I bet you don't even suspect that war has been declared on you. The enemy is standing at the gate of your humidor. He is gluttonous and prolific. James Bond himself could envy his ability to remain unnoticed and invulnerable for a long time. Having been drawn into a military conflict with him, you can carry out one successful operation after another, in response he will mobilize even greater forces. He is a representative of a large family of tobacco bugs that can quickly turn your priceless cigars into a sieve.

State of emergency

Surprise is the tactic of the aficionado's enemies. There can be no talk of any preliminary diplomatic correspondence, much less an official declaration of war. The outbreak of hostilities within a single humidor will not be written in newspapers or reported on the radio...

A tobacco bug flying inside a humidor is a rather rare phenomenon; most likely, a black mark for the cigar owner will be the reddish dust that has come from nowhere at the bottom - the result of the digestive activity of saboteur bugs. In this case, you need to carefully examine each cigar, and if holes are found on the surface of any of them, then the problem is tobacco. You have been attacked.

It is best to part with a damaged cigar once and for all, while there is still hope of saving the rest. Insidious beetles, taking advantage of the ignorance of an inexperienced smoker, are capable of playing a cruel joke on him. He can find out about the “labyrinths” chewed inside the cigar only at the moment when, sitting comfortably in a chair with a cigar, he takes the first puff and... smoke comes out literally from all the holes! What if there is still a caterpillar inside? How do you like an aromatic cigar with the taste of burnt protein?

At first glance, it may seem that intricate moves appear in cigars by themselves. However, it is very simple to refute their mystical origin: just turn the cigar over with the hole down and lightly tap it on the table surface. With a successful combination of circumstances (if the insect did not have time to make legs), you will be able to shake the enemy out of the lair and take a closer look.

Soldiers of the invisible front

The oval, reddish-brown beetle, about the size of a pinhead, which is most often found in a cigar box, belongs to the order Coleoptera and is scientifically called Lasioderma serricorne Fabr. It is also known as gorjo del tabaco, or carcoma del tobacco (tobacco weevil), also known as tobacco beetle (tobacco beetle).

The life cycle of the tobacco weevil, like all beetles, consists of four stages - larva, caterpillar, pupa and adult - and lasts from 10 to 12 weeks. He can settle in tobacco in a plantation warehouse, a tobacco factory, or a cigar store. It is quite difficult for it to put larvae into a rolled cigar due to the dense cover sheet, but it is possible. If there are no other options, he places them on the defenseless cuts of the cigars.

However, it can all start back in the drying sheds. The tobacco weevil waits patiently until the drying period of the tobacco ends, because even a slight dampness of the leaf deprives its existence of any joy. It’s as if he’s deliberately timing the time when the entire harvest will be harvested, the workers will be paid, and contracts will be concluded. After which the insidious creature unfolds its sabotage activities. Every day, each female Lasioderma, who finds herself in the right place at the right time, lands on cigar raw materials a landing party consisting of hundreds of larvae, invisible to the naked eye (each size is 0.5 mm). The mother no longer has to worry about the future fate of her “children.” Wherever they are thrown by the will of the tobacco merchant, a well-fed future is guaranteed to them, which means they will fulfill their destiny - to be fruitful and multiply.

The first metamorphosis - the transformation of the larvae into small caterpillars - occurs after 5-10 days, depending on temperature and humidity. This is the longest and most dangerous stage of insect development. Caterpillars begin to actively gnaw through complex labyrinths in cigars or destroy leaves that have not yet been processed. White caterpillars look quite cute: miniature (4 mm long), with a yellow stripe on the head and a small chestnut tassel on the tail.

Favorable temperature for further development of tobacco weevil is +24° C and above. At a temperature of +15-16° C, the caterpillar does not die, but seems to fall into a lethargic sleep until suitable weather sets in outside its “house”. 5-10 weeks after this happens, thin cocoon walls begin to form around the caterpillar, and it gradually turns into a pupa. Some tobacco beetles need 10 days, others - twice as long, to start gnawing tobacco leaves and get out. There are also those who can wait for the right moment for several years.

The further behavior of adult individuals absolutely refutes the general opinion that the tobacco weevil feeds exclusively on tobacco. Having become hungry while sitting in the cocoon, the beetle agrees to everything more or less edible that is found in the house: with great appetite it will eat cereals, pasta, and grain. And having had enough, it will go looking for its other half, so that everything will repeat itself from the beginning: larva - caterpillar - pupa - adult. If infected cigars do not go on a long journey to Europe, but remain in the producing country, then in warm climates the Lasioderma life cycle manages to reproduce 5-6 times a year.

The tobacco weevil's closest relative is Catorama tabaci Guerin, a native of Cuba that is not eager to leave Liberty Island. He has taken a liking to the tobacco plantations near Havana, Falcon, and Santa Clara, and he has every reason to claim the title of gourmet, because he prefers Cuban tobacco to all varieties of tobacco.

Cubans call Catorama the "big tobacco worm" because its caterpillar is slightly longer than the weevil caterpillar - 4-5 mm. For tobacco growers, Catorama poses a much greater danger. It happened that these bugs turned huge warehouse stocks into tobacco dust. And the holes it leaves in cigars are larger than those made by Lasioderma. In all other respects, the homebody Catorama is not much different from its cosmopolitan and omnivorous brother.

The name of another lover of chewing dry tobacco leaves in Latin sounds intriguing and therefore beautiful - Ephestia elutella. Not a single living language would stand on ceremony with it - tobacco moth - it is both in Russian and in English - tobacco moth. Its beige caterpillars leave only veins of the tobacco leaf. To be fair, it should be noted that the moth competes with Lasioderma and Catorama only on the plantations of Cuba, the Antilles and the southern United States, and does not claim a warm place in the humidor.

Weapons of mass destruction

In war it’s like in war. Tobacco producers counter the survival instinct with new scientific achievements. Institutes specially created for this have been studying the habits and habits of the enemy for more than a hundred years, helping tobacco producers build tactics and strategies to combat beetles. They even tried to lime them with the help of biological weapons: predatory insects that fed on tobacco weevils and large tobacco worms were purposefully bred in the fields, but this had virtually no effect on the pest population. The most common method of exterminating tobacco beetles is to place special traps in the warehouse that use a natural enzyme that attracts the beetles to each other. Each “trap” is filled with sticky liquid - so the beetles will never get out of it. At large enterprises, the amount of “catch” is studied at least once a day. Traps, in addition to performing their direct function, play the role of unique indicators: by the number of weevils caught, the owner can judge the source of the spread of the infection and the size of the infection (it is believed that each female manages to lay about a hundred eggs). And in this case, one cannot do without larger-scale “military operations” - fumigation and freezing.

Manufacturers conduct a tobacco reconquest at every stage of cigar production: the leaves are fumigated (fumigated) in drying sheds, at the tobacco factory just before the cigars are rolled and packaged, in port warehouses and airports. The essence of the process is as follows. Tobacco leaves, finished cigars or boxes of cigars are placed in a sealed, airtight room, which is filled with either gas or a special chemical composition. As a result of this treatment, most beetles die - from larvae to adults. The substances used in fumigation evaporate within three days. They are harmless to smokers and do not in any way affect the taste of cigars. Fumigation is considered the most reliable, which is carried out immediately before shipping containers with cigars packed in boxes, however, it does not give a 100% result.

Recently, cigar makers have become increasingly willing to use freezing cigars. Firstly, you can do without any chemicals. Secondly, this method is considered the most suitable when it comes to proper handling of the cigar. Thirdly, fumigation does not always provide a 100% “healing” effect. Cigars are placed in the freezer for 4-5 days, and even the most tenacious dolls cannot withstand temperatures of -25° C. True, only large manufacturers and distributors can afford such a luxury: medium-sized, and even less so small suppliers cannot afford freezers .

Many reputable sellers acquire freezers and freeze batches of cigars several times. But even all these precautions do not save cigars from the invasion of tobacco beetles. This means that it is possible that sooner or later your humidor may become a defensive fortress.

In the area of ​​special attention

The best defense is attack. Prevent the strike of the hunter for your cigars. To do this, you just need to follow a few simple rules.

Beetles will only eat cheap or low-quality cigars under the threat of starvation. The more expensive and more flavorful the cigar, the more likely it is to be contaminated. Therefore, when purchasing a cigar, it is necessary to carefully inspect it. Often, buyers take a whole box of cigars - then the inspection must be done at home.

It’s also worth checking your home humidor more often. Experts do not recommend storing cigars from different vintages in the same box.

Pay attention to the microclimate in the humidor: at a temperature of +22° C and a relative humidity of 70 percent, the beetle will feel as if in a luxury room in a five-star hotel, where the price includes not only breakfast, but also lunch and dinner.

The cover sheet quite reliably protects the cigar from the penetration of the female weevil inside, where she usually lays eggs. Therefore, the most vulnerable point of a cigar is the cut. It is best to wall up your cigars so that getting to them is as difficult as before Kashcheev’s death: they should not be stored in a humidor without boxes, but in the box they should lie so that the cuts of the cigars rest tightly against the wall of the box. Even if the insect can get into the box, in the worst case it will only slightly gnaw the cover sheet, and it will have nowhere to deposit the harmful larvae.

If one fine day you nevertheless discovered signs of a beetle in your humidor (rot, holes in cigars, reddish dust) or an insect flew towards you in person - do not despair, the battle for cigars is not yet lost, although you suffered some losses. An adult beetle does not gnaw holes and is dangerous only because it can, having met another adult beetle, begin procreation. You are more likely to run into a female because the male does not live long after mating. And the future “mother” has a more important task - to find food for herself and as soon as possible to find a pile of tobacco dust, the remains of a tobacco leaf or a hole in a cigar in order to lay a clutch of eggs.

The best way to finish off invaders is to freeze them. Cigars from the humidor should be placed in some kind of airtight container (for example, a plastic container with a tight-fitting lid intended for storing food) and put in the refrigerator. It is better to freeze all the cigars from the humidor at once, even if some of them do not have a hint of the presence of a beetle. If at least one cigar gets sick, you know: the enemy is somewhere nearby. It's better to be safe than sorry. The same rule should be followed when storing cigars in freezing or cooling mode. At low temperatures (16-18°C below zero) the bugs die in 4-5 days, at 4-5°C below zero - after about a week, and at positive temperatures in the refrigerator they can last for two to three weeks. So the longer your cigars sit in the refrigerator, the greater the chance that the bugs will freeze and will not come back to life. While your cigars are sitting in the refrigerator, it's time to start cleaning your humidor. The outer and inner surfaces should be wiped with a mixture of ammonia and water so that the liquid gets into all the cracks. Ammonia will easily corrode the remains of the weevil family and will quickly evaporate without leaving any odor.

When it comes time to bring your cigars out of the cold, be extremely careful and take your time. The temperature should rise gradually. First, transfer the container with cigars from the freezer to the refrigerator for several days, then to a cool room, and only then to the humidor. Do not open the container until the cigars have adjusted to room conditions. This precaution will not be superfluous. The cigars have become dry in the refrigerator and must slowly gain moisture. Sudden changes in humidity will cause the cover sheet to collapse. Therefore, the humidity in the humidor should increase gradually. Otherwise, a dry cigar will very quickly gain moisture and burst.

As you can see, the process of dealing with cigar pests is quite simple, although it does require some patience. But even after you are sure that the Lasioderma or Catorama in your humidor is gone, do not relax - the tobacco beetle does not sleep.

The authorities began an irreconcilable fight against smokers. The editors of the traffic police magazine turned out to be much more tolerant. In our opinion, a car is not only a means of transportation. A car, as a rule, is also a place of our freedom, where we can indulge in vicious passions to the fullest: listen to our favorite music at full volume, chat with friends without unnecessary ears, smoke a cigarette, and everything else... That's why we decided to fight not with smoking, but with its consequences. The technology for resuscitating upholstery burned by cigarettes in one of the city’s car wash complexes was mastered by Olga Medvedeva, sales director of the traffic police magazine.

Smoke break before work

This lesson turned out to be the most unusual we have ever been given. Firstly, the co-founder of the car wash complex, Semyon Syskov, who personally supervised the process, gave me maximum freedom of action. Secondly, at all stages of training he gave exclusively positive assessments, accompanying my actions with the words “wonderful”, “excellent result”, “I like it”. He also allowed experimentation, convinced that any technology provides only a general theory, and every master has the right to look for working methods that suit him. And even though the experiment was unsuccessful, this did not affect the final result in any way. Looking ahead, I will say that this pedagogical approach seemed ideal to me: the first time I managed to seal the prokur so that not a trace remained of it. All that remained was the excellent mood in which I remained until the end of the working day. And this lesson began unusually.

Hello, are there any smokers? “Bring a cigarette and a lighter,” Semyon greeted us, stroking the gray headrest that he had prepared in advance for work. “We’ll have a smoke break before work, and at the same time we’ll make a burn in the upholstery, which we’ll fight.” Quite often, headrests and seats are burned through in cars.

The headrest was “working material” taken from an old car, so I dealt with it mercilessly. In general, non-combustible materials are used in cars: they do not ignite well, but melt well. Boldly shaking off the ashes, I made a decent and quite deep hole in the headrest.

For our city (and, I think, for Russia), the technology for resuscitating burns is a relatively new service, although in the West it has existed for a long time. Maybe that’s why a special kit for this operation, including colored cut microfiber, pencils, scissors, tweezers, spatula, iron, spray bottle, liquid and powder glue, has to be purchased abroad. The domestic auto industry has nothing to be proud of yet: the country has not yet established the production of such artistic kits for the motorist.

It was 11:05 on the clock. We timed it so we knew the timing of the procedure and got to work.

My arts

First of all, I clean the edges of the hole with sandpaper. Then I carefully trim the edge with nail scissors.
- We're not in a hurry. A car is an expensive thing, so you need to do everything efficiently and with pinpoint precision,” advises Semyon.

After this, I lift the edges of the fabric with tweezers to push the patch under them. I also take the material for it from the “magic suitcase”. I cut out a small square and use tweezers to push it under the edges of the upholstery to close the hole.

There is nothing difficult about patching holes,” Semyon observes the work. “Anyone can handle this; in principle, you can fix any hole yourself, if you have the hands and the desire.” This is where the work of the jeweler and seamstress ends; we begin the work of the colorist.

I take jars of cut microfiber out of my suitcase to match the color of the headrest material. There are dozens of shades and colors, but there is no ready-made one. Therefore, I begin to select the right one. I take a gray color close to the main one as a base and put the fibers into a glass jar with tweezers. I add a little dark gray to it, then some black. I close the jar and mix it with a spray bottle. The color turned out close, but there was something missing.

There is a little blue in the original fabric, but if we add a little gray with a bluish tint, it will be just right,” Semyon unobtrusively suggests, but he himself does not touch the jars. Today I am given complete independence.

All this is reminiscent of the work of a master selecting auto enamel - I once mastered this profession. By the way, in a car wash complex this is exactly what professional colorists do. Only in computer-based paint selection are specially developed color formulas used, paint is added gram by gram, but here you have to mix everything by eye.

But my eye didn’t seem to deceive me. I pour the mixture onto a plastic tray, also add liquid glue by eye in a ratio of 70 to 30, mix until smooth and spread the mixture onto the patch. And only then does it become clear that I made two mistakes. First, after adding the glue, the mixture became lighter than the main upholstery fabric. I also saved money - I didn’t have any material left for the second layer, which is prepared from a mixture of cut pile and powder glue.

Repetition is the mother of learning

This means that we will have to take up color once again and make another portion. Don't worry, repetition is the mother of learning. As long as the technology requires the first layer to dry for 15 minutes, we will do everything.

I start mixing the fibers again. Taking into account the mistakes, I add more dark color. Of course, I am not a professional colorist who finds the right combination at the moment. But soon the next portion is ready. It must be thoroughly mixed with powder glue in the same proportion. There are subtleties here. If you overdo it with glue, the surface will begin to shine; if you don’t do it right, it won’t stick well.

The fibers and powder do not mix well, and Semyon and I decide to move away from the technology and experiment: I pour everything into a jar and mix it with a spray bottle. But the experiment failed: it turns out that the powdered glue settles on the glass. Therefore, I add a little more glue, mix it with a spatula and spread it in an even layer in place of the prokur. I take up the iron, heated to 170 degrees, with which I need to “smooth” the surface, but Semyon stops me. It turns out that you still need to spray a clean microfiber mixture without glue on top of the second layer.

Finally, through a special fabric I iron the area of ​​the procure. This also has its own secrets - how many times and for how many seconds you need to hold the iron, but let this remain my little secret.

When everything was ready, I already called to evaluate the quality of the work of the main critic - our photographer, a graduate of an art school and an architectural institute. But then it turned out that under the iron the mixture thickened and settled. Therefore, we had to repeat this procedure again. Ready. I got the color perfect. But the prosecutor's place is a little shiny.

Did you shift the glue?
- No, everything is fine. At a certain angle, the gloss is no longer noticeable. But according to technology, everything should dry for three hours, after which we will treat this area with a protective spray, go over it with a dry brush and no trace will remain. Excellent result.

It was 12:05 on the clock. The entire procedure to resuscitate the headrest, which now looked like new, together with correcting the errors, took exactly an hour. Fast and efficient.

The material was prepared by the traffic police magazine.