Picking strawberries at Moshav Scout/photo: Yossi Tsipakis, editing: Avitar Halimi
There are things that are better simply not to know, not to see and not to hear. If you like strawberries, you should get out of here now. Strawberry is a healthy and delicious fruit, but it turns out that it may be infested with insects so small that our eyes cannot see them. The lovers of the fruit (which is a simulated fruit after all) are disturbed by a video circulating online showing the red fruit under a microscope infested with tiny and disgusting-looking creatures - even after it has been thoroughly washed with water.
This is not new information and similar videos have already been shared before, but since the beginning of this month 10 million people have seen the one-minute long video shared by Fred DiBiase on X. As the man in the video examines the field strawberry under a microscope, he gives us a glimpse of a group of small insects feasting on the red fruit. Immediately after that, he washes the strawberry and shows the camera that the creatures are gone, but when he cuts a piece of the fruit and puts it again under a microscope - you can see several worms crawling inside the fruit. "Let's look at a strawberry under the microscope," reads the video, which has garnered over 10 million views and 14,000 likes on the platform.
"Strawberries are known to have bugs. Soak them in water with vinegar or baking soda or salt for 20 minutes or more - and see," one viewer wrote. "Fruit bugs have protein," commented another user. A third added: "I've eaten so many worms in my life." A fourth who probably didn't quite get to the bottom of the matter added: "OMG, I'm not eating unwashed fruit ever again!!".
Viewing at your own risk:
A similar video was shared on social networks in 2023, according to the New York Post. "Are you having a good day today? I'm sorry I'm going to ruin it by posting footage of a strawberry under a microscope," said the video, which at the time had "only" 2.9 million views. The video, uploaded to an ominous soundtrack, shows a scientist cutting a slice of strawberry and examining it under a microscope. The camera then shifts to reflect what is seen through the magnifying glass, revealing slimy creatures scurrying across the surface.
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So who are the intruders and how dangerous is it?
The videos show species of small mites that live on strawberries and their plants - and yes, you've probably eaten them and there's no evidence to suggest they're harmful to your health.
One type of mite is known as the strawberry mite, given that they live exclusively on strawberry plants and lay their eggs there. The two-spotted spider mite, which can also live on other plants, likes to extract nutrients from the leaves of plants close to the ground, damaging them and leaving them with a bronze hue.
Several other species of insects live on different parts of the strawberry plants. Some larger insects lay their eggs inside strawberries, blueberries and wine grapes, such as spotted winged Drosophila (Drosophila) which hatch inside the strawberry before their larvae crawl out.
According to the message published on the subject: "The conqueror of the strawberry is actually Drosophila, a very tiny invasive fruit fly that likes to lay its eggs under the skin of strawberries and other berries. These turn into larvae and crawl out of the skin like a creepy crawly piñata." According to Iowa entomologist Don Lewis, "the caterpillars are 1/50th of an inch and not even visible to the naked eye." According to him, the fruits offered for sale in supermarkets are not expected to contain any of them, since refrigeration kills them. In addition, he points out that there is no proof that eating these tiny creatures, which are an inevitable component of eating food grown in the field, is dangerous. "The reality is that most fruit has some level of insect infestation that you can't get rid of," Sriyanka Lahiri, an entomologist at the University of Florida, told USA TODAY in 2020.
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