Nature
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One Twitter user has posted a video of a strawberry under a microscope, in case anybody was having a good day that needs ruining.
The rest of this article is behind a paywall. Please sign in or subscribe to access the full content.Why, you ask? Well, we don't want to spoil the surprise, but it's because of all the tiny bugs crawling around on there.
One user responded "can’t trust fruit who’s seeds are on the outside" to which we would like to reply: uh, those aren't seeds either. Maybe you are right not to trust strawberries after all.
So, what are those bugs? Well, if you're hoping the video is a fake, unfortunately, it's probably not. Or at least, it's a very good fake of a real thing. Here are some insects on another strawberry, recorded by a YouTube channel dedicated to magnifying such objects.
The videos above appear to show species of small mites that live on strawberries and their plants. You have probably eaten them, and there is no evidence out there suggesting that they are damaging to your health.
One type of mite is known as the strawberry mite, given that they live exclusively on strawberry plants, laying eggs along the veins of the leaves. The two-spotted spider mite, which can live on other plants too, like to extract nutrients from the leaves of plants close to the ground, damaging them and leaving them with a bronze tinge.
A number of other species of bugs considered pests live on various parts of strawberry plants. Some larger insects, invasive to the US, even lay their eggs inside strawberries, blueberries, and wine grapes. Spotted wing drosophilas hatch inside the strawberry before their larvae crawl out.
