By Krisha Basrur
Have you ever eaten a pistachio before? It’s one of those green plumpy seeds with a hard shell that you can buy from the grocery store for a few bucks. Have you ever wondered why some pista nuts taste weird when the pistachios were freshly produced and manufactured? Well I’m afraid to tell you some of those funky-tasting nuts have a worm in them. Yes you read it right… a worm!!
Some Facts About These Creepy Crawlies
Finding worms in pista nuts are actually a common thing. The worm is known as an Navel Orangeworm, or a scientific name: Amyelois transitella. It’s an insect that feeds and pests on pistachios, almonds, nuts, and other citrus type fruits. The filthy pest received its name when it was first found in Mexico City, and later discovered in Arizona inside the navel of manufactured oranges. This first news brought great attention across the whole country!
Today, these pests are mostly found in our country, the United States and Canada. The worms that you find in those seeds are probably adult worms, which size out to about ½ inches to about 1 inch. The young worms are 13 mm to 20 mm long. Usually the younger ones are a bit light pink or sometimes peach in color, and the adults tend to be more tan or sometimes even black. They have creases on their long back, like the regular worms, and have a crescent shaped head on the front part which appears to be blood-red in color. If you see a worm up close, they are pretty fun to watch!
The Life Cycle Of Navel Orange Worms
- Larvae hatches from the eggs after a week or more than a week, usually a little bit quicker if they are in a damp environment. If you ever catch a larvae, they might appear to be white in color with a dark top, which is the head of the worm inside it.
- After spending some time in the shell, the larva develops into a greater cocoon, which means it’s time the worms change to adult moths. The pupae are seen in a dark, chocolate-brown color and it’s not really bigger than a larva.
- After the pupae break apart, they finally become adult moths. (The ones you see in fruits and nuts are the larvae or pupae, and just as I said before, they enjoy damp environments, and thus seen to be inside of a citrus fruit.)
How Do The Worms Get Inside The Nut or Citrus Fruit?
The worms that you see in your pistachios are probably the cocoon or larvae as said before.The eggs are already placed there, before the pistachio can even grow. If you do ever find a worm nesting in a pista nut, they will probably be residing in a wide open shell since it’s easier to get inside the shell. It’s rare that you will see the worm without the egg since as soon as the navel orange worm hatches it moves out of the pistachio.The moth sometimes feeds itself on the pistachio if the nut is fully grown. For us, the pistachio might be a natural, healthy snack, but for the worm, the nut is their home!
Is it safe to eat the worm or the larvae inside the pistachio?
Now let’s get to the question most of you probably are dangerous to know! Even though finding worms in pistachios is bad news, but hey, the worms themselves are safe to eat! The worms themselves aren’t poisonous, and most of the pistachio companies roast them so the worms and larvae inside would die anyway. (I know, that’s sad 😦 ) There are really slim chances of eating a live worm. Most worms found in pistachio bags are common though. You probably will find one or two worms in every three bags. One risk may be that the worms can cause mold growth, but again, the chances of finding worms with mold growth is very slim. So you don’t have to freak out!
What should I do if I find one, and how do I avoid them?
If you have a bag of pistachios right now and want to eat them, or if you will consume them in the future, just check each nut before eating them to make sure if there are worms in it or not. If you do find one or two, you can throw them away. But if you find several of these insects, first return them to the store and there is a possibility they might let you return the bag or give you a refund. You might also want to contact the company and let them know about the contamination that you found, cause the chances are there could be several defective bags of pistachios being sold to consumers, and that’s not healthy and in fact harmful. If you do forget to check, you don’t have to worry, the worms are just “extra protein” that you are receiving.
Reference Links and Websites
https://www.quora.com/What-should-I-do-if-I-find-worms-inside-my-Wonderful-Pistachios
https://www.quora.com/How-common-are-worms-in-pistachios
https://www.youtube.com/watch?app=desktop&v=rJhrQAltGSI– If you want to see how a worm looks like in a pistachio nut, here you go! The man also states some important facts and information about navel orange worms and what to do if you ever find one.
https://www.gardeningknowhow.com/plant-problems/pests/insects/navel-orangeworms-on-nuts.htm
https://www.growingproduce.com/nuts/how-to-prepare-your-pistachios-for-navel-orangeworm-season/
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