Beetles

[Bugsahearn]

I'm encountering beetles in my room daily. I just found a large brown beetle fly across the room and it looked like a tobacco beetle but being deathly afraid of insects I couldnt look closely enough to tell. The few beetles I've seen have looked different. Could they be tobacco beetles? If so I'm not seeing them in my tobacco do they form a nest somewhere else? I have about 20 mason jars of tobacco in my room and a couple bulk bags. I assume the mason jars are safe they can't pop the seal but they could be in the plastic bags? Am I just paranoid...I know its spring but I can't figure out why I'm seeing beetles when I've never seen them in the house before

edit: they seem to big to be tobacco beetles, but i'm not sure, it depends how big tobacco beetles can get. Are other beetles beside tobacco beetles attracted to/feed on/lay eggs in tobacco?

 

[Dutch]

Bugsahern, these tobacco beetles are certainly a force to be reckoned with, and you certainly are NOT just paranoid. Not only are they a threat to your tobacco outside the mason jars, they are without a doubt a menace to society.

Here is a pic I took of one after he had raped, pillaged, and plundered one of my cigar humidors, and was taking a cigarette break. Not only are they a threat to your tobacco outside the impermeable mason jar, they can wreak havoc on your cigar stash in short order.




Some aficionados feel that the tobacco they consume doesn't amount to much by weight, but personally I feel that tobacco destroyed is tobacco lost.

 

[Bugsahearn]

What the f##k that thing is huge :affraid:

 

[Dutch]

What the f##k that thing is huge :affraid:

It's all the steroids they are using nowdays, but that is another topic for another thread. :|

 

[juanmedusa]

We definitely have that pictured one here in Virginia. I knew a girl that would catch them and paint them and put them back. Man, I used to know some interesting people.

 

[Bugsahearn]

The strange thing is i'm not  finding them in my tobacco and most of the beetles ive seen seem to be a different species. One was a large brown beetle which flew across my room and was the only one that looked like it could be a tobacco beetle, although it was larger than a lady bug. I've seen carpet beetles with the gray and black pattern on back (they fly too and get big), I saw a shiny silvery/gold beetle which was pretty large, and a couple black beetles in my ******* bed! I literally can think of nothing worse than finding an insect in the bed, except a bed bug. And one small beetle that tried to crawl on me in bed so closesly resembled a bed bug my life flashed before my eyes and i nearly ended it all right then and there. On closer examination i determined it was not a bed bug, although it was the same size it was a different shape and black with a smooth back and two tiny white spots. I fear bugs more than death literally so I pretty much want to die now. The large brown beetle I thought might be a tobacco beetle flew and landed right next to me on my pillow. Why are these bugs trying to crawl on me?

SO my question is, and google it turns out is not actually my friend at all, is keeping large stashes of tobacco or the leaving some out to dry attracting these beetles? Do only tobacco beetles feed on tobacco or is all beetles?

I also have a black cherry rope that has a hole through it, i assumed this was from the way the ropes are manufactured or held together or is a even hole straight through a rope a sign that a beetle ate through it?

Please help me I cant sleep

:fpalm:

 

[mark]

I'm only familiar with tobacco beetles in cigars. The eggs laid on the leaves in the field hatch out after being rolled into cigars and the beetles eat through them leaving holes as they go.

Not sure if steaming/heating of pressed flakes for tobacco kills them or not,,,or if processing other forms of pipe tobacco eliminates them.

 

[RobJ]

Time for an exterminator perhaps?

 

[Richard Burley]

I have seen insect larvae in old, neglected pipe tobacco. Whether it's beetle larvae or not I couldn't say. (Tobacco neglected not by me, but by the don't-give-a-damn owners of long gone B&Ms it was my misfortune to visit in my travels. One was famous, but I shall refrain from naming it--everybody gets old, shall we say?)

 

[DrumsAndBeer]

Time for an exterminator perhaps?

Set some 1792 Flake out for them, they'll wish they were never born a tobacco beetle.

 

[monbla256]

Here's what Wikipedia has to say about lasioderma Serricorne or the Tobacco beetle complete with pics ! Are these what you found ? They are around 2 mm long so they are not real big !! :twisted: :twisted:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lasioderma_serricorne

 

[RobJ]

Time for an exterminator perhaps?

Set some 1792 Flake out for them, they'll wish they were never born a tobacco beetle.

:lol!::bounce: :lol!: :bounce:  :lol!:

 

[Dutch]

Time for an exterminator perhaps?

Set some 1792 Flake out for them, they'll wish they were never born a tobacco beetle.

Come to think of it, the smell of dead rats might be enough to make them vacate the premisis, without actually consuming any 1792!

 

[MichaelM]

Tobacco beetles are small, and not really a common problem with pipe tobacco.  You did check for spiders I assume.
<iframe width="560" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/IrC3_N-zES4" frameborder="0" loading="lazy" allowfullscreen ></iframe>

 

[RDPipes]

I'd say the chances your infested with Tobacco beetles is pretty much next to nil but, leaving the door open and letting in June bugs in is pretty good. And if I was you, I'd make dang sure there not cockroaches.
And if that's the case I'd be gone already. Filthy little bastards make my skin crawl.

 

[Brewdude]

I've experienced 'baccy beetles only once in my life, and they came in a box of cigars from a certain island south of Miami!

Upon opening the box (it was Cohiba Esplendidos if you want to know), I saw several sticks with small round holes in them. Being aware of what this indicated, I proceeded to take all the cigars out of the box and found there were several more sticks with holes, sometimes multiple holes. The holes were about 1/16" or smaller I reckon.

When I was removing the last layer, I noticed something moving on the bottom of the box. In fact several somethings! Upon looking closely it was the dreaded 'baccy beetle. Kind of reddish in color but very tiny. I'd say no more than the width of a pin head.

Now, I did have this box in my freezerador for a few days prior to inspection. And then it was a moment of panic when I then proceeded to open up and inspect all the other boxes. No sign of holes or movement there. Fine, but to make sure I put all the boxes in the freezer for a week. Then removed them to the fridge side for a few days before returning them to the freezerador.

I've read that when the critters are first frozen and then thawed, this ruptures their bodies and thus kills them. And some further claim that a dedicated chest or upright freezer is necessary for this particular task, as the freezer on a combination fridge/freezer does not get cold enough in comparison. As well as if it's a frost-free model (as all of them are nowadays), which will alternate between freezing temps and above.

Be that as it may, I don't own a dedicated freezer - chest or upright. So used what I had. And the results were successful. And yes, I realize that the other boxes might not have been infected (or affected)!

I emptied out the freezerador, and sanitized it with a weak bleach spray solution. Kept a close eye on the boxes that had been in there, and fortunately none of them exhibited signs of infestation. Guess the critters in the Cohiba box didn't manage to escape and wreak damage on the other sticks.

So what did I do with the bad box of Cohibas? I returned it for full refund to the guy who sold them to me. He did say if I wasn't 100% satisfied he'd give me a full refund. And this he did.

What I learned from this is that 'baccy beetles are very small, and are likely to be in cigars where whole leaf is used. The likelihood of them being in pipe 'baccy is very small to non-existant due to the various processes it goes through.

All to say that your fears should be put to rest Bugs. Looks like you have some sort of other buggy infestation.


Long winded Cheers   ,


RR

 

[monbla256]

Could this be what you're seeing on your floor? :twisted: :twisted: BTW what Brewdude says is 100 %


https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Phyllophaga

 

[Bugsahearn]

Thanks for the replies guys. Monbla, i've consulted that wiki page a couple times recently and was thinking some of the ones i saw could be june bugs or scarab beetles. I didnt see the long things like in that picture. One reason I thought they could be tobacco beetles was because I had kept some loose bacco from a bm that has a big cigar humidor in a top drawer and left it touched for about 6 months. I found a large shiny beetle in a ziplock of bandaids in the same drawer at this tobacco so i thought this was a possible source. But the beetle was shiny and large and looked a bit like the june bug in the photo except for the feelers. So do you guys think other types of beetles feed on tobacco too?

edit: do I have to worry about these other beetles getting to my tobacco?

 

[Bugsahearn]

strangely enough found a white spider crawling on my used to be favorite pipe...although i think that pipe tobacco spider page is a hoax right.....

 

[Thomas Tkach]

Bugsahern, these tobacco beetles are certainly a force to be reckoned with, and you certainly are NOT just paranoid. Not only are they a threat to your tobacco outside the mason jars, they are without a doubt a menace to society.

Here is a pic I took of one after he had raped, pillaged, and plundered one of my cigar humidors, and was taking a cigarette break. Not only are they a threat to your tobacco outside the impermeable mason jar, they can wreak havoc on your cigar stash in short order.




Some aficionados feel that the tobacco they consume doesn't amount to much by weight, but personally I feel that tobacco destroyed is tobacco lost.

Reposted for awesomeness. Carry on now.