Whether eaten whole, blended into smoothies, or baked into pies (or even…grated into shaved ice?!), berries make a deliciously refreshing snack. But it’s not only humans who appreciate their juicy texture and sweet tang: Dozens of videos posted on TikTok show tiny white worms crawling out of them when they’re soaked, a sight that could convince you to swear off produce forever.
Or, at the very least, toss your bounty and not look back: “That’s probably my first time seeing that in my life,” TikToker @jennifer.diazzz, who videoed them emerging from her strawberries, tells SELF in a DM. “I ended up throwing them all away.”
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Unfortunately for all the fruit lovers out there (myself included), that kind of infestation is a very real possibility, Anna Wallis, MS, PhD, the New York State Integrated Pest Management Program’s fruit IPM coordinator and a senior extension associate at Cornell University’s College of Agriculture and Life Sciences, tells SELF. Especially, that is, if you’re eating berries you grew yourself. But gross as it may sound (or look), it’s actually nothing to worry about.
Here’s what’s going on: While all sorts of insects have a taste for berries, one of the most likely culprits is the spotted wing drosophila (SWD), an invasive species of fruit fly that has become “a huge problem” in fruit, Dr. Wallis says. Unlike other fruit and vinegar flies, which lay eggs on overripe or rotting fruit, the SWD does its thing inside the fresh stuff, compromising what would otherwise be a marketable product, according to Cornell. In the absence of precautions like hanging exclusion netting (which creates a barrier against pests) the university reports, the economic impact can be severe: Upwards of 80% of late-season raspberries, blackberries and blueberries—some SWD favorites—can be damaged by the insect.
So those little white worms in the TikToks? Most likely SWD larvae (technically, gross, maggots) that hatched in the berries and have spent their whole lives munching away at the flesh, according to Dr. Wallis. Soaking works to draw them out by forcing them to the surface. When they exit, they’ll eventually metamorphose into full-fledged fruit flies destined to continue the cycle.
Before you freak out any more than you already have, the first thing to know is that the worms don’t actually pose any health risk, according to Dr. Wallis. “Besides looking pretty yucky, they're not harmful to humans at all,” she says. They don’t change the taste of your fruit, and, she adds jokingly, can even add a bit of protein—a nutritional “silver lining.”
Be that as it may, consumers tend to be strongly anti-maggot, so TikTok is awash with suggestions for evicting the creatures—which, like we mentioned, have to do with submerging them. One video recommends soaking the berries in salt water, another in a solution of vinegar and water, and a third adds baking soda to the mix.
“I actually wouldn't recommend any of that,” Dr. Wallis says. “I think it would be more time than it's worth.” Her only recommended intervention: Store the berries in your fridge (rather than on your counter or any other room-temp location). Keeping them cool, she says, is “the easiest, most effective method of preserving the fruit”—especially because the presence of maggots will cause it to rot faster. So if the larvae are already in the berries, keeping them cool can buy you a little more time (and maybe even kill those squatters). And as always, she adds, rinse off any produce before digging in—this will remove any debris and residue left over from the field.
And if you’re still skeeved out by the thought of potentially eating fly larvae? Maybe opt for store-bought berries rather than home-grown ones. “Growers are doing everything they can to safely prevent infestation of their crops,” Dr. Wallis says, “so I would say it is actually pretty uncommon to find them in the grocery store because we are doing so much to try to prevent that from happening.” However, the same can’t be said of your average backyard berry patch. If you’re not taking any pest management measures, Dr. Wallis says, “I would say it's very likely that you would have them there”—so maybe don’t inspect your next haul too closely.
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