but I always wondered about the precious oils in a cigar, which make it what it is, being super frozen. Glad yours survived!

I wonder if there is a liquid which could deter the beetles and not harm the cigars? Like colloidal silver does for mold?

 

[Juanote]

Thank God I have never had to go that route but I always wondered about the precious oils in a cigar, which make it what it is, being super frozen. Glad yours survived!

I wonder if there is a liquid which could deter the beetles and not harm the cigars? Like colloidal silver does for mold?

Back then I had some Sun Grown Royal Salutes that smoked like velvet sex immediately after being un-frozen. I used to keep my humidity a little high at that point in my cigar life (hence, 1/2 of the problem) so the beetle rehabilitation process functioned like a radical dry boxing that seemed to hit the perfect RH by accident. No doubt the freezing and unfreezing was significantly dehumidifying even though the process was careful and gradual. Tighter wound stogies like most Habanos could easily have been damaged.

 

[CigarStone]

What is this "velvet sex immediately after being unfrozen" you speak of?

 

[Juanote]

What is this "velvet sex immediately after being unfrozen" you speak of?

Immediately was more like about 48 hours after the unfreezing process, but those particular smokes were never better.