Tiktokers Find Worms In Strawberries – We Can Tell You That This Is Not A Likable Trend!
One of the things to love about Tiktok is that it paves the way for creativity as well as discoveries daily. However, when it comes to startling revelations like tiny worms creeping out of strawberries that look safe to eat. Without soaking the fruits in a salt solution like the trend requires, these bugs never come out of the berries, which makes us and many others realize that we have been eating these bugs nearly all our lives! Read on for what experts have to say about this.
Strawberries are one of everyone's favorite berries; they make great desserts and smoothies and delicious delight when eaten raw. However, a new Tiktok trend is making the fruit, less appealing.
Multiple videos on the social platform show people submerging store-bought strawberries in a bowl of warm salt solution.
After leaving it to soak for a few minutes, the visible results are tiny, wormlike bugs floating to the surface of the water or creeping over the strawberries.
Yes, these came from inside the strawberries!
Before you start thinking that the trend – which many people have tried out and discovered to be accurate, by the way! – is all fake, read what the experts have to say.
Cornell University's Fruit Resources shares that these tiny worms are larvae of the spotted wing drosophila (SWD), a fruit fly of East Asian origin.
According to resources, these flies were first found in New York in 2011. But thanks to their simple life cycle, they have grown and spread across the country. One of the flies' common carriers are berries – yes, they are drawn to different kinds of berries!
The flies ensure their continuous survival by laying eggs in fruit even before harvest time comes. This way, they are broadly scattered across the country.
The SWD is like any other bugs; they can find their ways into fruits and vegetables during the process of harvesting and packaging for sale, so they are never found. Thankfully, most of these vectors pose no danger to human health even when chewed on raw like most people have been doing. If anything, you can just consider them an extra dose of animal protein!
