I don't think you can get rid of the fruit worms, they are in the fruit,..it just happen that some crawled out, you have picked the berries with worms in it, over time the worms, [larvae] grow larger,.. just process the fruit right away.

If you really want to make sure next time,... cut some fruits open and see if something moves inside, take a magnifying glass along. Looks like you really picked organic.

a descriptive sheet from MSU
http://www.ipm.msu.edu/uploads/files/E-3140.pdf
If you make the traps, know that in Oregon, the yellow sticky cards are no longer considered useful.

Best bait is apple cider vinegar or white wine.

And here's info from Oregon
http://spottedwing.org/node/5334/398?tid[]=443&tid_1[]=423

Here is a link that might be useful: info re SWD from ORegon State University

More helpful info on the search page at MSU
http://www.ipm.msu.edu/pages/search_results?query=swd+identification

Here is a link that might be useful: SWD at MSU

A blackberry infected with these fruit flies will typically have a punctured drupelets and will emit some juice when handling. Often the stem end of the berry softens earlier and a fly larva can be seen in the top of the berry where the stem was attached.

There may be some salt water recipe/timing info in the above links. It is the standard test for berries to see is fly larvae are present.

Some farmer's markets out here post a warning that various fruit may be infested. If the place you used did not post a notice, I would think a refund is due, if you still have any evidence around.

Freezing the berries will drive most of the larger larva to the surface of the berry where they can be brushed / rinsed off before thawing.

You could try this: place berries in ice water to which salt has been added. Wormy berries should fall to the bottom. You can then scoop off the berries on the top. I did this with red raspberries last season --don't know if this will work for blackberries.

Ice water (two trays of ice cubes) and salt is my standard procedure for outting the critters. Works for broccoli and leafy vegetables too.

SWD is a new, horrible invader of berries here in Michigan. Sigh.

This means you're throwing out all of the jam? Will the cooked larvae hurt you?

I'm going to talk to the growers of these berries and ask for a refund. They have a winery and blackberry farm a mile or so from our house.

There was one suggestion here to scrape off the maggots after I take them out of the freezer because "Freezing the berries will drive most of the larger larva to the surface of the berry where they can be brushed / rinsed off before thawing." It sounds like a reasonable idea, but I don't have the stomach to eat jam that has had maggots swimming in it. I doubt if my husband will either.

I wanted to give away some of the jam as a gift. Some gift that would make. I took a good look at all the jam jars and I can clearly see little white things about the size of a piece of rice distributed all through the jam. Yick! Yes, all 12 jars of jam are going to get tossed out. And I'll throw out four quarts of frozen berries. I wish I had a tougher attitude about it, but it's plain gross to think about eating them.

Oh summerstar, that is truly horrible, you deserve a refund and the 'pick your own' farm gets a jar of blackberry jam! Disgusting. Sorry about that.

You wanted organic. I don't know if there's an organic way to control these guys. My neighbor puts out the vinegar traps and traps a lot, but there's still plenty in the berries. I assume mine are the same. I just scarf 'em down without worrying about it. The berries seem fine in every respect.
[gratuitous protein jokes deleted]

There are organic-approved sprays, such as Spinosad, for commercial and home use.

Vinegar traps do work well, but I wonder if they attract more flies to the berry patch than they kill.

Most jelly-making processes use a fine mesh for filtering, and this will keep the larva out of the finished product, although it is an extra step and not as easy as making jam.

Making puree or juice using a slow-speed auger-type juicer also removes larva from the finished product.

All of this maggot talk also applies to cherries and blueberries in many regions.

And in my berry patch, an infestation of fruit flies is quite obvious, as it would be in a U-pick field, unless the picking were done in very cool temperatures.

This post was edited by larry_gene on Tue, Jul 30, 13 at 0:55

How does a low speed auger remove larvae? are the bodies of these worms hard enough not to just smush?

As I understand it, the auger keeps most solids behind,..you'll harvest some worm juice.

With the right settings and aperture parts, anything remotely solid / smallish gets ejected. Two-thirds of the berry mass passes through, only one-third (juice) is kept. The device merely mushes the berries, rather than the fine high-speed cutting done by other types of juicers. Note that summerstar's hand-mashed jelly kept the worms intact. And I don't expect the auger process to be perfect.
----------------------------

There was a posting in another thread of commercial fields being sprayed for flies while pickers were close by. So adult flies might be suppressed and not noticeable in that case; any lapse in the spraying program would result in wormy berries. It looks like summerstar ran into quite an infestation.

larry_gene,

Making puree or juice using a slow-speed auger-type juicer

What brand of juicer are you talking about?

Well folks I made a trip back to the berry farm and received a refund which was some consolation. I was surprised the owner told me they hadn't checked the area where HD and I picked.

I gave them the information about the organic "Spinosad" spray and a link to this posting. The owner told me that "berry picking isn't that large a part of their business". That comment tells me they aren't interested into even investigating or verifying the problem.

They also make blackberry wine so any worms will find their way their product. I got the distinct impression they didn't give a hoot about the matter. I won't return to this farm.

I'm sad for your wasted effort but at least you realized before someone else opened your homemade jam. (And just forget about even thinking of picking them out, ugh!!!)

milehighgirl, Omega brand juicer, and there are others.

Glad that summerstar got a refund.

Perhaps the wine will be sold as "Blackberry Mezcal".

Summerstar. And. . . tell all of your friends where NOT to pick blackberries. Lack of customers just might change his mind and he just might to spray. Glad you got a refund. I make jam and it takes hours. Can you grow your own blackberries?

Uh-oh, I checked on our wild blackberries today, more ripening in the shade so they're not dried up like the ones in sun (it's been dry all of July after monsoons in June). I saw lots of tiny "fruit flies" around a few. Will duct tape work on capturing some so I can look under a microscope to see if this is the SWD?

It's 1/4 mile from my house, Killarney raspberries are done, Encore almost done but I have a primocane fruiting variety just flowering now and my Triple Crown are just ripening. Should I cover the TC with old sheer curtains (currently on the blueberries to protect from birds, but they're almost done)?

Looking through a microscope is fun, but not needed to identify SWD. These are caramel-colored and a little larger than many of the darkish fruit flies that feed on spoiled fruit. The key feature is one dark spot on each male forewing--easily seen by the naked eye. Females have no spot.

I don't think they are attracted to sticky tapes; easily trapped by putting 1/8 - 3/16"holes in a small enclosed plastic container and fill partially with apple cider vinegar, regular vinegar likely works too. Place the trap in a shaded area of the berry patch near ripe fruit.

The curtain thing might work if done very securely. After all, they get into the small holes of the vinegar trap.

According to university research trials, regular vinegar is a far less attractive bait than cider vinegar.

Can also use white wine.

Thanks - I did a lot of reading that night and yesterday, looks like sugar/yeast/water trap might be more attractive than cider vinegar, so I'm going to try that. Should have made the traps yesterday when it was sunny but I went to store for some groceries and also looked for drink cups with lids - no luck. So I'll use what clear plastic deli containers I have (I have lots of quart yogurt containers but would have to get some red on them to be attractive?).

Also contacted state lab to see if any had been reported here this year, I heard they were later last year.

HEY Larry Gene!!

Will the apple cider vinegar/or regular vinegar poured into a small plastic container with the specified size holes work for regular fruit flies?! Every summer the annoying little pests are in my kitchen. I've been spending $8-$9 for fruit fly traps and think they're really overpriced! Please post back.

I've put up plastic bags and punch a bunch of small holes into
it, put left over fruit in, like banana peels apple etc. works very good.

No need for the color red on a trap.

summerstar, Jean's research showed apple cider vinegar to be more potent for this purpose. It would certainly work well in the kitchen, as long as you don't mind a slight scent of vinegar there. The other trap ingredient is liquid unscented soap, a few drops on the vinegar and the flies drown because the vinegar surface tension is broken by the soap.

Yesterday my son ran into my room telling me that he found a small white worm thing while he got out of the shower is that a maggot or not and can maggots go into live human bodies? cause im kind of getting scared and i dont know what to do!

Don't be scared,..it doesn't happen.

Can you show us a picture?

I'm in the medical field. We still at times still use fly maggots. They are great! They only eat dead tissue! Very safe! Used to remove gangrenous tissue on bad wounds that keep getting infected. Well it's rare to see, but a great method. I bet the worm/larvae dropped on him from a tree. Do you have a lot of trees around?
Konrad is right, it's not a big deal.

Jimsta,

I'm a little unclear what you mean in your post. Drew and Konrad are correct. The type of larva which affect fruits would be completely destroyed by stomach acid.

However, if you suspect the larva "came out" of your son while in the shower, he may well have an internal parasite. In that case, you would want to have him checked.

Again fruit worms are harmless to humans, but if a worm came from inside your son, it would be a parasitic worm and you'd want to have him checked out.

Jimsta2134,

I have occasionally found little white maggots in my house too. In my case they are the larvae of Indian Meal moths. I put traps up but occasionally they will still breed. They can put an egg in the smallest of places such as behind a crack in a cabinet or even in the corner of a room up against a ceiling.

I now keep all my nuts and seeds in the freezer and I deep freeze sealed containers of flour for a couple of weeks (probably over-kill) so that any eggs are killed. I have brought home eggs in sealed containers and they will live for several generations that way.

If you have moths flying around or weevils in your food this may be the source of the maggot.

Here is a link that might be useful: Indian Meal Moth

Can you spray for them? Mine are just turning black. I saw something like fruit flys buzzing around.

Its 1/4 of a cup of salt per 1 gallon of Ice water and let sit for 10 mins. As far as a refund good luck with that, all blackberry trees and bushes have the white worms in them. as for me, if I made fresh jam and found that the white worms some how made it through the high heat that is needed to actually make jam ( i would think that they would of dissolved), before throwing all that money down the drain, you could of just strained the jam through cheese cloth, it would of been more of a jelly from that point by at least there wouldn't be any worms.

I have been picking wild blackberries for years with my daughter and the best way to get the larvae out is 1cup of salt and 2 litres of ice cold water normally we put the water into the freezer before we go collecting the. Berries so when we return home about 90 mins later it's perfect pour the salt over the berries and then the water leave to stand for 20 minutes and the worms come out of the berries on their own just rinse under tap water dry and their good to go in jams/pies or freeze for later in the year

I have organic, tame blackberries in my yard. This is the fifth year that I've raised them and I also have this problem. My mother in law gave me the plants because she has raised them for years and years. She sprays her blackberries with some chemical to prevent these bugs but she still has the worms in her fruit too. I always put my berries in a bowl of water and soak them for a long time. After soaking, I rinse them one by one which is a huge pain but it's been very effective for me. I am wondering if I sprayed my plants with organic BT if it would help!? I used it on my brussel sprouts for cabbage worms and the results amazed me. If anyone has tried this, please let me know!

Bt is only useful against caterpillars (such as cabbage worm). It will have no effect on (fruit) flies.

For me, the worst part of SWD is that they make the blackberries taste bad. Last year I at least got half of a crop before they struck, and the berries were delicious. I was willing to live with that, but this year they struck at the beginning of July and got all of them. I don't even care about eating the tiny worms, but the berries taste nasty. The worms must suck out all of the sweetness. I'm willing to spray a little bit but SWD is just too much of a battle for me.

Spinosad is the last organic spray that resistance has not been built up by big business mass producing

/ mass spraying organic produce. It is harsh by my standards as you cannot eat the food for three days after application and it has moderate residual meaning it is hard to rinse off. The limit is three applications per year according to federal regulations. It is on 99% of produce sold as domestic organic and in excess of three applications as it must be reapplied every 3 to 5 days.

I recommend bifenture, a dervative of an earlier organic mild spray but classified as conventional. Food can be consumed after 1 day and it rinses off with rain due to low residual.

Organic died when big business started mass spraying to increase supply to meet demand. Many conventional sprays are milder that organic. Many are not. Got to know your farmer. Can't trust the stores because organic now is not what organic was. All the sprays are made in labratories and what matters is days until the food can be eaten and residual level. Range is 4 hours to 42 days. Look for 1 day or less using IPM techniques taught by Cornell for over 30 years and always followed by the good farmers you see at many farmers markets. Oh, and what do many infested organic farms do? Freeze the food and sell it to unsuspecting customers as organic. Notice the off taste? There you go! That includes the frozen at your grocery store.

Why not try washing your blackberries in a diluted solution of potassium permaganate (Condy's Crystal)?

Add a pinch of PP to a bowl of water, a little goes a long way, and it will turn the water light pink - purpish colour. I have watered and sprayed my blueberry plants with Diluted PP solution to get rid off worms, ants and powdery dews in/on my blueberry plants.

I have read online that people also wash their veggies and fruits with PP solution before cooking and consuming.

Check this. http://www.smh.com.au/comment/column-8/column-8-20090413-a4qy.html

I don't see any citations that PP spraying will deter the SWD flies from puncturing and laying eggs in the fruit.

Hi Logician.

I was just suggesting to OP - to maybe try washing the blackberries in diluted PP water to disinfect the berries before consuming.

I haven't got a clue on what PP will do to those fly-larvae by spraying them but It wouldn't hurt to try it out. Maybe it'll get kill them or maybe it won't.

Speaking from personal experience, spraying my plants with a weak solution of PP for a few consecutive days did get rid off powder mildew on my blueberry canes. It also got rid off earth worms and beetle grubs in my potted blueberries. I learnt of using PP from other gardeners on online forums - with no scientific studies or backups, just a bunch of home remedies suggested by online strangers. I was afraid to spray and water my plants with PP at first - thinking it might kill my blueberries. Thankfully, it didn't, PP is now my go to remedy for all ailments and treatments.

I know that I shouldn't be suggesting anything without enough solid evidence and scientific backups, as it potentially could be dangerous and risky for others thinking of trying it out. PP is relatively safe as it's being used for soaking in bath. Also, it didn't harm my plants.

Here's the deal, unless you buy blackberries that are grown under a greenhouse, and even them it's still possible, most will have maggots (fruit fly type). And we've been eating them picked in the wild forever and nothing happens, so I wouldn't fret like someone mentioned above. Just do the salt water or fridge trick if you must and live with the result. I just ate some with my kids that I had simple let sit in water a few minutes and that caused some to come out, and true it's bothersome when you see the little boogers coming out of the fruit, but I lived in the past (wormless too) when I didn't see them and can only think I'll live afterwards even though I saw them this time.

I think it's better to not know (but it's true, there's food and something will try to eat it), but accept it's always been this way..you just didn't notice.

Some people will tolerate eating a few fruit fly larvae; the main problem with heavier SWD infestation is getting any harvest at all. Small infestations can become large the next year. The most sought-after remedies are to reliably prevent the adult fly puncturing the fruit.

I picked gallons of Blackberries this summer - was annoyed @ the little white worms- I rinsed the blackberries very well and was able to get a lot of the worms to come to the service where I was able to rinse and strain them away- all I made was Blackberry pies - about 10 of them - they were cooked in the oven at 450 for 20 minutes and then 375 for 15 minutes -they came out boiling/bubbling hot -there's no way any worms would be left alive after that, but they are very disturbing to see - I was surprised how many I found in the berries- I hope it's just a little extra protein in my diet and not harmful to my health.

People eat much larger insects all over the planet. So those little worms are not harmful to your health. Eating all 10 pies might be ;>)

The 10 pies were cooked over several months as I picked Blackberries all summer long. I took them to several private parties, potlucks and neighbors houses, friends and family. They were a big hit and always consumed by all. No one eat or made 10 pies all at once or consumed them all at once. Thats funny!!

This old thread gave me very important information as I'm a new berry grower. Thank you all. And, I already have spinosad around for my other fruit trees so I'm now well prepared.