beetles

[juan carlos]

i know i can prolly find the answer if i look, but damn, im lazy.

i bought some ct shade about a year and a half ago from don and for assorted reasons i just got around to opening it up today...and found live beetles and larve...the leaves are not too chewed up..

so apart from the obvious ick factor, i clean up 10 of them and stemmed them, killed the critters i found shook out the shit and put them in the fridge to case up...put the rest in the freezer (along with everything else i have in stock)...so use it or chuck it out??

i'm kinda loathe to chuck out a 60+ $$$ pound of leaf.

advice?

of course it had to be the shade leaf. dammit. never thought it would get warm enough here to keep them going, actually it's maximum low 70* in my house, being in Canada too hot is never really a problem.

 

[burge]

Well it has been really hot here. As long as the leaves are not chewed up you should be okay.

 

[deluxestogie]

You've done the right thing. Freeze the leaf for a week.

Tobacco beetles are a common problem in bale shipments of tobacco from just about anywhere in the world. Some tobacco warehouses periodically fumigate. Most, if not all warehouses use lures and tobacco beetle traps to identify the presence of beetles in a shipment.

If you store your tobacco in closed poly-nylon bags (the way it comes from WLT), then an isolated beetle issue is not likely to spread.

Don once offered me several pounds of shade leaf that had arrived at his facility with beetle damage. He refused to sell it, but asked if I could use the damaged leaf. In that free and quite generous shipment, there were some holes in just about every leaf. But in using the leaf for wrappers (several pounds is a hundreds of wrappers), there was not even a single leaf that could not be used to make two excellent wrappers, after simply trimming the leaf in a normal fashion. So wrappers with holes are often perfectly usable.

My usual practice is to initially freeze any leaf that is shipped to me, if I am not planning on using it soon.

Considering the fact that whole leaf tobacco is an agricultural commodity that is frequently shipped from Central America or the Caribbean or Turkey, it's truly a wonder that, over the years, I have seen so few beetles. (I've seen more weevils in my grits and flour from the grocery store.)

Bob

 

[burge]

I would hate to see the leaves on a cheap cigar or cheap ryo product.

 

[BarG]

The same beetles that eat tobacco love many other things in your home. In Texas anyway rice beetles corn beetles they all look the same. seriousley, the same looking beetle can get in my animal feed, espescially seeds.

 

[Tutu]

Working in facilities with large volumes of tobacco, sadly, I see lasio beetles every day...

 

[BarG]

I would hate to see the leaves on a cheap cigar or cheap ryo product.

My cheap cigars and my cheap sunglasses. heh heh

 

[BarG]

Working in facilities with large volumes of tobacco, sadly, I see lasio beetles every day...

Without deterents they are unavoidable, however, their is a plus. When putting up your new leaf make sure the stems are absolutely dry up to the top. they need moisture ( the beetles], and will attack the upper stem first if not completely dry before tying into hands. I noticed that the hard way heh heh. And as they eat and consume and defacate they are a moisture machine, bwhala larvae.

 

[BarG]

Considering the fact that whole leaf tobacco is an agricultural commodity that is frequently shipped from Central America or the Caribbean or Turkey, it's truly a wonder that, over the years, I have seen so few beetles. (I've seen more weevils in my grits and flour from the grocery store.)

Bob

I always rinse my rice to look for floaters and remove some starch.

 

[juan carlos]

Without deterents they are unavoidable, however, their is a plus. When putting up your new leaf make sure the stems are absolutely dry up to the top. they need moisture ( the beetles], and will attack the upper stem first if not completely dry before tying into hands. I noticed that the hard way heh heh. And as they eat and consume and defacate they are a moisture machine, bwhala larvae.

all in all i think i was lucky, there was about 1 beetle and 1 larvae per leaf, they were chewed at the top of the stem (where it would connect to the stalk) and close to the main stem. the tobacco was very dry, it was likely the only moisture they could find.

so just shake and wipe down the beetle shit dust and get on with it....is the advice? (and freezing everything for a week too)

 

[deluxestogie]

"beetle shit dust" sounds so painfully candid. Yup! Freeze the leaf. Dump the dust. Smoke the tobacco while envisioning that you are gently rocking on a large wooden dock that floats at the edge of a placid, blue lake, under clear skies.

Bob

 

[Dominican56]

My leaves are just now coming out of deep freeze. While rolling last week I actually had a beetle crawl out of the bunch across my cutting board.

They are real!