THE TIKTOK STRAWBERRY WORM VIDEOS

There are videos on TikTok freaking people out where people put a strawberry into salt water, and a worm crawls out. Yes, it’s gross, but no, it’s not actually a worm. It’s a spotted wing drosophila – a type of fruit fly. The adult lays eggs in the strawberry, and the saltwater makes the larva crawl out. Yes, it’s literally a maggot. The spotted wing drosophila is an invasive fly that first arrived in the United States in 2008, eventually making its way nationwide. The big question: Do the bugs cause any harm if you eat them? No. There are no studies that have found that spotted wing drosophilas – or other bugs in fruit – are harmful for human consumption. It’s just part of eating fruits, vegetables and anything else that grows out in the field. The alternative is to have strawberries full of harmful pesticides.
* No, the alternative is to get your fruit from Fruit Roll-Ups.
* And just like that, there’s a whole lot of unsold strawberries in the stores.
* I get my strawberries from eating Twizzlers.
* Isn’t it cute when the kids today actually learn where their food comes from?
* Some people actually enjoy the extra chewyness of a larvae-filled strawberry.
* Could be worse. Could be murder hornets crawling out.