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Salt
salted
fruit
Fruit flies can lay their eggs under the skin of the fruit.
When the larvae hatch, they remain inside to feed on the sweet pulp.
🪰 The culprit
In many cases, it’s a fruit fly called the spotted wing drosophila.
Unlike common fruit flies that prefer rotten fruit, this one can lay its eggs in still-healthy fruit on the plant, such as:
strawberries
cherries
raspberries
blueberries
🧂 Why does salt water make them come out?
When you put strawberries in salt water, the salt changes the environment around the larvae.
Through a natural phenomenon called osmosis, the salt water creates stress for these tiny larvae, causing them to leave the fruit and emerge into the water.
