Beetle larvae found in cigarette packet

HAMILTON: A Waikato man says he was horrified to find what looked like a maggot crawling around inside a packet of cigarettes he had just bought.

But the incident has not put Matt Jennings off smoking. He returned the packet for another from Te Aroha Mountain Superette and Takeaways on Saturday.

‘‘Bug man’’ Ruud Kleinpaste and the Ministry for Primary

Industries have since solved the riddle as to what the insect was, confirming it was the cigarette beetle, a common insect found in New Zealand.

Mr Jennings said after peeling off the plastic, opening the lid and then ripping off the tin foil, he was shocked to find three tiny black holes in the filters of three cigarettes and what appeared to be a small insect akin to a maggot crawling

round inside.

‘‘I opened a fresh pack and not one hole in the pack and not one hole in the plastic and directly centre, as round as a pencil lead, there were holes inside the filters. And these grubs are crawling out of it.

‘‘I took them back to the store to show [owner] and said check this out.

‘‘These bugs have eaten through foam.’’

He said he took the cigarette

packet straight back to the dairy and he was given a replacement.

Mr Kleinpaste said the beetles were hardy creatures that could chew their way through not only plastic and cardboard but also aluminium.

Biosecurity NZ said it was not concerned about the find as the beetle was a common stored product pest reported in New Zealand.