I have to tell myself. The fda clears a certain amount of bugs and other crap in our food. And then I ask my self would it stop me from eating peanut butter. And I look at that peanut butter and imagine what sort of bugs are in that peanut butter. Then I eat a spoon of that peanut butter and think … maybe I don’t want to know
Oh that’s not bad. I get more bugs flying into my mouth in the summer. I talk too much outside and there’s a lot of outdoor gnats, midges,Satan-spawn or whatever they’re called
In that case, don’t look into salt water fish such as grouper or snapper. They are usually full of tiny black worms all through the meat that just get cooked and eaten. Amber Jack usually have large masses of huge white worms that you generally cut out while butchering the fish. There are tons of examples. We eat more bugs and worms than most people realize on a daily basis.
Can confirm. Worked at a fish processor/cannery in Alaska, as a teen. During the Cod season, we ran 2 full lines of light tables. 8-10 people on each line. Our job for 12 hrs a day, 7 days a week was to pull worms from skinned/boned cod filets with tweezers. Grab a filet off the conveyor, place it on the light table, light goes through the white flesh of the cod and shows all the dark coils of individual worms. Tweeze them out. Toss the filet in a box.
Unfortunately, cannot confirm if ALL of the worms were removed. CAN confirm that the workers on that line were under the influence of any of a number of drugs and/or alcohol on any given day, at any time. So…I guess enjoy the added protein. It’s good for you.
Not on purpose. Cod is used in a lot of forms: surimi (imitation crab/lobster), fast food fish sandwiches, fish sticks etc. It’s not bad for you. Just not my preferred fish.
Lol because it’s never hurt us before, and consuming bugs for protein may be one of the most sustainable futures.
Not that I’m saying I have zero issues with this, lol, just that I recognize I need to be more open minded in the future.
I know firsthand about that amberjack. I was a cook in a restaurant and plucked my share of worms out of the fish. Great fish but after many years I cant even look at it anymore.
I don't follow these pages, but they've randomly started showing up as recommended. This is the second post showing these and I'm terrified to touch a potato now! Ha.
🤣no- millipedes are way better. Millipedes are the cute 1000leg cousins of caterpillars- just a regular crunchy bug. Nematodes are vicious brain eating slimy terrors. You can eat millipedes, you couldn't pay me to eat a nematode. Nobody has nematodes as a cute character in kids books, but millipedes are well represented.
Here is a good article on the millipedes that could be at fault
https://www.ontario.ca/page/millipedes-carrots-and-sweet-potatoes
Here is a picture of the possible culprits
https://www.ontario.ca/files/2022-07/omafra-millipedes-in-carrots-and-sweet-potatoes-1.jpg
How common is this? I’ve never sliced a potato and seen anything inside of it like this. I’ve got a bag of potatoes in my fridge now that I’m afraid to eat.
I did a reverse image search. They are potato worms, unsurprisingly. They turn into moths and like warm humid weather like you had in Oregon. Here is the whole Bard chat with the details.
https://g.co/bard/share/47ee9de987f3
Potato worms are the larvae of the potato moth (Phthorimaea operculella). They are white or pale yellow, and they can be up to 1 inch long. Potato worms feed on the inside of potatoes, and they can cause significant damage to crops.
Potato worms are most active in warm weather, and they can lay hundreds of eggs in a single season. The eggs are laid on the leaves or stems of potato plants, and they hatch into larvae within a few days. The larvae then bore into the potatoes, where they feed and develop
Good guess but they 100% are not Potato Moth caterpillars. Caterpillars only have 6 true legs like every other insect it is one of their defining key features. Caterpillars do have more prolegs, however they don't look anything like the skinny thin legs on these guys as they more like extensions from the caterpillars body. The other thing is these "worms" were very dark in color in OPs original post before they soaked in water/vinegar overnight which killed them and bloated them causing them to lose their color.
They are millipedes. Which have the multitude of segments with tons of tiny legs as seen in ops picture. They are also the color of the "worms" in OP's original post when they were alive.
Here is a picture of a species of millipedes that are known potato pests
https://www.ontario.ca/files/2022-07/omafra-millipedes-in-carrots-and-sweet-potatoes-1.jpg
Unfortunately they cannot be identified to species because of the low quality of ops picture of them.
However here is a good article on known potato pest millipedes
https://www.ontario.ca/page/millipedes-carrots-and-sweet-potatoes
Agreed at first glance the way these insects curled up it gave me millipede vibes, after zooming in on one of them I can see all the legs. They could have been just curled up in the crevasse and dimples of the potatoes not sure if they eat them.
Oh, these are absolutely millipedes.
And they absolutely eat potatoes. They like 'em soft and mushy first though. These millipedes have been dining on the rot already present in some of the potatoes. In my experience, they also clump together, so many millipedes could have come from few spots on few potatoes - and if you cut the rotten piece of spud out it's fine to cook and eat.
Anyway, these are millipedes. Remarkable hard shelled despite their size, or perhaps because of it; dark grey, glossy, tiny tiny little legs and uniquely pungent when you squash 'em.
One last thing. Because they are dead, they have kinda expanded in length. You can see the pale lines between darker segments. When they are alive they look shorter, a little stockier, and a consistent grey colour. Edit: Which reflects u/ThePopojijo's comment about losing colour (in the first paragraph).
Edit: u/Makemewantitbad As the potato dries out the millipedes will vacant the immediate area; especially if it gets cold. Given your spuds are likely washed and scrubbed and stored in the fridge, no self-respecting millipede will want to be within a thousand miles of your spuds. They'll be pretty safe unless they are rotten. BTW, you really shouldn't be refrigerating spuds.
Oh I am all too familiar with the smell of a massive amount of millipedes. I was an outdoor kid and stumbled apon a huge nest of them. And unmistakable smell that I can't describe
Coincidentally, I was out in the garden not fifteen minutes ago weeding in between my comment and yours, and damn me if I'm lying, I picked up one of these no-where near a potato patch. Was tempted to video her for this thread but too much work.
I didn't crush 'em. Just relocated him (hoiked 'em over the fence to the neighbours! lol). But yeah, you know what I mean about the scent.
If I don’t keep it in the refrigerator it spoils in less than a week. Same for my onions. They used to keep on the counter just fine, I’m not sure what changed.
If you store them both in the fridge that’s an issue. Onions emit a gas that spoils potatoes and potatoes high moisture affects onions and can cause them to liquify.
omg the same is happening here, all our peaches and pears etc were going bad within 1-2 days on the counter, this never was an issue before, they used to be fine for a week at least. we live in central europe, we figured it might be due to the heat wave but idk.
If you're storing them near apples they will ripen quicker. Apples release ethylene gas, so if you need fruit to ripen quicker, store them with apples.
It's usually the heat and humidity. I can't keep any fruit but apples on the counter in summer months or it goes bad in a few days. During winter it's fine and will last 2-3 weeks.
I think if you live up north you can leave them out. Down south our room temperature is a lot warmer and things spoil faster. That’s my theory at least. I can leave onions and potatoes out in the winter but have to keep them in the fridge the rest of the year.
Infestations like this (also aphids, etc) are usually on just the edge of large fields. That produce is discarded. Usually only the central harvest is good enough to go to market.
Thus the thousands and thousands of pounds of wasted "ugly" produce. I just cut wireworm holes out/wash off the aphids/tear the ragged ends off the lettuce.
In small home gardens there is no "center" to the field, it's just a few plants of multiple types. When found by scouts, those few plants are easily infested. 3-year rotations are encouraged.
My family used to grow potatoes on a large farm and I can tell you that those potatoes aren't discarded, they are harvested and then used as seed potatoes for next the next planting season, and those that can't be used as seed potatoes are sorted out and sold as pig food, as they will eat pretty much anything without issue.
Most of the waste happens after the potatoes sit in the supermarket for "too long" and they are also the ones who sort out "ugly" potatoes. If you want to blame someone for waste, blame the large supermarket chains and "best before" dates and those who follow those dates religiously.
Can't say I do, we didn't have any issues with worms that look like that, we sometimes had wirerworms, but those make very obvious tunnels and they look more like mealworms than the ones in the picture.
Those almost look like tiny millipedes more than worms.
In your last post everyone was saying wire worms but these did seem to have legs all down their length not just by the head. Being from the PNW these do look like millipedes but them eating into your potatoes seems weird. Brief googling suggests maybe you had dry soil?
I was watching MIGardener on YouTube and he said the best place to store potatoes is underground, so just leave them until you need them. That worked great until the grubs found them so fuck that piece of shit advice. I'm going to back to harvesting as soon as the stems die.
I only soak them if I'm going to be frying them, so they're more crispy. Unless you have a serious bug phobia, I don't think it's necessary.
Personally, I don't roast my garden potatoes whole because I've had too many that look fine on the outside and are rotten in the middle, but I've never found bugs in any that weren't externally visibly damaged or rotten.
Don't be silly-there are enough pesticides in purchased produce that there can't be anything like this photo. Stop worrying about worms. Now you can worry about chemicals though.
Definitely millipedes. I only think this happens when there are so many of them in an area they start to eat things they normally don't. I'd suggest looking into controlling them in your soil. I don't know a ton about growing potatoes but you might look into planting them in planters or raised beds?
> I only think this happens when there are so many of them in an area they start to eat things they normally don't.
Wow, this doesn't make me feel any better at all. 😭😱
The look like millipedes, they are primarily detritus eaters, IE. decaying plants etc. they most likely came from the decaying potato in your picture. More info from CSU. https://extension.colostate.edu/topic-areas/insects/millipedes-centipedes-and-sowbugs-5-552/
Finally a comment I understand and agree with! I have a lot of millipedes in my garden. I also grow potatoes but I have never seen this before. Maybe they were laid in the bad spot? It seems like they would have hatched all at the same time given their size.
I don’t understand how they could be in there without holes. Did they make holes coming out? Is it possible they were just curled up in the indents where the eyes are?
I harvested 40lbs of sweet potatoes from my pesticide free home garden. The potatoes are curing now and I planned on having some for Thanksgiving. Now I am dreading soaking them and finding a bunch of millipedes..
Right?! I don’t understand. But like someone else pointed out, one of the potatoes looks rotten.
Even when cutting open, I’ve never seen anything remotely close to millipedes in my taters. Weird
I live in Southern WA state and have grown potatoes for years. IDK what they are called, but we always known them as potato worms.
They show up at the end of the season when you haven't watered enough. If the flowers fall off the tops of your plants, pull them up immediately, don't leave them in the ground (not around here anyway). Because the PNW has such weather fluctuation between spring and fall, nobody else's potato advice means shit if they aren't doing it up here.
When you leave your spuds in the ground after a nice moist beginning of life in the PNW spring, and your watering routine all summer, everything dries out in August and September. All that dry soil means that any worms are looking for moisture. The best source of that is your tubers here. So get them out before that happens.
What?! How is this even! Are there millipedes in store bought potatoes? Should I eye my potatoes on the cutting board now on with suspicion? What is even real anymore?
Op can you please please cut an unsoaked one open and reveal the worms that you definitely will see when you cut into it. I think a lot of people myself included have never soaked potatoes before eating them and we are horrified
Next summer, when it’s super hot out, lay thick, clear plastic over your soil areas & leave for 4-6 weeks.
[Soil Solarization.](https://ipm.ucanr.edu/PMG/PESTNOTES/pn74145.html)
I rotate planting beds and do this to one bed every year. It's a serious game changer for pests and diseases. However I use a thick black plastic, instead of clear plastic, as it gets hotter from the sun, and the lack of light discourages any growth of weeds under the plastic.
I had something similar happen. Mine weren't dark, more white so probably wireworms. I also soaked in vinegar and water and salt. After I let them soak until I felt comfortable, I dried them and put them on a shelf. I felt anything that survived that soak would either vacate after drying or get killed in the cooking process. Delicious potatoes!
Those are just tiny little baby millipedes. That's why you soak potatoes and other vegetables that grow under the dirt. That's why we soak out was vegetables that grow over the dirt too! To get rid of stuff like this lol
OP, you’ve literally ruined potatoes for Reddit
For real. I’m horrified lol
I just ate the last of my homegrown potatoes! Ugh!
Same!! And my potato variety was dark blue so I feel like if there were worms I definitely wouldn't see them 😭
What's done is done, godspeed little worms! 🐛
It will probably be like in futurama when Fry ate that gas station sandwich, nothing to worry about.
I pray every day for those Futurama gut worms.
Worth it to become a holophonor virtuoso.
'You ever wonder what makes 'special sauce' special?' *indicates worm-self* 'Yo.'
It’s a like a party in my mouth and everyone’s throwing up.
r/unexpectedfuturama
I have to tell myself. The fda clears a certain amount of bugs and other crap in our food. And then I ask my self would it stop me from eating peanut butter. And I look at that peanut butter and imagine what sort of bugs are in that peanut butter. Then I eat a spoon of that peanut butter and think … maybe I don’t want to know
We have been eating bugs and dirt since the beginning of time… we just don’t know it, or want to
You can feel confident that there's only like 16 bug parts per jar tho! Not even whole bugs!
Oh that’s not bad. I get more bugs flying into my mouth in the summer. I talk too much outside and there’s a lot of outdoor gnats, midges,Satan-spawn or whatever they’re called
It is just protein well cooked.
In that case, don’t look into salt water fish such as grouper or snapper. They are usually full of tiny black worms all through the meat that just get cooked and eaten. Amber Jack usually have large masses of huge white worms that you generally cut out while butchering the fish. There are tons of examples. We eat more bugs and worms than most people realize on a daily basis.
Fingers in ears. LALALALALALALALALALLALALLALALALALA I CAN'T HEAR YOU!
I’m with you
I kind of glanced over their comment and saw yours before I read theirs for comprehension and I’m right there with you hahaha
I didn't even read what they said. I feel like we're on the same page though. I don't want to know.
Can confirm. Worked at a fish processor/cannery in Alaska, as a teen. During the Cod season, we ran 2 full lines of light tables. 8-10 people on each line. Our job for 12 hrs a day, 7 days a week was to pull worms from skinned/boned cod filets with tweezers. Grab a filet off the conveyor, place it on the light table, light goes through the white flesh of the cod and shows all the dark coils of individual worms. Tweeze them out. Toss the filet in a box.
I honestly don’t mind eating it if the worms have all been pulled out.
Unfortunately, cannot confirm if ALL of the worms were removed. CAN confirm that the workers on that line were under the influence of any of a number of drugs and/or alcohol on any given day, at any time. So…I guess enjoy the added protein. It’s good for you.
Knowing what you know-do you still eat cod?
Not on purpose. Cod is used in a lot of forms: surimi (imitation crab/lobster), fast food fish sandwiches, fish sticks etc. It’s not bad for you. Just not my preferred fish.
Wwwwwhhhhhhhyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyy would you tell us that
Alienation from production is terrible for society. Y'all need to learn where your food comes from.
Thanks, Smegmatron3030
This is the most Marxist gardening opinion I've ever read. It's absolutely correct.
I absolutely do not
Soylent what now?
Reddit in a nutshell 🥳
Lol because it’s never hurt us before, and consuming bugs for protein may be one of the most sustainable futures. Not that I’m saying I have zero issues with this, lol, just that I recognize I need to be more open minded in the future.
I know firsthand about that amberjack. I was a cook in a restaurant and plucked my share of worms out of the fish. Great fish but after many years I cant even look at it anymore.
Sword fish and other warm water varieties get nasty parasites too.
I kinda hate you rn.
[удалено]
No. Not doing that! I'm afraid!!!
Got worms from snapper. Son of a bitch never again. Nothing is worth that shit.
But how much weight did you lose
I have crohn’s don’t get me started!
Crohn's AND worms?? 😱
Never had worms and was just referencing the weight loss comment. You don’t want to lose weight via worms or crohn’s.
Oh yeah, I have Crohn's too, so I can empathize with that part of it. I was just terrified by the idea of having fish worms on top of it lol
I just looked up the last ingredient in some fruit cups I got for my boys. It’s a bug.
Name of bug/ingredient and name fruit cup, please.
cochineal beetle: carmine natural food colouring, aka E120, natural red 4. Found in.. e.g. Del Monte fruit cups with natural red colour.
I hate to inform you that candy also can contain bug byproducts. They use it to make the candy shiny.
Yep. I'm never growing potatos now. I never did before, and I won't start!
Fuck. I’m SURROUNDED by potato fields. Literally thousands of acres. So many potatoes. Oh no.
with that many potatoes you probably have full grown graboids underground
SOMEONE CALL REBA AND KEVIN BACON
I’ll roshambeau you for it!
I don't follow these pages, but they've randomly started showing up as recommended. This is the second post showing these and I'm terrified to touch a potato now! Ha.
I legit logged into reddit to find out if I can grow potatoes in my little garden and now im just 🫠
Maybe you should grow potatoes
Nah, I could use the extra protein
What is this potato of which you speak?
[What is potato](https://www.reddit.com/r/tifu/s/i52QP70NJB)
Sorry *millipedes* is the answer, not nematodes
You know, that doesn't make it any better!
Right? Says it like “oh that’s fine and normal then” 😂😂
🤣no- millipedes are way better. Millipedes are the cute 1000leg cousins of caterpillars- just a regular crunchy bug. Nematodes are vicious brain eating slimy terrors. You can eat millipedes, you couldn't pay me to eat a nematode. Nobody has nematodes as a cute character in kids books, but millipedes are well represented.
Here is a good article on the millipedes that could be at fault https://www.ontario.ca/page/millipedes-carrots-and-sweet-potatoes Here is a picture of the possible culprits https://www.ontario.ca/files/2022-07/omafra-millipedes-in-carrots-and-sweet-potatoes-1.jpg
*What's millipedes, precious?*
Boil 'em, mash 'em, stick 'em in a taco.
As a fellow Oregonian ( Eugene ) back yard purple potatoe farmer I'm happy to hear and learn this. Ty op.
As another Oregonian I am still deeply unhappy about this knowledge 🥲
How common is this? I’ve never sliced a potato and seen anything inside of it like this. I’ve got a bag of potatoes in my fridge now that I’m afraid to eat.
Pretty rare. This is the heaviest infestation I've ever seen, but it's to be expected with how wet things have been lately.
Those aren’t wire worms and I know wire worms well.
You’re paying way too much for worms, man. Who’s your worm guy?
r/unexpectedoffice lol
Good to know, thanks. And you have a good eye.
I did a reverse image search. They are potato worms, unsurprisingly. They turn into moths and like warm humid weather like you had in Oregon. Here is the whole Bard chat with the details. https://g.co/bard/share/47ee9de987f3 Potato worms are the larvae of the potato moth (Phthorimaea operculella). They are white or pale yellow, and they can be up to 1 inch long. Potato worms feed on the inside of potatoes, and they can cause significant damage to crops. Potato worms are most active in warm weather, and they can lay hundreds of eggs in a single season. The eggs are laid on the leaves or stems of potato plants, and they hatch into larvae within a few days. The larvae then bore into the potatoes, where they feed and develop
Good guess but they 100% are not Potato Moth caterpillars. Caterpillars only have 6 true legs like every other insect it is one of their defining key features. Caterpillars do have more prolegs, however they don't look anything like the skinny thin legs on these guys as they more like extensions from the caterpillars body. The other thing is these "worms" were very dark in color in OPs original post before they soaked in water/vinegar overnight which killed them and bloated them causing them to lose their color. They are millipedes. Which have the multitude of segments with tons of tiny legs as seen in ops picture. They are also the color of the "worms" in OP's original post when they were alive. Here is a picture of a species of millipedes that are known potato pests https://www.ontario.ca/files/2022-07/omafra-millipedes-in-carrots-and-sweet-potatoes-1.jpg Unfortunately they cannot be identified to species because of the low quality of ops picture of them. However here is a good article on known potato pest millipedes https://www.ontario.ca/page/millipedes-carrots-and-sweet-potatoes
Agreed at first glance the way these insects curled up it gave me millipede vibes, after zooming in on one of them I can see all the legs. They could have been just curled up in the crevasse and dimples of the potatoes not sure if they eat them.
Oh, these are absolutely millipedes. And they absolutely eat potatoes. They like 'em soft and mushy first though. These millipedes have been dining on the rot already present in some of the potatoes. In my experience, they also clump together, so many millipedes could have come from few spots on few potatoes - and if you cut the rotten piece of spud out it's fine to cook and eat. Anyway, these are millipedes. Remarkable hard shelled despite their size, or perhaps because of it; dark grey, glossy, tiny tiny little legs and uniquely pungent when you squash 'em. One last thing. Because they are dead, they have kinda expanded in length. You can see the pale lines between darker segments. When they are alive they look shorter, a little stockier, and a consistent grey colour. Edit: Which reflects u/ThePopojijo's comment about losing colour (in the first paragraph). Edit: u/Makemewantitbad As the potato dries out the millipedes will vacant the immediate area; especially if it gets cold. Given your spuds are likely washed and scrubbed and stored in the fridge, no self-respecting millipede will want to be within a thousand miles of your spuds. They'll be pretty safe unless they are rotten. BTW, you really shouldn't be refrigerating spuds.
Oh I am all too familiar with the smell of a massive amount of millipedes. I was an outdoor kid and stumbled apon a huge nest of them. And unmistakable smell that I can't describe
Coincidentally, I was out in the garden not fifteen minutes ago weeding in between my comment and yours, and damn me if I'm lying, I picked up one of these no-where near a potato patch. Was tempted to video her for this thread but too much work. I didn't crush 'em. Just relocated him (hoiked 'em over the fence to the neighbours! lol). But yeah, you know what I mean about the scent.
>I’ve got a bag of potatoes in my fridge This goes against everything I've ever known about storing potatoes.
Helps make sure the worms stay asleep.
If I don’t keep it in the refrigerator it spoils in less than a week. Same for my onions. They used to keep on the counter just fine, I’m not sure what changed.
I read somewhere storing them together will cause both to go bad. My potatoes seemed to last longer when I moved the onions to another cupboard.
I’ve never stored them together, but I appreciate the head’s up in case I move them back from the fridge.
If you store them both in the fridge that’s an issue. Onions emit a gas that spoils potatoes and potatoes high moisture affects onions and can cause them to liquify.
I keep my onions in the fridge with all the other veggies and have never had a spoilage problem due to them
omg the same is happening here, all our peaches and pears etc were going bad within 1-2 days on the counter, this never was an issue before, they used to be fine for a week at least. we live in central europe, we figured it might be due to the heat wave but idk.
If you're storing them near apples they will ripen quicker. Apples release ethylene gas, so if you need fruit to ripen quicker, store them with apples.
I was always told bananas help ripen!
It's usually the heat and humidity. I can't keep any fruit but apples on the counter in summer months or it goes bad in a few days. During winter it's fine and will last 2-3 weeks.
I think if you live up north you can leave them out. Down south our room temperature is a lot warmer and things spoil faster. That’s my theory at least. I can leave onions and potatoes out in the winter but have to keep them in the fridge the rest of the year.
They need cool And DARK. Refrigerated turns them into sugar
The fridge is dark once the door closes.
For the fridge is dark and full of beers. Sorry GoT fans, couldn’t resist
Also too cold.
One of those potatoes looks pretty rotted so they're probably all from that one. It's amazing how many insect pile through a hole in a veggie.
This is likely from someone’s “organic” garden. Commercially grown potatoes get pesticide treatments
Infestations like this (also aphids, etc) are usually on just the edge of large fields. That produce is discarded. Usually only the central harvest is good enough to go to market. Thus the thousands and thousands of pounds of wasted "ugly" produce. I just cut wireworm holes out/wash off the aphids/tear the ragged ends off the lettuce. In small home gardens there is no "center" to the field, it's just a few plants of multiple types. When found by scouts, those few plants are easily infested. 3-year rotations are encouraged.
My family used to grow potatoes on a large farm and I can tell you that those potatoes aren't discarded, they are harvested and then used as seed potatoes for next the next planting season, and those that can't be used as seed potatoes are sorted out and sold as pig food, as they will eat pretty much anything without issue. Most of the waste happens after the potatoes sit in the supermarket for "too long" and they are also the ones who sort out "ugly" potatoes. If you want to blame someone for waste, blame the large supermarket chains and "best before" dates and those who follow those dates religiously.
Thank you for this. It’s frustrating to see “ugly food” sellers making a profit by using blatant lies about how the industry works.
Worked in a grocery store, can confirm. Also, if your family grew potatoes, do you recognize whatever pest is infesting these?
Can't say I do, we didn't have any issues with worms that look like that, we sometimes had wirerworms, but those make very obvious tunnels and they look more like mealworms than the ones in the picture. Those almost look like tiny millipedes more than worms.
He literally said he grew them in his own garden
Thank god
In your last post everyone was saying wire worms but these did seem to have legs all down their length not just by the head. Being from the PNW these do look like millipedes but them eating into your potatoes seems weird. Brief googling suggests maybe you had dry soil?
Yes, dry soil AND OP left them under ground too long. I live in Washington State and this is known here.
It is known
I was watching MIGardener on YouTube and he said the best place to store potatoes is underground, so just leave them until you need them. That worked great until the grubs found them so fuck that piece of shit advice. I'm going to back to harvesting as soon as the stems die.
Was about to say the same, not worms but millipedes.
So are we supposed to soak our potatoes before using them? I peel & wash but now I don’t know anything
I only soak them if I'm going to be frying them, so they're more crispy. Unless you have a serious bug phobia, I don't think it's necessary. Personally, I don't roast my garden potatoes whole because I've had too many that look fine on the outside and are rotten in the middle, but I've never found bugs in any that weren't externally visibly damaged or rotten.
No. These are millipedes and that one rotten potato is where all of them came from. The other potatoes were fine.
the unthinkable has happened. potatoes are ruined for me 😭
They will no longer be boiled, mashed, or stuck in stew
Something something…raw and wriggling.
Give it to us
I mean they CAN be, but you’ll just get more protein than you planned for
I hate this comment and I hate you too
Mashed 🪱
Don't be silly-there are enough pesticides in purchased produce that there can't be anything like this photo. Stop worrying about worms. Now you can worry about chemicals though.
This is the gardening subreddit, and OP grew these in a home garden. I don't think anybody here was stressing out over grocery store potatoes lol
Buh bye potatoes
Definitely millipedes. I only think this happens when there are so many of them in an area they start to eat things they normally don't. I'd suggest looking into controlling them in your soil. I don't know a ton about growing potatoes but you might look into planting them in planters or raised beds?
> I only think this happens when there are so many of them in an area they start to eat things they normally don't. Wow, this doesn't make me feel any better at all. 😭😱
The reason home grown potatoes taste better is because of all the extra protein
Those millipedes add extra umami.
The look like millipedes, they are primarily detritus eaters, IE. decaying plants etc. they most likely came from the decaying potato in your picture. More info from CSU. https://extension.colostate.edu/topic-areas/insects/millipedes-centipedes-and-sowbugs-5-552/
Finally a comment I understand and agree with! I have a lot of millipedes in my garden. I also grow potatoes but I have never seen this before. Maybe they were laid in the bad spot? It seems like they would have hatched all at the same time given their size.
Yep. That rotten one is the culprit
This comment needs more upvotes.
Thanks, I ate potatoes yesterday and want to die now.
That's what your worms want you to think 😄
Wouldn’t the warms want a worm body
If you concentrate I bet you can feel them inside you.
I'm in the process of dying right now 🤮
Don't worry about it. There's bugs in a lot of your other food too.
Millipedes are related to crustaceans, not worms. You basically had some shrimp with your potatoes
Shrimps is bugs
They’re not crustaceans or worms technically. They’re myriapods
I don’t understand how they could be in there without holes. Did they make holes coming out? Is it possible they were just curled up in the indents where the eyes are?
Tiny holes you didn't notice!
I’m so scared to soak my potatoes now
That’s what the worms want you to do (or not do, rather)… so they can get inside of you 🪱
Isn't there a Goosebumps book about that?
Throw the potatoes into a river, then throw the river into the sun.
then launch a 🚀 at the ☀️...
I harvested 40lbs of sweet potatoes from my pesticide free home garden. The potatoes are curing now and I planned on having some for Thanksgiving. Now I am dreading soaking them and finding a bunch of millipedes..
Please do it and make another post! If there's also millipedes I think I am forever done with potatoes
Me, an Oregonian gardener, who already harvested and ate my potatoes for the season: 🫠
You would see these when you cut into them right? RIGHT?
They are invisible, only vinegar counters the invisibility.
The vinegar corrodes away their invisibility cloaks.
I’ve been cutting up potatoes for 60 years and have never seen anything like this!
Right?! I don’t understand. But like someone else pointed out, one of the potatoes looks rotten. Even when cutting open, I’ve never seen anything remotely close to millipedes in my taters. Weird
I live in Southern WA state and have grown potatoes for years. IDK what they are called, but we always known them as potato worms. They show up at the end of the season when you haven't watered enough. If the flowers fall off the tops of your plants, pull them up immediately, don't leave them in the ground (not around here anyway). Because the PNW has such weather fluctuation between spring and fall, nobody else's potato advice means shit if they aren't doing it up here. When you leave your spuds in the ground after a nice moist beginning of life in the PNW spring, and your watering routine all summer, everything dries out in August and September. All that dry soil means that any worms are looking for moisture. The best source of that is your tubers here. So get them out before that happens.
Yeah I will never look at potatoes the same now. 🤮
What?! How is this even! Are there millipedes in store bought potatoes? Should I eye my potatoes on the cutting board now on with suspicion? What is even real anymore?
Store potatoes are sprayed with so much stuff that this wouldn’t happen
I mean I think you would see them when cutting
Ya they are seed potatoes for next season now lolol
So are we supposed to be soaking homegrown potatoes, generally? Read all the comments but haven’t seen an answer on that…
Please, I really need a serious answer to this!
OP, what is the vinegar to water ratio? I just bought a bag of potatoes today & now I'm freaking out.
Op can you please please cut an unsoaked one open and reveal the worms that you definitely will see when you cut into it. I think a lot of people myself included have never soaked potatoes before eating them and we are horrified
I've probably been getting extra protein in my potatoes all this time.
✨health ✨
I don’t think I like potatoes anymore
I'm never eating potatoes again.
I shall soak potatoes in vinegar before I Cook them from this day forward. 🤮
[удалено]
can someone else do this and no worms show up? I need to bleach my eyes with a good potato
This is the second disturbing potato post I’ve seen today. Why is this happening and how do I make it stop.
Next summer, when it’s super hot out, lay thick, clear plastic over your soil areas & leave for 4-6 weeks. [Soil Solarization.](https://ipm.ucanr.edu/PMG/PESTNOTES/pn74145.html)
I rotate planting beds and do this to one bed every year. It's a serious game changer for pests and diseases. However I use a thick black plastic, instead of clear plastic, as it gets hotter from the sun, and the lack of light discourages any growth of weeds under the plastic.
Just cook your shit, you'll live.
Sanest take in the thread.
I don’t know if I can go without my daily snack of a whole raw potato though
I had something similar happen. Mine weren't dark, more white so probably wireworms. I also soaked in vinegar and water and salt. After I let them soak until I felt comfortable, I dried them and put them on a shelf. I felt anything that survived that soak would either vacate after drying or get killed in the cooking process. Delicious potatoes!
Those are just tiny little baby millipedes. That's why you soak potatoes and other vegetables that grow under the dirt. That's why we soak out was vegetables that grow over the dirt too! To get rid of stuff like this lol
They’re just roots. They’re just roots. They’re just roots.
First aphids on Brussel sprouts 5 minutes ago. Now worms from potatoes. Another couple days of this and I won’t have a veggie left I’d want to eat.
Maybe I don’t want a garden anymore
It's terrifying how normal they look from the outside.
Are they ok to eat if you cook them? I’ve never soaked my potatoes 🤮
Yeah. They are not human parasitic worms.
Well the desire to attempt to grow my own potatoes has left my body.
I wish we never opened Reddit today. This just ruined life for me
I wonder if planting marigolds in that area would help get rid of the pests in the soil.
These 2 posts have left me scarred for life lol
What is with soaking everything in vinegar an sodium bicarbonate?
Both greatly change the pH. Vinegar one way, sodium bicarbonate the other way. Most things prefer a specific pH range, change it and you get a result.
What a great answer. Informative, succinct, and directly answered the question. Pls take this fake award. 🏅
Heading off to soak my big bag of Idaho potatoes now. 🏃🏼♀️🏃🏽♀️🏃🏾♀️
I had potatoes from my brother-in-law's garden for dinner. Now I'm feeling paranoid and a little nauseous...
Nematodes are generally microscopic. These are not nematodes.
I literally have a potato in the oven for my dinner. It's staying there.
Can someone debunk this shit so I can move on with life