I was eating a few cashews from this box of them I had on my desk. It was at night and the lighting was very dim. Then with one of them I either tasted or felt something odd. I don't remember, cause of all my mental anguish afterwards. But I looked down and on the other half of the cashew and on my finger was this stringy web like thing. I looked through the box of cashews and sure enough there were huge webs of moth and little eggs in them. I don't even know if I actually ate any of them, they were towards the bottom, or how much. I felt so gross though. Immediately afterwards, even after rinsing my mouth out I felt this lump in the back of my throat that felt like when you get clogged mucus in your throat. I am sick and have been blowing my nose a lot, so I do have mucus congestion, but it wasn't there before. Anyways, just paranoid I guess. I know it is harmless, and that people eat a lot more insects then they care to admit or think about, in the foods infested. It's just so nasty, the webs and eggs. It was also a $9 box of nuts, so that sucks too. Just wandering if that has happened to anyone else. I have noticed them in other nuts before like pumpkin seeds I bought and a box of walnuts, but I always noticed it before eating them. I'm never eating in the dark again, ever.

On Saturday night, on my way home, I bought some fuyus from the market. While driving home from the market I ate 2 persimmons in the dark, careful not to drip any juice on me while I was driving. When I got home, I noticed all the persimmons had a label glued onto the bottom of the persimmons, which meant that I ate 2 labels with those persimmons. Oh well, I didn't really notice them.

Nik,
I had the moth thing happen to me with almonds a few years ago. Fortunately, I was eating them in the shop that I bought them, and I took them to the owner and showed him. He refunded my money immediately, and was very sorry. He said he had some prior problems with the vendor. I asked him what brand it was, but he wouldn't tell me. I think he was afraid of getting a lawsuit or something.

I was actually more afraid of the mold that was growing with the feces from the larva than the larva themselves, which were dead. In most cases I think insect injestion is not as harmful as people make it to be. However, mold and decay can be very deadly, or cause organ failure, or just make one feel really sick, or all of the above.

Im almost certain they are called pantry moths. We had an infestation at our house too. They hide out in cupboards and eat through plastic/cardboard. So check to make sure they haven't laid eggs in other places in your kitchen. If they have, id suggest you toss everything into the bin. they really are pesky and hard to get rid of.

I am sure a healthy immune system will deal with anything like that.. not to mention the fact that the first place any bugs/germs go once consumed is into a pool of acid

nik, yuck. i hate when that happens. i am not a natural bug eater, finding out they have gotten into my mouth is so oogy. sometimes cabbage is full of wee little thingies that are the same colour as the cabbage and easy to miss until it's way too late.

pantry moth infestation is so hard to conquer, they are insidious and lay lots of eggs everywhere. bulk food in bins are particularly vulnerable to infestation. while i prefer to purchase things with less packaging, i often question buying things in bulk.
at home i keep nearly everything in glass mason jars. years ago i had to throw practically everything in the cupboards out because those stringy little egg pods were in it all, so sad but i learned my lesson then.

1) I was getting a huge Napa head and ate a few leaves per day, always taking the outside ones and working may way in. I noticed brownish spots every once in a while but I washed them off thinking it was dirt.
Well, soon enough I reached the heart of the Napa and inside sat a huge HUGE caterpillar, the size of my pinky. The brownish stuff was its @#$%&!

2) I was juicing spinach and drank the juice little by little while I juiced. About 2 thirds into juicing my stuff, I found 2 "stinkbugs" inside the bag....ewwwww ((

Those two events made me careful, so I inspect my vegs leaf by leaf now. I also had snails in my kale twice, but those are cute lol.

I read Boutenko's book 12 steps to Raw Food and it talks about eating bugs. That there is a government limit on how many bugs per lbs of produce are "allowed" because it's not possible to have bug free crops. So there's an allowance of ..about 5 worms per jar of jam or so...haha

I store all my nuts in my frizer because of that.I was always having this problems and wasting money on nuts until I couldn't take any more.
And I wash all my veggies too before eating them.

I found some live worms on some kale once. After I had steamed it. This was more than 10 years ago but I never forgot!

I am more careful now!

We have an unspoken agreement in our home--if you find bugs in the produce while washing it, you aren't allowed to mention it to anyone else who will be eating it with you. Otherwise, it makes everyone inspect every single piece of food before they consume it and it's not an enjoyable meal. :-P

The strangest place I ever found a worm was in a banana! I tossed the whole thing into the compost pile so that it could continue with its feast.

Love,

Gypsy

I used to be lazy about putting my bulk foodstuff into containers, and I got those moths too. I remember thinking that my brewers yeast was looking funny with a lot of little strings in it, but I still ate it out of the bag. Then later I realized what was happening and threw out a lot of food, now everything not in jars is safely in the fridge and freezer. It makes me wonder about food preservation methods a thousand years ago when the best thing you had was clay pots and you couldn't just go to the store to replace your spoiled grains and dried fruit.

i would respond but after reading like a third of the first post

i had to take a break ( LOL)

i may have to muster up some courage to continue reading the rest of it

discusting.

I have accidentally eaten worms in the most delish tomatoes, and also accidentally put bugs in my green juices and smoothies....

=(

I mean i'm not sure, but I'm pretty sure...

We recently had an infestation of those moths. The most common species is called the Indian Meal Moth. I went and vaccumed out the cupboards and removed all of the grains that had larvae in them, and put bay leaves in the grain jars that I replaced, and several bay leaves on each shelf of the cupboard. Haven't seen a moth or larva since then...they don't like the scent of the bay leaf.