Tobacco Beetles

[dragonslayer]

I received a pound of SJF that had some white edges on it. Being to young for plume I got out the magnifying lens and there they were. Little larvae and a few bugs. Double wrapped it in freezer bags and deep froze for two days, then two days in the frig to bring it back up to temperature slowly. The end result was tobacco that smoked just fine. Credit goes to Roth of course for helping me through the panic. Standard treatment for cigars and worked fine with pipe tobacco. Peck they taste just like Perique :rofl:
Craig

 

[cigrmaster]

I have never seen beetles in pipe tobacco ever. The only outbreak of cigars beetles I have had in the past all came from Cuban cigars, never from another country. I once got in a box of Trinidad Fundadores that were completely infested with beetles and every cigar had those nasty little suckers in them. I am not concerned at all about beetles with my pipe tobacco.
Craig, those were not tobacco beetles in your SJF, those were baby spiders, smoke em, they taste great.

 

[dragonslayer]

Well they were winged little guys Harris and glad I caught it right away. But you're right they smoke just fine ::
Craig

 

[plateauguy]

I was feeling pretty safe up here in the Pacific NW until I saw Craig's post! I'm going to have nightmares about beetles!
This may have scared me for life, I'm now afraid to open my tins. 8O

 

[dragonslayer]

I think the chance of a tin problem would be extremely unlikely. The facilities and being vacuum sealed would probably take care of the buggers. Jarring bulk is a different story and it's worth taking a quick look every few weeks for a couple months, after that you're probably in the clear. I only mention a couple months because it may take some time for you to actually see them, and get on it right away. Where you live would of course play an important part of infestation while jarring. In my case it came from the manufacturer.
Craig