Maggots in Chestnuts
A hundred years ago chestnut trees proliferated here in the NC mountains. Then they were wiped out by the chestnut blight. My brother and I are growing Dunstan Chestnuts for ten years. I have 4 trees, and for the first time this year I have a harvest! Five pounds of chestnuts. [Italics?] I put them on a plate in the hallway I liked to look at them. I was going to roast them at Christmas. A week ago, I glanced at the pile of nuts and there were 30 maggots in there! There were holes in the nuts where the maggots crawled out. It about made me sick to see this. I grabbed up all the nuts and drove them down the road and tossed them in the woods, I guess raccoons would eat chestnuts and maggots. What in the world?
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Likely beetle larvae, but fly or moth larvae are possible.
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Maybe Don can explain why
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Cheastnut weevil larvae. You can find stuff about them on line.
But heck they add protein.
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Chestnuts need to be kept in the refrigerator to keep them from drying out. Once they have dried out, they are no good. Also the are more likely to get worms when the have dried out. We harvest daily when they start opening up. They go directly in the cold storage and occasional get sprayed to keep them moist. Don
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"The Christmas Song." By Nat King Cole.
"Chestnuts roasting on an open fire, Maggots nipping at your nose…"
Something like that. This is disgusting. On my own property in 1997, I talked to Mrs. Cumi Marlor who lived here in 1920, she and the kids would pick up 500 pounds of chestnuts in burlap bags and put in the root cellar and eat them all winter. They had no electricity until 1948. No refrigeration in 1920.
My chestnuts weren't dried out I only picked them 2 weeks ago and have not been running the heater.
As Hamlet said, "Something is rotten in Denmark." I am sure there is protein in maggots but I ain't gonna eat them. I have $500 and lots of work invested in these chestnut trees, I wish I had never planted a single Dunstan chestnut.
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ps I didn't bother taking a pic of the maggots I was too disgusted for words. Hi-Protein chestnuts, get 'em while you can.
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Can’t be all bad.
Think of cheese containing ”maggots” . 🤮Look up Casu martzu
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You don't get root cellar in winter IS refrigeration? Allen, I know you to be way smarter than that.
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https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u4JVi8ER3I4 Chestnut weevil.
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Well damm
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looks like they would be good for fishing.
Never thought of chestnuts having worms.0 -
My wife picked up a few big acorns (I think they were white oaks)from the trees near our home. She put them on the kitchen counter and the next morning there was what looked like a maggot on the counter.I showed her the small hole in the acorn from where the little critter emerged. She was not impressed.
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Some chestnuts have "maggots", some don't.
All starts when a chestnut blooms. Bastages hatches in ground, matures into a "fly" then lays an egg in the blossom. Egg hatches, then after chestnut matures nature triggers the larvae to munch away. Keeping the chestnuts in the fridge after gathering them will slow down the process.
I always just bit off the affected part and spit into the wild.
There are certain nematodes and ground pesticides will lay a hurtin on the vermin.
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Bet frogdogs new squirrel would eat them,,
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Don't think animals will eat "faulty" nuts.
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He Dog: 32594408525723/comments/32594402143899
Likely beetle larvae, but fly or moth larvae are possible.
Andrew Zimmern ate them (the larvae) in one episode where he was mushroom hunting with a hippy.
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