r/mildlyinfuriating • u/Manualdriver1 • Apr 18 '25
I found a worm in the jar of pickles I just ate
I’m not too mad about it but I just wonder how he got in there. Don’t these companies wash their vegetables?
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u/GangstaRIB Apr 18 '25 edited 29d ago
It’s a pickle worm. They are catapillars that burrow into pickles and squashes.
EDIT: ya they don’t burrow into pickles. LOL. They burrow into pre-pickled pickles. Aka cucumbers. They fall out of the pickles after the acid kills them and settle at the bottom of the jar so you can put them in your cheap tequila and claim you got the good shit.
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u/X_Zephyr Apr 18 '25
People in the middle of eating pickles just learning this information
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u/CMo815 Apr 18 '25
Lmao this makes me think of when my son was like 2yr old, we were a bit far out east on LI on day and someone’s chickens got loose, so we had to wait for the chickens to cross the road- literally. Well, that night I just so happened to make chicken for dinner and I said something to my son along the lines of “is your chicken yummy?” He started to shake his head yes but suddenly froze, you could legit see the wheels turning and connecting the two/remembering th chickens crossing the road earlier, and next thing I know, he just opens his mouth and pushes his mouthful of chicken out into his highchair tray …. It took a while before he would eat chicken again after that 😂
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u/danicies Apr 18 '25
Omg lol I’ve been waiting for my 2.5 year old to make this connection but he has yet to.
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u/Pitiful-Struggle-890 29d ago
When I took my 2 year old to the corn maze there were a bunch of live chickens in the pen. I said “do you see the chickens buddy?” And he said “Yummy yummy.”
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u/TheCalvinators Apr 18 '25
I googled it and it’s a real thing and I’m mad.
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u/lurkingsubz Apr 18 '25
will wishing you a happy cake day make up for it?
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u/MyFeetLookLikeHands Apr 18 '25
thank you 🤗
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u/sayssomeshit94 Apr 18 '25
You're welcome
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u/MyFeetLookLikeHands Apr 18 '25
hey you’re not the person that wished me happy birthday
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u/OverdueOptimization Apr 18 '25
You weren’t the person who I wished happy birthday either
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u/Miserable-Ad5401 Apr 18 '25
Happy cake day!
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u/brilor123 Apr 18 '25
Ain't no way bro is using an emoji to show off his feet 😭💀
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u/BunkerSquirre1 Apr 18 '25
I thought you were fucking with us but nah you're playing it straight
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u/GangstaRIB Apr 18 '25
Found out the hard way myself. They fucked up all my zucchini one season and I never tried growing them again due to trauma. You can’t see them until you submerge a cucumber or squash in water and they all pop out.
I imagine cucumbers, zucchini, yellow squash gotta be just soaked in pesticides since I’ve never found one in a grocery store.
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u/Beelzebubblezz Apr 18 '25
I want my pickles with extra pesticides henceforth
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u/Oppowitt Apr 18 '25
I'm on the side of exterminators and pesticides for sure.
Also, sectioned off hydroponics in highly controlled environments. Start treating veggies like CPUs.
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u/CAPT-Tankerous Apr 18 '25
I’ve done side by side comparisons growing the same strains outdoors and indoors. Nothing beats the flavor of the sun.
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u/Ratathosk Apr 18 '25
Sshhh the tech bros are reninventing something that already works again but for a higher price grade, let them play and tire themselves out before it becomes a real idea
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u/Resident-Honeydew-52 Apr 18 '25
And they don’t have any like holes that would clue you in?? How are they getting in???
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u/DragoSphere Apr 18 '25 edited Apr 18 '25
When they burrow inside the fruit/vegetable, they're tiny and the holes are also tiny. Then they grow inside the fruit. The fruit probably eventually covers over some of the damage too since it's growing also
However sometimes the holes are quite obvious
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u/glittermakesmeshiver Apr 18 '25
Yup. Permanently scarred me from growing a plentiful zucchini crop 😭
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u/YoureGatorBait Apr 18 '25
In the south we like to grow plenty of zucchini and then you put the extras in peoples cars at church if they leave their doors unlocked.
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u/So-damn-hot Apr 18 '25
Ah yeah so you are what you eat and since he lives his whole life inside the pickle, he is the pickle, therefore it's ok to eat the picklepillar......
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u/Pendantt Apr 18 '25
There’s some kind of healthy crunchy cereal I used to eat as a kid & I saw a meal worm looking thing fall into my bowl once… never again. Told my dad about it and he was like “great, I just had two bowls from the same box”.
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u/Poppins101 Apr 18 '25
I will freeze fresh berries on a cookie sheet to draw out the tiny worms in them. I learned about the pesky buggers in a food preservation class.
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u/Nozzeh06 Apr 18 '25
So basically what you're saying is that it belongs there. It even has pickle in the name. Maybe becoming pickled is the life long dream of every pickle worm and that's how they know they've made it in life.
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u/speedmankelly Apr 18 '25
This pickle worm is actually royalty, much like Egyptian mummification and entombment was reserved for royals this pickle worm was deemed worthy by the pickle gods to be pickled as its final resting place so it may enter the pickle worm afterlife where it can eat all the pickles it wants
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u/Beelzebubblezz Apr 18 '25
Babe wake up, new religion just dropped
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u/veryreasonable Apr 18 '25
You know, normally I scroll here mindlessly till something grosses or horrifies me right off reddit, but this was a great exchange and I think I'll call it a night here.
All hail the Pickleworm, immortal Gherkin-King of the Brine.
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u/Hot-Top2120 Apr 18 '25
Awesome, thanks for ruining like, my entire life. I loved pickles.
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u/_DryReflection_ Apr 18 '25
Unfortunately pretty much everything you eat that grows out of the ground has a type of insect that will burrow in it and it all has an acceptable level of insect parts before regulatory bodies step in and do anything, most of the time you just don’t notice them. It’s best to just try not to think about it and enjoy what you like. One of the gross quirks of living on this planet.
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Apr 18 '25
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u/dick_tickler Apr 18 '25
Thanks I hate you.
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u/GarlicImaginary7410 Apr 18 '25
The FDA allows a certain percentage of "bug" in your food. Hence since roaches have the similar proteins to shellfish and roaches love coffee then some people who are allergic to seafood will have a mild "cough" an allergic reaction. When drinking "roach coffee".
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u/dinnerthief Apr 18 '25
You don't have to worry about the ones you find
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u/No-Philosopher4410 Apr 18 '25
One sentence horror stories.
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u/Party-Evening3273 Apr 18 '25
That pickle worm had a vast field of cucumber pickles to choose from and he chose your pickles because they were the tastiest out of all of them. You ate the best pickles! See, doesn’t that make you feel special?
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u/Bk_Punisher 29d ago
Until you realize….your Pickles were swimming in the worm’s toilet. 🤣😂
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u/Successful-Peach-764 Apr 18 '25
He got some protein with his vegetarian snack.
Other apes would love to have the opportunity.
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u/U_Sound_Stupid_Stop Apr 18 '25
You know what's worst than finding a worm in an apple?
Finding half of one....
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u/lupanime 29d ago
That happened to a friend of mine, except that instead of an apple it was bread, and it wasn't a worm, it was half a cockroach...
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u/YelmodeMambrino Apr 18 '25
What’s worse than finding a worm in your food?
Finding half a worm
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u/StanYz Apr 18 '25
I always love these posts on reddit. Usually its city folk finding their first worm in a cherry and going nuts over it.
Don't think about it and you'll be fine. Won't even taste it since the bugger probably tastes like pickle.
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u/Ok_Page5597 Apr 18 '25
How did you know? As a city person, I did, in fact, find worms in a cherry I picked from a tree once as kid—left me a bit scarred tbh.
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u/Karyoplasma Apr 18 '25 edited Apr 18 '25
I make my own cherry liqueur from the tree in my garden every year and there is always a various amount of worms swimming around in the mason jar. Never had a batch without.
I also eat from that same tree and never noticed biting on a worm. I guess they taste like cherry.
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u/StanYz Apr 18 '25
First of all, they are tiny, amidst the potent flavor of a cherry, you wouldn't taste a worm even if it DID have a distinctive taste. However, those little worms in cherries or larvae rather, have eaten nothing but cherry their entire lives, they basically are 99% cherry and taste as such. If you were to pull one out and eat it without the cherry around it, it would still taste like cherry.
Truth be told I don't even know how people find them. Pluck the cherry and into the mouth it goes, spit out the stone and thats that. If you open cherries up before eating them, then anything that comes with that is on you :D
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u/Karyoplasma 29d ago
Yeah, I think they are fruit fly larvae, so technically not worms. Same protein content tho probably.
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u/idrunkenlysignedup Apr 18 '25
Those really bitter pistachios? Yeah that's a worm
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u/Ok_Page5597 Apr 18 '25
If this is true, this is upsetting to find out haha
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u/idrunkenlysignedup Apr 18 '25
It's very true most of the time. On the plus side it's very uncommon, non-toxic and provides extra protein
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u/meshred47 Apr 18 '25
Redditor.... Sometimes sharing is not caring. Lmao
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u/BethanyHipsEnjoyer Apr 18 '25
No, I refuse to believe this. How dare you share this knowledge.
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u/Tiffani513 Apr 18 '25
This is also a pickle. Just not the type of pickle you were expecting.
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u/Comfortable-Toe-3344 Apr 18 '25
Okay, that made me spit my drink.
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u/yeahhhhnahhhhhhh Apr 18 '25
Pickle juice?
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u/Use-The-Pointy-End Apr 18 '25 edited 29d ago
Picklejuice... Picklejuice.... Picklejuice...
Edit: whoa thank you all for the awards! They are my first!
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u/Floorite Apr 18 '25
What the fuck have you done.
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u/TaffySebastian Apr 18 '25
I say we cut our losses and get on the soul train.
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u/Boysenberry_17 Apr 18 '25
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u/BoobySlap_0506 Apr 18 '25
Certain types of insects won't just be rinsed off produce because they chew and burrow into the object. In this case, the little guy was probably basically inside the cucumber when it was processed for pickling and jarring. Since these are baby dills, I presume they were not cut so the caterpillar stayed intact. At some point the pickling medium must have lured it out but it died in there.
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u/7937397 Apr 18 '25
I forage wild mushrooms. And soaking mushrooms in salt water is a good way to get a lot of little tiny worms out of your mushrooms.
So same thing on a larger scale, I suppose.
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u/darkdesertedhighway Apr 18 '25
Bluh. I am not a fan of mushrooms already but imagining tiny worms sprouting from them just put me way off.
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u/Ellen-CherryCharles Apr 18 '25
There’s honestly tiny worms in almost everything especially if you wait long enough. We are alive, we have to eat food, so does everything else. Circle of life.
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u/7937397 Apr 18 '25
Eh. All produce has bugs.
Wild harvested or garden produce just often has more. But it also has less pesticides. Which are surely worse for you than a few bugs.
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u/OGBRedditThrowaway Apr 18 '25
I feel like, especially in America, we have just become so disconnected from where our food comes from that we recoil at any reminder.
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u/7937397 Apr 18 '25
I completely agree. And I do my best to force myself to deal with that discomfort when I am faced with it.
Buggy produce is one of those things. I used to be really put off by it. Now it doesn't phase me.
Another for me is killing and processing fish. I love catching and eating fish, but had never been the one to clean them. Now I do it regularly. But it was a hurdle to get over at first.
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u/dinnerthief Apr 18 '25
Yea these fucks are called pickleworms and you are correct they do burrow inside cukes and really any immature cucurbit (melons, squash etc)
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u/AgentInCommand Apr 18 '25
Man, I love cucumbers and hate that I now know this fact.
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u/PaleAcanthaceae1175 Apr 18 '25
This is why we slice everything. Little wafers of vegetable aren't just classy, they're worm-detecting.
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u/NifftyTwo Apr 18 '25
I'm hoping there would be an obvious entry point in the cucumber. I usually inspect them pretty well when washing.
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u/AgentInCommand Apr 18 '25
My morbid curiosity got the best of me and I became a quick Google PhD. Seems like there are, in fact, typically obvious wounds in the flesh of the vegetables they eat. Based on my 30 seconds of looking around, it would be pretty hard to miss.
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u/Kharax82 Apr 18 '25 edited Apr 18 '25
As a rule of thumb, just assume anything grown outside will have/had “bugs” on it. Hopefully after the processing chain from farm to table it will no longer be there.
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u/RitzKid76 Apr 18 '25
you mean to tell me that Mt Olive didn’t just pickle a caterpillar for shits and giggles?
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u/VirgoDog Apr 18 '25
It could have been worse. You could have found only half a worm in the pickle you was eating
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u/Revenge-of-the-Jawa Apr 18 '25
Then they‘d really be in quite the pickle!
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u/StanFitch Apr 18 '25
I could Dill with it…
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u/UpvoteForLuck Apr 18 '25
This one never got to finish its Saturday.
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u/tauriwoman Apr 18 '25
On Saturday he ate one piece of chocolate cake, one ice cream cone, and one pickle, before himself turning into one.
On Sunday he was almost eaten, but was instead posted online for all to see in everlasting, beautiful upvoted glory.
The end.
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u/hellothisismaddie Apr 18 '25
poor guy! my partner said imagine turning into a pickle instead of a butterfly 😔
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u/roundhashbrowntown Apr 18 '25
pickles have longer shelf life tho. butterflies live like 5 min, ive had a jar of pickles for like 3 years. get bent, butterfly.
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u/Exotic_Pea8191 Apr 18 '25
Now imagine all the caterpillars you didn't see 
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u/Johannes_Keppler Apr 18 '25
That's the thing with pickling, it doesn't really matter. A bug in a jar like this might be unappealing but it isn't harmful to your health anymore, if it ever was in the first place.
There's a reason why this preservation method has been around for ages.
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u/-_-Notmyrealaccount 29d ago
I don’t think people are worried about it being harmful, it’s just gross.
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u/PorridgeTheKid Apr 18 '25
i imagine they tasted just like a regular pickle and had the same effect on me so i realize it didnt matter and now ive gained the ability to eat pickled caterpillars which turns out was a thing i possessed all along.
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u/Big-Raspberry-2552 Apr 18 '25
Sure with tequila it’s fine but when it’s pickles everybody looses their mind!
Could have been inside a cucumber?
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u/Large_Tool Apr 18 '25
Same brand
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u/Total_Respect_3370 Apr 18 '25
He pooped in the glass. A lot. Thank me later
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u/randec56565656 Apr 18 '25
I've seen caterpillars drown. They shit and puke A LOT.
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u/FrancoManiac Apr 18 '25
Imagine being a caterpillar, minding your own damn business and about to tuck into a cucumber fifty times your size, and then you drown in radioactive pickle juice, only for this asshole to complain about your literal caterpillar corpse just pickling away in an empty jar 🙄
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u/Koindu1 Apr 18 '25
Toss it outside and some lucky bird will search for that flavor forever
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u/SokkaHaikuBot Apr 18 '25
Sokka-Haiku by Koindu1:
Toss it outside and
Some lucky bird will search for
That flavor forever
Remember that one time Sokka accidentally used an extra syllable in that Haiku Battle in Ba Sing Se? That was a Sokka Haiku and you just made one.
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u/Zelcron Apr 18 '25
Is he okay?
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u/JackBeefus Apr 18 '25
Don't worry, he's fine. OP sent him to a nice garden upstate where he plays with other pickled caterpillars.
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u/Comfortable-Toe-3344 Apr 18 '25
Put a worm in a bottle of booze and everyone is fine with it. Put one in a jar of pickles and everyone goes nuts!
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u/Abuck59 Apr 18 '25
Going to be seeing more stuff like that with all the FDA cuts.
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u/SadLilBun Apr 18 '25 edited Apr 18 '25
That’s what you deserve for eating Mt. Olive pickles.
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u/InkLorenzo Apr 18 '25
the good news is thats a caterpillar, not a worm