Whether or not eaten complete, blended into smoothies, or baked into pies (and even…grated into shaved ice?!), berries make a deliciously refreshing snack. However it’s not solely people who recognize their juicy texture and candy tang: Dozens of movies posted on TikTok present tiny white worms crawling out of them once they’re soaked, a sight that might persuade you to swear off produce eternally.

Or, on the very least, toss your bounty and never look again: “That’s most likely my first time seeing that in my life,” TikToker @jennifer.diazzz, who videoed them rising from her strawberries, tells SELF in a DM. “I ended up throwing all of them away.”

Sadly for all of the fruit lovers on the market (myself included), that sort of infestation is a really actual risk, Anna Wallis, MS, PhD, the New York State Built-in Pest Administration Program’s fruit IPM coordinator and a senior extension affiliate at Cornell College’s Faculty of Agriculture and Life Sciences, tells SELF. Particularly, that’s, when you’re consuming berries you grew your self. However gross as it might sound (or look), it’s truly nothing to fret about.

Right here’s what’s occurring: Whereas all types of bugs have a style for berries, one of the crucial doubtless culprits is the noticed wing drosophila (SWD), an invasive species of fruit fly that has develop into “an enormous downside” in fruit, Dr. Wallis says. Not like different fruit and vinegar flies, which lay eggs on overripe or rotting fruit, the SWD does its factor contained in the contemporary stuff, compromising what would in any other case be a marketable product, in accordance with Cornell. Within the absence of precautions like hanging exclusion netting (which creates a barrier in opposition to pests) the college studies, the financial influence could be extreme: Upwards of 80% of late-season raspberries, blackberries and blueberries—some SWD favorites—could be broken by the insect.

So these little white worms within the TikToks? Almost definitely SWD larvae (technically, gross, maggots) that hatched within the berries and have spent their complete lives munching away on the flesh, in accordance with Dr. Wallis. Soaking works to attract them out by forcing them to the floor. Once they exit, they’ll ultimately metamorphose into full-fledged fruit flies destined to proceed the cycle.

Earlier than you freak out any greater than you have already got, the very first thing to know is that the worms don’t truly pose any well being danger, in accordance with Dr. Wallis. “Moreover trying fairly yucky, they don’t seem to be dangerous to people in any respect,” she says. They don’t change the style of your fruit, and, she provides jokingly, may even add a little bit of protein—a dietary “silver lining.”

Be that as it might, customers are typically strongly anti-maggot, so TikTok is awash with solutions for evicting the creatures—which, like we talked about, must do with submerging them. One video recommends soaking the berries in salt water, one other in an answer of vinegar and water, and a third provides baking soda to the combo.

Whether or not eaten complete, blended into smoothies, or baked into pies (and even…grated into shaved ice?!), berries make a deliciously refreshing snack. However it’s not solely people who recognize their juicy texture and candy tang: Dozens of movies posted on TikTok present tiny white worms crawling out of them once they’re soaked, a sight that might persuade you to swear off produce eternally.

Or, on the very least, toss your bounty and never look again: “That’s most likely my first time seeing that in my life,” TikToker @jennifer.diazzz, who videoed them rising from her strawberries, tells SELF in a DM. “I ended up throwing all of them away.”

Sadly for all of the fruit lovers on the market (myself included), that sort of infestation is a really actual risk, Anna Wallis, MS, PhD, the New York State Built-in Pest Administration Program’s fruit IPM coordinator and a senior extension affiliate at Cornell College’s Faculty of Agriculture and Life Sciences, tells SELF. Particularly, that’s, when you’re consuming berries you grew your self. However gross as it might sound (or look), it’s truly nothing to fret about.

Right here’s what’s occurring: Whereas all types of bugs have a style for berries, one of the crucial doubtless culprits is the noticed wing drosophila (SWD), an invasive species of fruit fly that has develop into “an enormous downside” in fruit, Dr. Wallis says. Not like different fruit and vinegar flies, which lay eggs on overripe or rotting fruit, the SWD does its factor contained in the contemporary stuff, compromising what would in any other case be a marketable product, in accordance with Cornell. Within the absence of precautions like hanging exclusion netting (which creates a barrier in opposition to pests) the college studies, the financial influence could be extreme: Upwards of 80% of late-season raspberries, blackberries and blueberries—some SWD favorites—could be broken by the insect.

So these little white worms within the TikToks? Almost definitely SWD larvae (technically, gross, maggots) that hatched within the berries and have spent their complete lives munching away on the flesh, in accordance with Dr. Wallis. Soaking works to attract them out by forcing them to the floor. Once they exit, they’ll ultimately metamorphose into full-fledged fruit flies destined to proceed the cycle.

Earlier than you freak out any greater than you have already got, the very first thing to know is that the worms don’t truly pose any well being danger, in accordance with Dr. Wallis. “Moreover trying fairly yucky, they don’t seem to be dangerous to people in any respect,” she says. They don’t change the style of your fruit, and, she provides jokingly, may even add a little bit of protein—a dietary “silver lining.”

Be that as it might, customers are typically strongly anti-maggot, so TikTok is awash with solutions for evicting the creatures—which, like we talked about, must do with submerging them. One video recommends soaking the berries in salt water, one other in an answer of vinegar and water, and a third provides baking soda to the combo.