Tobacco Beetle

There is nothing worse than opening your treasured Havana cigar box only to find that they have fallen prey to the Tobacco Beetle, (also known as Lasioderma Serricorne), leaving your cigars riddled with holes.

However due to the average life cycle of the Tobacco beetle, infestation lasts between 45 and 90 days, subject to its surrounding area and temperature, they may spread to other boxes in your collection.

Tobacco weevil is widespread within the tobacco industry. The cigar manufacturers use vacuum chambers to destroy any dormant Beetle eggs and also fumigate their warehouses regularly. In some cases, however, beetles can survive as eggs, larvae, pupae or even adult insects.

When the tobacco beetle is at its larvae stage, which lasts between 5 and 10 weeks, they cause damage to the cigars by burrowing through the cigars as they eat them, causing them to excrete the tobacco. When tobacco beetles are in the pupae stage they are known to lie dormant. Once they reach adult stage they only life for a month, however this is when they mate and the entire cycle begins again.

Check the Paper Hinge

There is one useful guide to determine if your cigars have been penetrated by the weevil as it is not easy to tell if they have; particularly if they have not penetrated the cigar wrapper. With a labeled box you can examine the paper hinge inside the lid, you will nearly always find traces of tobacco in this position but when there is a deposit of fine, brown dust, you should examine all of the cigars for holes and finally tap the foot of the cigar on the lid. This should produce a shower of dust from inside the cigar, allowing you to see where the weevil has penetrated your cigar.
When you find an infestation of Tobacco Beetle, what do you do?

Firstly remove the cigars from the box and place them in a sealable plastic bag, isolating them. We don’t advise you use insecticide on the cigars, as these will render them useless to smoke. 

We advise that you place the entire box into a deep freeze, as this will kill the weevils within four days. Once they are destroyed, move the cigars back into the main section of the fridge, allowing them to thaw. Now that they are thawed you can bring them back to room temperature.
Trapping the Tobacco Beetle

The Fuji Flavour Company in Japan has come up with a solution to determine if the infestation is confined to one box – the Serrico Beetle trap. The Serrico Beetle trap is a form of fly paper which targets the weevil by adding two patented pills, designed to fatally attract both the female and male of the species. Please note that this device won’t destroy the infestation but it will indicate whether you have one or not.

The Voges Tobacco Encyclopedia offers the only long term solution to infestation. This solution will allow you to be beetle free within a year, which is the complete removal of any infected cigars. They describe this solution as ‘scrupulous hygiene’.

Don’t Panic!

You must understand that this is not an issue that affects many cigars that are imported into the UK. John Darnton, the Sales Director of UK Havana importers, Hunters & Frankau, explained. ‘Most of our customers, some of whom have traded with us for 20 years or more, have never seen a weevil’. He went on to say ‘We do not receive infected stock but we open and check every body as part of our EMS quality control system so, when we find it, we deal with it straight away.’

Darnton continues with the significance of carefully controlling the low temperatures of the stock – ‘16C to 18C is the correct range in which to store cigars, and that’s the way we keep our stock. Let it rise above 21C and the weevil can thrive.’

If there is anything to be learned from your new found knowledge of the tobacco beetle, it is the significance of purchasing your cigars from a reputable seller. You should never purchase Havana cigars on the streets of Havana, as fake Havana cigars are virtually certain to be a source of weevil. Despite being sent from a weevil-free environment, lazy storage with infected cigars can cause a spread of infection.

Sticking to buying from a reputable UK cigar dealer, like AK Cigars, and buying EMS Havanas, gives you the confidence of knowing that your cigars have been correctly stored at the right temperature and that an expert has checked your cigars before they are shipped to you.