Maggots in the blackberries -- blech

bcday · August 24, 2013

I've been picking wild blackberries from a small patch here for a week or two now. Yum! But a few days ago I filled a sandwich bag half-full of berries and left it on the counter for the afternoon, then put it in the fridge overnight. When I took it out the next day, the berries were crawling with fruit fly larvae! Well, even a fruit fly can't grow from an egg to a 1/8" larva overnight at 37*F. I hadn't seen anything wrong with those berries but the larvae must have been in there somewhere.

I picked some more berries, rinsed them, put them in a container with some water and a pinch or two of salt, and waited. In less than an hour little white larvae were poking out from inside the berries and floating around in the water. I took yet another bag of fresh berries to Cornell's extension service and the folks there are going to let the larvae hatch out so they can get a good ID on the adults. But since these berries are in otherwise good condition, just ripened and not overripe, deteriorating, or damaged, the folks at the extension service feel sure that the culprit is the Spotted Wing Drosophila -- an invasive species of fruit fly from Asia that hasn't been confirmed in my county yet and wasn't seen anywhere in NY until 2 or 3 years ago.

The fruit flies we usually see only feed and lay eggs on overripe or damaged fruit. This spotted wing fruit fly inserts its eggs into healthy undamaged fruit that is just ripening and is in prime marketing condition. People picking or buying the fruit can't tell that it is infested just by looking at it. I'd been eating fine-looking berries from my own yard and wouldn't have known anything was wrong with them if I hadn't had that bag of extra berries sitting around.

I tried the salt-water treatment on a few of my fall-bearing red raspberries that are just starting to ripen. Yep, baby fruit fly maggots no more than 1/16" long in those too.

If you are picking or buying berries, any kind of berries, at this time of year, try soaking a few in salt water for an hour or so before you eat any. A teaspoon or so of salt to a cup of water is plenty to get any little white wigglers irritated enough to poke their noses out.

August 24, 2013	#1
bcday Tomatovillian™ Join Date: Jan 2006 Location: NY z5 Posts: 1,205	Maggots in the blackberries -- blech I've been picking wild blackberries from a small patch here for a week or two now. Yum! But a few days ago I filled a sandwich bag half-full of berries and left it on the counter for the afternoon, then put it in the fridge overnight. When I took it out the next day, the berries were crawling with fruit fly larvae! Well, even a fruit fly can't grow from an egg to a 1/8" larva overnight at 37*F. I hadn't seen anything wrong with those berries but the larvae must have been in there somewhere. I picked some more berries, rinsed them, put them in a container with some water and a pinch or two of salt, and waited. In less than an hour little white larvae were poking out from inside the berries and floating around in the water. I took yet another bag of fresh berries to Cornell's extension service and the folks there are going to let the larvae hatch out so they can get a good ID on the adults. But since these berries are in otherwise good condition, just ripened and not overripe, deteriorating, or damaged, the folks at the extension service feel sure that the culprit is the Spotted Wing Drosophila -- an invasive species of fruit fly from Asia that hasn't been confirmed in my county yet and wasn't seen anywhere in NY until 2 or 3 years ago. The fruit flies we usually see only feed and lay eggs on overripe or damaged fruit. This spotted wing fruit fly inserts its eggs into healthy undamaged fruit that is just ripening and is in prime marketing condition. People picking or buying the fruit can't tell that it is infested just by looking at it. I'd been eating fine-looking berries from my own yard and wouldn't have known anything was wrong with them if I hadn't had that bag of extra berries sitting around. I tried the salt-water treatment on a few of my fall-bearing red raspberries that are just starting to ripen. Yep, baby fruit fly maggots no more than 1/16" long in those too. If you are picking or buying berries, any kind of berries, at this time of year, try soaking a few in salt water for an hour or so before you eat any. A teaspoon or so of salt to a cup of water is plenty to get any little white wigglers irritated enough to poke their noses out.