lbandbuggy
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Little bugs on raspberries, need help identifying

I have several raspberry bushes, some summer and some everbearing. The black/summer raspberries are in, and I am starting to pick every other day now. I have never used any pesticides on them, I just prune really well, and hand weed, and have never really had any problems.

When I pick the fruit, there are little, teensy tiny, fast moving bugs crawling on the berries, several on each berry. They don't seem to be eating the fruit or anything, matter of fact, I haven't noticed any damage at all, to either the fruit, canes or leaves. There are just these little bugs crawling around. They are very hard to get off, I have washed, soaked a bit, drained and dried them, and after sitting a minute or so, there they are again, crawling around. Any idea of what they are, and are they harmful to the fruit or plant, or even to a human if they are eaten? I hate to say, I'm sure we have eaten some (there are just too many of them for me to think I been able to get rid of them all). I mostly freeze them to make jam after the fall crop of red raspberries.

The Helpful Gardener
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An image would be most helpful...

HG

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applestar
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If you're concerned about eating them, have you tried adding salt or vinegar to the soaking water? I think a fruit vinegar like apple cider vinegar or a raspberry vinegar would leave no after taste. 8)

I've heard it said, though, that part of our daily nutritional deficiency stems from the way our fruits and veg's are washed to sterility, and a few bugs as well as bacteria are not only not harmful but actually beneficial to our health.... :wink:

lbandbuggy
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I can try to take a picture of them, but they are so small and move quick, I don't know how good it will turn out, but I will try it tonight when I get home, and see if I can post it! I may try the vinegar solution to see if it helps any, I was able to get most of them off, but it took ALOT of rinsing and re-rinsing, and broke the the berries up a bit, which isn't a big deal as I'm making jam. I figured as much about eating them, it hasn't hurt us yet, so they can't be a big deal, but it's more about me knowing they are there more now! :lol:

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AS is right about the nutritional deficiencies; Michael Pollan discusses the down side of washing fruit, citing many places around the planet where "dirt" factors into the diet, acting as mineral supplements and bulk. He surmises there is a benefit, and I have talked to raw foodies who like a little extra terra in their terroir :wink: .

Western societies are also the only ones that shun the insect world for larder additions; it is mostly a mindset issue I suspect and enough hunger will change most peoples mind about what is edible or not...

"For there is neither good nor bad but thinking makes it so"...
(William Shakespeare)

"So I'll take a pint of French fried ants, with soil sauce, to go"
(Helpful Gardener)

:kidding:

Mrs M
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I love raspberries, I eat them every day when in season and I must have eaten so many of those bugs!!
After having eaten nearly a whole punnet of raspberries I just discovered those little bugs on the last two raspberries left... yes, I just ate a million raspberry bugs. Surely they cannot be harmful... right?

To photograph these bugs you would need a super-macro bug lens as they're about 2mm long and very skinny - so really small! They're grey-brown and move around quite quickly. If you try to shake / blow / brush / rinse them off they just hide between the segments in the fruit. Clever little bugs!

I've done a google image search on "raspberry bugs", but these bugs are so small I could not possibly tell what they would look like magnified.

Does anyone know about these bugs?

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Sounds like buggy and Mrs. M have the same issue...

And Mrs. M, you've already eaten a million or so, by your estimate; any ill effect? Still standing? Hasn't hurt you any, right? :)

Can't say the same for pesticided fruit, can we? :(

HG

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If there was a way to at least get these little bugs to jump off, it would be SO nice. I like to make chocolate covered raspberries with my fresh-garden picks...and then give them away as gifts. Nothing is more awkward than someone taking a bite of a bug. :-s

I've tried rinsing, soaking, refrigerating, etc.... The water mostly beads up on the berries and the bugs either hide in the air bubbles, or in the fruit crevaces. The bugs go dormant in the fridge but then hop back to life! I have not found any way of getting rid of the bugs, except to freeze them to death. But...that sure changes the stability of the fruit when making chocolates.

I don't care about the nutritional content of bugs here. I don't spray my fruit and I'd like to keep it that way if possible. But really...bugs jumping off of gifts??? There's gotta be a way around it.

(sorry, I know this post is old and I'm brining it back to life, but I'm looking for an anser too).

RyNJ
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I know what bugs you're talking about, 'cause they're on my raspberries too. I think they might be [url=https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spider_mite]spider mites[/url] but I don't know for sure. The bugs on mine make a orange-red stain when you squish them.

I eat wild mulberries, blackberries, and raspberries right off the plants, and all of those get the little bugs on them. I've done that for years and years and I'm still around and healthy. If I were eating berries covered in pesticides to kill little bugs I might not be so fine.

If you're covering the berries in chocolate I'm sure the bugs'd be either heated to death and/or smothered. And if you're cooking the berries into jam, or freezing them, again, the bugs are negligible.

It's not that the bugs necessarily have nutritional value, but that using pesticides on your berries is much worse than eating the bugs.

JONA878
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Extra protein folks....extra protein.

:lol:

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applestar
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:lol: I agree! ...and chocolate will cover and hide the multitudes. :()
Just don't tell them. :wink:

If there are any live ones on the chocolates covered berries, maybe try dusting with good cocoa -- I'm pretty sure that will finish them off and then nobody will know..... 8)

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soil
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we have what I believe to be some of these berries too. I basically just blow them off and eat the berry. if some of them are still there oh well. at least they don't taste bitter or anything. I also see the same bugs on flower blooms.

maybe they are the ones who did most of the pollination for the berries, and without them you wouldn't have a harvest.

twin3
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Hey, I have small bugs on my raspberries.

They are a little larger then the bugs previously being described in this topic. The bugs on mine look like black ladybugs and they are between 2mm to half a cm in length and almost as wide as they are long.

Could anyone help me out and tell me if they are good, bad or neither for my raspberries. I am slightly worried because my raspberries are swarming with them.

Thanks

JONA878
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Those sound much more like Raspberry Beetle Twin.
Their maggots are the ones that you find munching your mature fruit at picking time.
Try a soap spray on them...if it doesn't work then you will have to use something stronger I'm afraid.

twin3
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Thanks JONA I'll try that.

Here are some pictures of the bugs
[url]https://s1128.photobucket.com/albums/m485/twin__3/Random/?start=all[/url]

JONA878
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No that's not a Raspberry Beetle Twin.
They are greyer in colour and their body is longer.
From the pictures it looks as if they are sucking the fruit droplets,
have a close look at some of the fruits and see if some of the little individual droplets are empty and white looking where the juice has been sucked out of them.

I guess they are up to no good anyway.

twin3
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Yah I have noticed they are sucking the juice out of the fruit.

Does anyone have any suggestions about how to get rid of them?

JONA878
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So near to picking rules out most of the insectacides Twin3.....so I guess you could try a soap mix..but that may taint the fruit that is fully ripe.
It may be worth trying a good blast with a hose pipe. It's surprising how many critters do not like that at all.

BuggieMama
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I know this post is old but I just ate a bunch of blackberries and at the end of my bunch I found little bugs crawling and jumping around. I'm sure they are harmless to eat but thought I'd ask. I attached a picture of one on my thumb but you have to zoom in to see it. It's the one on the top right.
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IMG_20170421_092207791_HDR.jpg

JONA
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Those look like thrips to me BM.
They are common all over the garden and on the whole they are relatively harmless on outdoor plants unless numbers get very high. They can be a pest under glass though.

TommyAn
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I know this is an old thread but I couldn't find the answer anywhere on the net but I found the answer through some good ol investigative work. So I thought I'd share with the masses like myself a ton of time.

I had these tiny tiny grey jumping bugs on my raspberries. I only discovered them after picking and washing them and putting them in a white bowl on the dinner table. You could see them crawling out only because it was a white bowl and it was well lit. Tiny little suckers. They can jump like 4" or so when you're trying to squash them.

I used my $20 Amazon microscope to examine them. Really tough because as soon as you touch them they're squashed. Gotta use a tissue and delicately put them in a bubble of water or raspberry juice in my case lol. It was undoubtedly a springtail. Harmless to humans. And from what the net says easy to fix. They thrive in damp mouldy environments. Which is why you'll find them on window sills or under leaky sinks. Just have to keep the area dry and they'll migrate.

This year has been exceptionally hot for us so I've been watering my raspberries everyday. I guess it could have created too much dampness in the soil creating the perfect habitat for these pests. I musta ate 1000s of these bugs because I typically don't wash them at all. Just wash for my family. I must say I've been feeling quite well these days so I don't think it's harmed me. If I had to guess I'd say they probably gave me some good nutrients that I don't get anywhere else lol. Maybe I was better off never finding out and getting my full insect diet.

I have images of everything but not sure how to post. I'll give it a try.

Hope this helps a lot of people!
IMG_3751.JPG
IMG_3752.JPG
IMG_3757.JPG
IMG_3750.JPG

TommyAn
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Oops In the first picture if you zoom in to the raspberry juice on the top of the paper near the tip of my finger you will wee a tiny black dot. That is how big these springtails are.

TommyAn
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I've stopped watering my raspberries and threw some diatomaceous earth. Will let you know what happens in a couple of days.



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