Bayberry has worms that can't be eaten? Learn about these and eat with confidence!

It's another year's bayberry season, and this sweet and sour fruit is a favorite of many people.

However, although the bayberry is delicious, there is one thing that people can't eat safely - the bayberry soaked in salt water will always crawl out of the white little bugs.

Is the bayberry worm spoiled? Where did these bugs come from? Let's talk about it in detail today.

Why is bayberry prone to bugs?

The edible part of the bayberry is a fleshy exocarp, which is hard and sour when unripe, and very soft when fully ripe, and a sweet red juice comes out when touched.

Bayberry has worms that can't be eaten? Learn about these and eat with confidence!

It is precisely for this reason that bayberry is unbearable to transport, in the past inconvenient era, only people in the production area of bayberry can eat fresh bayberry, and people north of the production area can only taste pickled bayberry to relieve hunger.

The literati of the past had the opportunity to taste fresh, and they couldn't wait to write seventeen or eight poems to appreciate its delicacy.

For example, some people wrote that the bayberry was: "At first suspicion that a piece is worth thousands of gold", carefully tasted it to know that the original bayberry was: "the grapes of the Fang Heshuo are heavy, and the color is deeper than the Lunan lyche".

Fortunately, modern transportation technology can be much more efficient than the horse-drawn carriages of the past, even if you live in the northernmost part of the country, you can eat this southern delicacy - of course, all the way to the north, the price of fresh bayberry has naturally doubled, and it is not an exaggeration to sell it if it is a good size.

In addition to being intolerant to storage and transportation, coupled with the fleshy exocarp of bayberry, it makes it easy to attract insects. Think about it, the tender and tender fleshy part is so bright and exposed to the outside, there is not even a covering shell, and the sweet fragrance of the wind will naturally attract insects to patronize.

What kind of bug is the easiest to recruit bayberry?

The bugs that Yangmei beckoned are not some kind of evil worm, but everyone who eats fruits has been more or less intimately touched - fruit flies.

Fruit flies are a collective name for a variety of members of the genus Drosophila, their fertility is very strong, from the hatching of eggs to larvae to adult pupae, the process of adult worms is very short, in a temperature of about 25 degrees only about 10 days Fruit flies will complete their own birth, growth, reproduction, death of a lifetime.

For humans, the fly life of fruit flies should be small and inconspicuous, if not for the fact that fruit flies always like to turn fruits that humans like into "brooding beds".

In addition to finding the right restaurant for themselves to eat a sugary meal, mature female fruit flies also need to find suitable places for their offspring, and fruits with high sugar content are their favorite.

In addition to bayberry, cherries, watermelons, citrus, etc., as long as they are fruits with the right sugar content, they are easy to attract fruit flies. Even if the skin of the flesh has been eaten by humans, fruit flies do not dislike it.

When it's hot, the flies party in your trash can.

And the bayberry, which is rich in juice, high in sugar and has no extra protection, is a favorite of fruit flies.

In addition, the season when the bayberry hangs on the tree is the season for the crazy development and reproduction of fruit flies, and the bayberry has naturally become a golden place for fruit flies to lay eggs.

Choosing a location, the female fruit fly will lay her eggs in bayberry, which are less than 0.5 mm in diameter and difficult to detect with the naked eye.

After a few days, the eggs hatch into larvae and feast on them in delicious fleshy exocarp until they are forced out by humans with salt water. Or, along with the delicious flesh, roll into the belly of a human being.

Bayberry with worms can actually be eaten

In fact, when the bayberry is still in the orchard, the growers will try their best to prevent the close contact between fruit flies and bayberry, but they really can't do 100% control.

The traditional method commonly uses insect nets, and covers the bayberry with a fine net, which can not only avoid the entry of fruit flies, but also do not hinder the growth of the bayberry.

In addition, a large number of insect repellent boards and other appliances will be placed in the orchard at the same time. However, this method is time-consuming and labor-intensive, and the entire production cost of bayberry will increase, and the natural selling price will also rise.

Another common method is biological control, such as releasing natural enemies of fruit flies in orchards, letting them control fruit flies, reducing the number of fruit flies from the source, and naturally reducing the damage to bayberry.

But this method is not only costly, but also has not achieved the effect of making orchards completely free of fruit flies.

Since the fruit is directly ingested, it is also not possible to spray pesticides directly in the orchard. Therefore, the occurrence of arbutus worms is still inevitable.

But in fact, as long as this matter is correctly understood, the larvae of some fruit flies do not need to worry at all.

Many people hear the larvae of "flies" and feel dirty.

But in fact, fruit fly larvae occur in bayberry fruits from eggs to birth, and they are relatively clean and will not contact other bacteria.

Therefore, these little white worms are actually a clean, high-quality protein.

In addition, there is no need to worry about the bad consequences of these little bugs or the eggs that have not hatched in the bayberry being eaten into our stomachs, after all, our stomach acid is quite strong, and the weak and poor fruit fly offspring really do not have the ability to rebel in your body.

Of course, if you really want to eat insects, then wash and soak well with salt water before eating bayberry, and the fruit fly larvae will automatically surface, and then rinse with clean water to eat with confidence.

Proper salted water soaking can also make the bayberry taste sweeter, which is also considered the icing on the cake.

However, it is not necessary to use dish soap, flour and the like to specifically clean, after all, it will not only harm the fragile flesh of the bayberry, but also affect the flavor, so why bother with such harmless little bugs?

Author: Hydra Popular Science Creator

Reviewed: Xue Qingxin, the first batch of nutrition instructors of the Health Commission, and a registered dietitian in China