What Is This???

[allusred]

Sounds like a beetle. I'd be running everything thru the freezer by now if it was me.

Who knows how long it takes to show up. When did your humidor hit the optimal, internal temperature for a beetle egg to hatch? It's anyone's guess.

Wot the Emperor said.
And....
Maybe if you can identify the Beetle that laid the Egg. She might under torture reveal the "time to hatch" but might be lying.

[rodwha]

So what of the Boveda packs? And how long before I can call my cigars good to go?

[josh lucky 13]

Most online companies have same basic info but holts didn't sound as ominous as some others
https://www.holts.com/clubhouse/ciga...o-beetles-bugs

[Nature]

Freeze for 3 days or more. Keep them tightly sealed in double ziplock bags so they don’t dry out. You can just put the entire sealed tupperador with the cigars in the freezer. Gradually thaw in the refrigerator for 24 hours to avoid cracking from rapid thawing. You do not need to freeze the boveda packs, but I would wipe them down. If you are worried about them, just replace them. The beetles can’t penetrate the bovedas, or it would be obvious because they would leak. Just wash out the tupperadors with soap and water. Wipe out the humidors paying attention to cracks and crevices. You may use rubbing alcohol or ethyl alcohol for wiping and allow to completely dry and evaporate. While the cigars are undergoing the freeze process, this would be a good time to re-season the humidor as the alcohol will dry them out. After this process is complete and the cigars are returned to the humidor, inspect daily for a while checking for any further damage or signs of beetles.
Is it possible this cigar already had damage that you didn’t notice before? I would still treat my entire stock to be safe.

[rodwha]

Freeze for 3 days or more. Keep them tightly sealed in double ziplock bags so they don’t dry out. You can just put the entire sealed tupperador with the cigars in the freezer. Gradually thaw in the refrigerator for 24 hours to avoid cracking from rapid thawing. You do not need to freeze the boveda packs, but I would wipe them down. If you are worried about them, just replace them. The beetles can’t penetrate the bovedas, or it would be obvious because they would leak. Just wash out the tupperadors with soap and water. Wipe out the humidors paying attention to cracks and crevices. You may use rubbing alcohol or ethyl alcohol for wiping and allow to completely dry and evaporate. While the cigars are undergoing the freeze process, this would be a good time to re-season the humidor as the alcohol will dry them out. After this process is complete and the cigars are returned to the humidor, inspect daily for a while checking for any further damage or signs of beetles.
Is it possible this cigar already had damage that you didn’t notice before? I would still treat my entire stock to be safe.

It could well have come to me in that condition. The tiny cigars came in a box with quite a few and I didn’t pay them much mind.

[rodwha]

“The holes are usually about the size of a pinhole.”

This is about what I thought. The hole in this cigar is more like a pinhead sized hole. It seems rather large. But eaten through so deep gave me pause.

[Old Smokey]

What Mark (Nature) said.

I would do a dissection of the damaged cigar, drag that lil farker out kicking and screaming and take pleasure in helping him to an early demise. Then smoke the tobacco in your pipe.

[rodwha]

I actually did take my pocket knife to it and didn’t find anything. I looked fairly well. And I was ready to skewer it for sure, especially with all of this trouble. Clearly it was a beetle looking at the tunneling I saw.

I went to my grocery store for a stick to smoke tonight.

And then I freaked out! Check out this hole:

[FidelCastro]

Quarantine it with any other cigars in that tupper....be safe and keep an eye out. That hole is pretty big for a beetle...they aren't usually that large but maybe you got yourself some kind of anomaly as tobacco dust is a red flag. I tend to always keep a few tuppers around for quarantine when I get new cigars....30 day minimum before moving them to GenPop. Keeping a steady 65%/70 degree environment is key....too many changes in environment tends to greenlight those pesky basturds into making their escape.

[Nature]

I actually did take my pocket knife to it and didn’t find anything. I looked fairly well. And I was ready to skewer it for sure, especially with all of this trouble. Clearly it was a beetle looking at the tunneling I saw.

if you saw tunneling along with the dust, the likelihood of it being from a beetle is high. It may be from a former time and long gone, but that doesn’t mean it didn’t leave some procreative tidbits behind. You are wise to take precautions.