I have been reading about problems that can occure with your humidor.

Mold, and some kind of bug.

Mold can be controlled by keeping proper humidity and temperature......right????

But how do you get this bug?????


rob

Rob:

The bug that you are referring to is called a Tobacco Beetle. Some cigars may have Tobacco Larvea in them, but lay dormant. That is until the temp. of the humidor goes above 73 degrees F. At that point, the larvea can (not always, but can) hatch.

The beetle will start chewing it's way through the cigar. A good hint is to see if there are any small holes in the side of the cigar. If you do see this, immediatly check your humidor and other cigars for the destructive little bastard. They're pretty easy to spot as it should be the only thing in your humidor that is moving.

If you this is the case, the only way to kill them is to immediatly put the rest of your cigars in a plastic baggie and stick them in the freezer for 3 days. Then into fridge for 1 day. You need to slowly bring the temp back up. If you put them from the freezer direcly back into the humi, you run the risk of the cigars bursting. Once they've been in the fridge for a say, then put them back into the humi that you have cleaned and wiped with distilled water while your cigars were in the freezer. Never, ever use chemicals to clean your humi. It ruins the wood and the cigars will pick up the scent and taste of it...never a good thing to have a cigar taste like Pine Sol.

EVP has nailed one down pat.

There is however two others. Both though occur fairly much the same way, too high temp and or too high humidity.

One other is the wood eating mite, and the last which i recently ran into is the "glue" mite. Which eats on the natural glue used in the bands and many of the boxes.

Both are harmless to your cigars, but the wood eating mite will and can ruin your humidor in time.

Both are handle the same as what EVP posted, but I am not totally sure about the wood eating mite, it may take more to clear them out.

I am sure DOC or others know a ton more then me on this,

You're absolutely right Larzz...I did forget about those 2 mites. Probably because when someone mentions a "bug", almost everyone (myself included) will associate it with the tobacco beetle. Good point....

No problem EVP. I tell ya man, I wouldn't be so well read up on them if I had not gone almost mad trying to find out what the heck was going on with my humidors, well two of them, and this small white almost not even visible bug.

Thanks to others here though i learned it was the "glue" mite and all is well in cigarville.

Just glad to be to contribute.

So keeping the temperature below 70 should do the trick?

What about mold?

quote:

Originally posted by Larzz:
No problem EVP. I tell ya man, I wouldn't be so well read up on them if I had not gone almost mad trying to find out what the heck was going on with my humidors, well two of them, and this small white almost not even visible bug.

Thanks to others here though i learned it was the "glue" mite and all is well in cigarville.

Just glad to be to contribute.

I'm sure that must have been a scare! I had a scare also. Picked up a cigar and noticed a small hole in it. As I was curing under my breath while pulling my cigars out, I noticed a thumb tack right where the the cigar was. Turns out the hole and the pin just happened to be the same size and I breathed a sigh of relief!

quote:

Originally posted by fuzzuki:
So keeping the temperature below 70 should do the trick?

What about mold?

Yes, keep it around 70, but not over 73 for any length of time.

The mold is a little different. There's two kinds. The first one is white, looks like dust and wipes off with a finger. This is called bloom and is nothing to get concerned over. In fact, some people look for it. It's a natural occurance in tobacco when stored in the ideal conditions. Just wipe it off and put the cigar back.

However, if it's blue...that's not good. That is mold that formed because the humidity was too high and since tobacco is an organic material, it will mold just as bread would. If this happens, you probably lost your cigars since mold, in a small space, will contaminate everything around it rather quickly. The only thing you can do at that point is clean out your humi with DISTILLED water and take a trip to the local cigar store.

As long as you keep your humi lower than 72 degrees and the humidity under 75%, you shouldn't have any problems. The ideal conditions are 70 degrees and 70% humidity. I keep mine at 68-70 degrees and 65%-68% humidity.

The two biggest tips: get either a puck humidification system or an oasis if you have very large desktop or cabinate style humidor and use a digital hydrometer. Analog ones are notorious for being unreliable and inaccurate.

Spot on Evp. Well covered, couldn't add anything if I wanted to.

LOL on the thumb tac man. I think I would have taken the thumb tack out to a local railroad track or metal press for revenge.