Never Thought it would happen to me! Beetles

[JollyRogers]

So,

With this crazy weather we've been having, the old house I live in has really struggled to maintain a good temperature. Lo and behold as I was going through my stock tonight to make room for some new cigars I caught a glimpse of a beetle eaten 601 Blue Maduro that I got in a 10 pack off CigarBid about 5 or so months ago. Panic immediately set in and I went through my entire stock to see how bad things were. It seems that the beetle(s) only got into the two 601 Blues. One is visibly tunneled through with one hole in its cello. This hole lines up with a second 601 Blue perfectly which has a single hole into it but doesn't appear to have tunneling that has broken its surface. I'm going to cut into each of them and see what all happened. Pictures to follow.

I went through every other cigar in that tupperdor and didn't notice any signs of beetles so I'm hoping things are ok. Just to be safe, I placed every cigar in some gallon ziplocks and into the chest freezer we have.

I'm wondering how quickly beetles can do this damage to a cigar. I literally had just gone through my humidor to put together the NOOB sampler I sent out and even more recently went through to send 34 cigars to the troops (which I'm now freezing prior to shipping).

One question, when placing cigars like this in the freezer should I include boveda packs in the bags or just leave them unhumidified? Also, how long should I leave them in there?

Finally, I assume afterwards they will all need to be re-acclimated?

Once again, thanks for the help, I am a bit panicked and slightly embarrassed as I've sent a few of these out in recent trades (already notified the recipients and they are taking appropriate precautions)

Pics to follow

[StogieNinja]

Don't put the Bovedas in there, and double bag everything.

If your freezer gets to 0*F, i would do 72hrs, then 12 in the fridge and you should be fine.

I've smoked sticks right out of the freezer and they were fine, but I would recommend overall giving your stock time to re-acclimate.

[Tombstone]

I had one stick that had some beatle holes about two years ago. I put my fingers over the holes and smoked that crap out of them. I froze my cigars for about a week then a day or two in the fridge. I had no issues after that. Glad you found it early.

[Old Smokey]

Chris, I am sorry to hear this, but at least you caught it quickly. I freeze everything when I get them just for peace of mind. I do at least 72 hours, but instead of moving to the fridge for a few hours, I wrap the freezer bag in a towel and set it in a ice chest for a day to allow them to return to temp very slowly. Troy aka @Trackmeyer recommended this method and it made good sense to me. They have smoked very well with only a couple of days after freezing.

[dj1340]

I normally put my stick's in the fridge for 3 day's and then 3 day's in the freezer followed by 3 days in the fridge again.
No Boveda packs at all. Never had a problem, " knock on wood". Best of luck though

[JollyRogers]

Thanks everyone for the advice, they are all currently in the freezer. I have a thermometer in there to see just how cold it is getting. I will likely leave them in there through the weekend. @Old Smokey , I like that idea as I have plenty of room in the ice chest but none in the fridge!

Here's the pics:
The two damaged cigars:


The pass through hole:

I couldn't actually find the beetle when I cut into them but in the mess of leaves if it was just one it could have easily been missed.

Only one had significant damage:






The stock resting in the freezer...looks a lot smaller out of the cedar trays and all bagged up like this:

[bluenoser]

Glad to hear you caught it early, just out of curiosity, what temp/RH do you keep things at?

[JollyRogers]

Humidity is maintained with 65% Boveda's in an airtight tupperdor. This puts the actual humidity on 2 calibrated right around 66% actually.

Temp in the house is typically 68-70 but it's an old system that doesn't do great keeping up with the swings so it can occasionally get as high as 75 for a few hours during the heat of the day.

[JollyRogers]

Well one positive thing came out of this...just ordered a Newair 281E wine cooler to convert to my new wineador! Got it on Air N Water as a "scratch & dent" item. With promo code it is mine for $116 out the door!!! Woohoo!

[Brent Strande]

Wow. I get into a habit of freezing early on but have slacked some since getting the wineador!