Expert: Bill Finck Jr. - 6/5/2009

Question
Hi. I recently acquired a dozen cigars from a friend who was going to throw them out because they were infested with tobacco beetles, I believe. He froze them to kill the beetles. I know not to intermix these with my good cigars. My question is this: is there any way to salvage these cigars and smoke them, despite the little holes bored through them by these critters? I thought that maybe wrapping them in something like a zig-zag cigarette rolling paper might help give them a proper draw. What do you think?

Answer
Charlie,

As the cigarette beetle eats his way through cigar, he excretes residue that is deposited in and on the cigar. If you've ever had a box of cigars get infested, you've seen the powdery residue left in the box. If you smoked the cigars you'd be smoking this stuff. Hopefully that is enough to deter you from taking what was a great product and rolling it in a piece of paper.

Bill