Tiny Worms While Saving Seed?

18 years ago

This is a little strange, but a friend gave me a couple of varieties I didn't have to save seed. After a 3 day fermentation, I bleached the seed with a 1:4 ratio of bleach to water. When I was spreading them out on a plate and separating them, I saw these very minuscule white worms coming out of several of the seeds. I thought it was my eyes at first, but, no...they were worms. Anyone experience this? I'm guessing I better throw away the dried seed as it will be an issue later. What do you guys think? Um, I also ate several of the tomatoes she gave me...I shudder to think what's going on inside me. Thanks!

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Comments (7)

carolyn137
18 years ago
What do you guys think?

****

I think you were seing maggots and they weren't coming out of the seeds. Often flies lay their eggs in a fermenting mixture, hence maggots then appear, and the maggots end up on the plate that you dumped and spread around the newly fermented seeds.

They wiggle for a while but as the excess water dries up, so do the maggots.

Yes, I've seen them lots of times. (smile)

Carolyn
greekbecky
Original Author
18 years ago
Thank you Carolyn!

Now I feel much better now that the mystery is solved.

BTW, its very nice to meet you. I've learned a lot from your replies to others.

Have a great weekend!
Becky
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Chemocurl zn5b/6a Indiana
18 years ago
I too think they were maggots and they were not coming out of the seeds.

A couple of weeks ago, I smelled something awful in the kitchen and couldn't quite figure out where it was coming from....and then got distracted and kept forgetting about it.
Welllll...when I went to rinse the tomato seeds that had been sitting on top of the fridge, I discovered what the stench was, and also found maggots in them...ewww.

I carefully got them all rinsed off though so none ended up on the paper plate to dry.

Sue
greekbecky
Original Author
18 years ago
Egads! The dark side of seed saving!
greekbecky
Original Author
18 years ago
Hmmm, still thinking about this...

So, if I have some tomatoes in a bag earmarked for some soup...should I not eat them? What's to say a fly or two hasn't gotten in there to lay more eggs.

I can just see it..."Hey, I made this soup from my heirloom toms. There may be some maggot eggs and/or larva in there, but I'm sure the cooking killed them."

Would you use them?
carolyn137
18 years ago
So, if I have some tomatoes in a bag earmarked for some soup...should I not eat them? What's to say a fly or two hasn't gotten in there to lay more eggs.

I can just see it..."Hey, I made this soup from my heirloom toms. There may be some maggot eggs and/or larva in there, but I'm sure the cooking killed them."

Would you use them?
****

Sure I'd use them.

Flies don't burrow into tomatoes to lay eggs, they lay eggs in the liquid in the fermentation container which then leads to the maggots in the fermentation juice that's mostly decanted but a few can end up on the plate that you're drying the seeds on.

Carolyn
greekbecky
Original Author
18 years ago
That's good news, because I would've felt bad wasting them.
Thank you again for answering my silly question...:)
Becky