Strawberrys going soft

[Marb67]

Well, I may as well give up because all my lovely freshly picked strawberrys in the kitchen are slowly going soft to the touch, but not rotting. On closer inspection there seem to be microscopic white maggots eating them inside out. Even mire worrying is I have eaten them like this before I had a good look inside them. I have seen these on the outside of my rasbery fruits but never in Strawberrys. I have picked rasberrys too and have been in the same pot as the strawberrys and am wondering that is how they have found them? Again, I feel like giving up as also my freshly picked peas have had tiny worms in the pods.

[Jungle Jane]

Probably fruit fly larvae,we eat them without realising when grazing,no harm done but you can put your fruit in a bowl of water with a spoon of salt added,see what swims out of it,then carefully change the water to clean & freeze or eat. Freezing would definitely stop them growing.

[Marb67]

But this has never happened before in 20 odd years of growing strawberries. I have never had them mushy on the inside while looking normal on the outside.

[Nicos]

Could this be the ‘new ‘ variety of fruit fly marb?

https://www.rhs.org.uk/biodiversity/...ing-drosophila

[ameno]

But this has never happened before in 20 odd years of growing strawberries. I have never had them mushy on the inside while looking normal on the outside.

They're flies. They come and go from year to year. Sometimes they have a huge population due to good conditions and spread further than usual, other times their population and range shrinks.
Just because something has never happened before, doesn't mean it can't happen, nor does it even necessarily mean there is any specific or deep reason for it suddenly happening one year.

[Nicos]

^^^^ like ‘my’ blinking hare munching its way through my strawberries last year…never happened before either.

[peacegarden2024]

it might help if keep your ripe fruit in the refrigerator.

[Marb67]

Well, just picked some more from the garden and already grubs inside so the fridge would be in vain. Utterly depressing, especially when its one of the only decent crops I have had. This never happened before