If you don't let your kid eat blackberries...

[OuchIsLife]

Before they have been washed what do you think will happen? Or what has happened?

Just curious as I've always let my kids eat them as soon as they've picked them and I'm not sure what harm would come to them.

Sorry if someone else asked this but whyyyy? Did bugs crawl out from them like in those TikTok videos of strawberries being put in sugar water and worms coming out? Still don’t know if these are fake or not and it distresses me.

The bushes near us stink of dog piss, even the higher up berries would put me off, I don’t eat them, as that is soaking into the roots eeew! I was eating one as a kid and it had a little worm inside, I have a phobia of anything that wriggles and was instantly violently sick. Haven’t touched brambles since!

The flies laying eggs on blackberries and their maggots are not going to carry organisms pathogenic to humans. They're not themselves going to be pathogenic to us, we are simply not part of their life cycle. They're fruit flies. So it might give an ick factor, but it's not harmful. Nor is dog wee.

The factor that would cause me to avoid or wash blackberries before eating would be adjacency to a road (traffic pollution) or agricultural fields (pesticide spray).

Oh the maggots don’t hurt you, but they’re absolutely disgusting. I’m not eating maggots.

We pick them but soak them in lemon water … it forces the larvae out. And there’s a lot buried inside them … 🤮

As long as you pick high enough up that a dog can't have weed on them they'll be fine, I don't remember eating them.while picking as a kid but most likely did ( used to go to a specific place in the country to get tub fulls for mum cooking) , still here obviously and born of an age where we had no seat belts, parents smoked in car etc food safety was way down the list, as for spiders apparently we are supposed to consume the odd one in our sleep
If in doubt wash them first or if your kids are little and picking from low down, swap one they've picked for one you have picked,

I've been reading up on this and washing may not force all the maggots out? Decided I'm going to hide this thread and ignore blackberries; making me feel a bit blureh. DH made maggot and blackberry crumble.

I'll tell DD in a few weeks!

i made blackberry jam from blackberries picked on the edge of the north circular.
oh dear

worst thing was more recently dd got a pip stuck in her tooth which we couldnt get out, caused a cavity.

I’ve been eating unwashed blackberries since I was a toddler. I’m 60 now. No parasites. No infections but lots of vitamin c.

Caveat—waist high and live rurally.

DaemonMoon,

Probably washing would not remove all maggots, but if you soak them, then re-rinse you are in with a chance.

We pick blackberries from our local woods. Some the dc eat whilst picking, checking very carefully for bugs, and some we take home.
I soak and wash them, adding a bit of bicarbonate soda to the water, and never have I seen tonnes of bugs in the water.
A few maybe but not at the rates one are implying here.

The flies laying eggs on blackberries and their maggots are not going to carry organisms pathogenic to humans. They're not themselves going to be pathogenic to us, we are simply not part of their life cycle. They're fruit flies. So it might give an ick factor, but it's not harmful

Precisely. And, that’s what stomach acid is for. They won’t survive that.

As long as they are baby lava side the berry you can’t see them who cares. You get a delicious fresh berry, with a tiny bit of soon to dead protein that you haven’t even noticed. That’s why I always made my kids eat them fresh, tiny lava inside is fine as opposed to a bowl of them that’s been sitting there with time for the tiny lava to noticeably become maggots.

I always figure an extra bit of organic matter is preferable to any sort of chemicals to keep pests away.

You need to have it explained to you why it’s not a good idea for your children to eat pollutants or dog urine?!? Anything next to a main road will be covered in them - I live on a reasonably busy road - not a main road, just busy on rush hour and school pick up time, dead at night), and the walls either side of my windows that face the road get filthy - you can’t always see it but if you wipe it with a tissue, the tissue is black! Have you ever looked up at the buildings either side of a main road, often really black with pollutant deposits. And dog or other animal urine is just disgusting, why would you want your children eating it. Human urine is sterile until it leaves the body at which point it can become infected with bacteria etc so wouldn’t want to be consuming that if it had been lying around a while. Not sure about dog urine, but any that has been hanging around on bushes is likely to be breeding bacteria.

This morning's haul - at least 50% picked from below waist level - while I kept a careful look out for that MN legend - a HUGE (Guinness world record breaking) Great Dane capable of pissing up to a height of 42" without seriously damaging his man bits on the brambles. 🤣

Seriously, think about it. Even my old boy, who seriously leaves his calling card even few minutes on a walk, knows better than to try and piss up a bramble bush. 😱

I'm almost 70, have been picking and eating blackberries from the bush all my life, don't intend to stop now 😎

My female lab cocks her leg and pees on brambles (admittedly she can only manage about 30cm!) and neither of mine seem bothered by brambles at all and will happily push into them in search of a particularly good smell. I frequently spend my evenings pulling thorns out of them on the sofa!

That seems to happen later in the season, I've noticed.

They're fine earlier on. We have blackberries in the garden.

Lots of dogs pee up, and even enter bramble thickets. I see them every day in the park.
I think we are evenly split between those who don't mind an interesting drizzle on their berries and added protein, and those who prefer just the berry.

Really? Why wouldn't it come out?? Why didn't you take her to a dentist long before it could "cause a cavity"?

I can't face blackberries ever since I picked some off our own bramble bushes. I looked down just as I was about to eat one and it was hooching with bugs. Yuck!

Me too… it used to be a favourite late summer pastime and I never considered bugs!!

I grew up eating fume filled blackberries in the days when all petrol was leaded!!
Apart from a third eye on a stalk, I’m fine

Gathering and eating from the bush is one of my most cherished childhood memories

We have a huge blackberry bush in our front garden. It’s teaming with wildlife at this time of year so I leave them for the birds/mice/whatever else. One year someone snuck in and picked most of them which really annoyed me for some irrational reason.

We picked them once and the worms put me right off! I don’t think I would eat them without soaking first…

My children did eat a blackberry or two, while picking, but they eventually stopped that after seeing what came out of them after a soaking in a bowl of water. There's usually grubs and that sort of thing.