Hi all, a lot of my maypop fruit has caterpillars in them. I most commonly see a maypop with one caterpillar that made a single straight tunnel and they seem to keep pretty close to the rind.
As a result, many of the maypops are still salvageable if I take out the fruity flesh bubbles that are touching the gross part. This isn’t as easy as cutting out the worm of an apple of course, and sometimes I make even more of a mess of it and end up throwing it out anyway.
If it were just me, I’m pretty sure I can survive an accidental bit of frass, but I’m giving this to my young children to eat on a regular basis. Should I be worried about parasites or any other nasties caterpillars might carry?
(Insect ID app says it’s a fall webworm moth. It’s definitely something quite run-of-the-mill.)
by Ms_Carradge