Chomp, chomp, chomp, smoosh! Blogger Savannah Red’s wife was enjoying a freshly opened box of Goobers when she bit into something not sweet or chocolatey, but squishy: a maggot.
My wife let out a full-throated scream that I’ve only really heard in my nightmares when she is being carried off by a giant squid or something and both of my legs have been cut off and I can’t help her…she bent over, her trembling hands on her knees and spit out what was in her mouth onto the floor…my wife’s box of Goobers was ALIVE and crawling with maggots…I peered inside the box and saw lumpen, misshapen Goobers with maggots or some kind of larvae crawling everywhere.
Naturally, the blogger took a video, available in all its disgusting glory, inside…
Nestle’s has got some quality control issues. The package was sealed in a plastic wrap, meaning that the larvae had to have been deposited during the manufacturing process. So far, Savannah Red has not heard back from the email he sent Nestle customer service.
Nestle’s Maggoty Goobers [SAVANNAH RED] (Thanks to Rob Walker!)
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The exact same thing happened about a month ago to the fiance of one of my stepfather’s co-workers. She had someone get her a Mr. Goodbar from a CVS Pharmacy in Miami. As she was eating it, she went up to the co-worker and told him about she had a worm on her shirt somehow.
He takes it off, and then she goes back into the office. Then she started screaming and realized that the maggots were inside the Mr. Goodbar. That she had been eating. She promptly started throwing up.
My stepfather took some cell phone video of the things crawling around the bar, and I encouraged him to send it to the Consumerist which he hadn’t heard of. He never got around to it though.
We had thought that it was something with the CVS, as the bar had been in the front of the cashier. Mr. Goodbar is from Hershey’s though, so maybe this isn’t Nestle’s fault as it is where the candy was in the store.
Maybe I can finally take it from the phone, if he hasn’t deleted it already. I’ll check when I get home.
This is an insult to maggots who provide a medical benefit to mankind. Just think about the reduction in the number of amputations that would have occurred in the Civil War if they just had not cleaned the maggots out of the wounds!
that is the nastiest shit i have ever seen
How do we know that those aren’t just little Goober larvae that haven’t yet reached their chocolatey maturity?
It’s a feature, not a bug!
I’ve had my fair share of Goobers (I don’t hate chocolate covered peanuts like many others here do.. for some reason), and I have to say that these Goobers look especially old and disgusting. I’d be interested to know the date on that package. When were they boxed up? I can’t watch the video at work but I’d be interested to know any additional information… you could use that candy dating guide that was posted about a month ago. Too lazy to link, do a search.
OMG! Big fucking deal. She ate a bug. It could have been a lot worse. She could starve to death. Can you imagine what a terrible death starving must be? Those infested maggot Goobers would be a treat to thousands of people that die every day of hungry. Get over it people! And yes, if I ate it I would not freak out. I would probably ask for more
Aaaaaand, OP blamed.
I agree that they’re disgusting, and kind of cute.
OMG GUYZ THINK OF HOW TEH MAGG0T MUST FELE
Oh come on, I was just about to leave for the movies.
adding to my previous post, it seems like I’ve seen little packages of the crawlies near the register in some convenience and candy stores. They are fried, salted, and sold the the general public. Never tried them myself. In the same vein, does anyone remember the tequila flavored suckers a few years ago that had an agave worm encased in the sucker? They were pretty popular for a bit, due mostly, I’m assuming to the shock value. Speaking of which, does anyone eat the worm at the bottom of the mescal (not tequila…real tequila never has a worm) bottle? I did once, and made the mistake of chewing it…
@SkokieGuy:
It depends on the species. Different maggots will eat different materials. Some will only eat dead meat, some will eat living meat. Some will eat shit, and apparently, some will eat goobers.
Just keep them around until you see if they grow into flies. Then you’ll know for sure.
Good thing I read this before dinner
Now that is just Nasty.
I can’t even look at a Whatchamacallit when I ate half of one before I noticed it was full of weevils. Now I steer clear of any cereal-filled candy bar. Please don’t break me off a piece of that Kit Kat bar.
@meisenberg: Nowadays, I bet twinkies are pumped full of preservatives to prevent such an occurrence from happening.
This happened to me with a kit-kat before. I was a lot younger… too young to think I had to write to the company of course… ick!
Just to be contrary, I’ll say I don’t think they’re mealworms. I raise mealworms — for fun, not profit — so I’m pretty familiar with them. Mealworms aren’t so pale, and they don’t have that red tip. And the larvae in the video move with far more alacrity than mealworms, and move as though they have pseudopods near the tail end, like a caterpillar or an inchworm. Mealworms just have the legs in the front segments, and kinda drag themselves along; they’re not great climbers. Finally, mealworms typically shun the light. They’d crawl down into the pile of Goobers, not over it.
So what are they? Weevils, maybe? I have no idea. I’m not an entomologist. But how hard would to be to find out? Just wait a couple weeks and see how they transform. We already know what to feed the little larvae.
I’ll roast and dip and eat chocolate covered crickets. And everybody eats bugs every day. They’re everywhere. But still, that video is nasty.
Anyhow, when you buy flour there are eggs in it already. Always. And maybe bugs too. Freezing it probably won’t kill any eggs. If insect eggs were killed at 28 degrees, there wouldn’t be so many bugs in the midwest, would there? Keep your flour in the fridge if you want to keep the eggs from hatching.
If you want your flour to be free of insects, you’ll probably have to seal it and then irradiate it. Or grow the wheat and mill it someplace where there are no insects. The space shuttle comes to mind.
Most likely moths. My parents love to buy snacks and let them sit on the shelf to expire. I’ve seen stuff that looks exactly like this when I’ve gone over to visit and go through their expired food. They’ve even gotten into stuff that is sealed in plastic – usually a few small holes have been made in the corner seams. In fact, I’ve found not just the worms, but fully developed moths as well.
Maybe they got an old box from the store, or maybe had it sitting too long at home?
They are worms, though I don’t recall the exact name. Used to work for Nestle and we had to continually check all the peanut products we had in the warehouse for worms. Unfortunately there is not a lot you can do about it without adding tremendous cost to the manufacturing process and the cost/benefit just isn’t there. I have found worms in a box of Raisin Bran before. It happens.
@EdnaLegume: Umm, I was joking. Lighten up.
@bobfromboston: Yes, dear. I was joking.
nataku83 also said that it was a “great mealtime story”. Why didn’t you mention that poster? (that was meant for Ednalegume, btw).
@Moosehawk: You might want to be careful about making comments like that. The “stick up their asses” crowd is out tonight (or morning, afternoon, etc. depending where they are).
Nestle chocolate is pretty nasty anyway.
That being said, reminds me of when my boyfriend got a stale bag of peanut MnM’s. He called the customer service number to tell them and they sent coupons for some free stuff. The accompanying letter said something like, “no one likes unsavory nuts.”
We should’ve framed it. It didn’t seem to have been worded that way on accident.
@allthatsevil: “no one likes unsavory nuts” – i’m biting my tongue here, trying to figure out how to use that phrase at least once today…
[www.livingwithbugs.com] Pantry moths.
See these all the time, unfortunately. Grain mills, feed stores, anywhere that stores a lot of grain products. They also come in from the outside. I have little sticky pheromone traps in my kitchen and pantry to catch the adult moths before they can larvify my pasta.
Gross, but not maggots, and not dangerous.
@thelushie: mainly because he said “…excellent lunch-time story”… um… what??
he did NOT say “Anyone else vote to stop publishing these types of stories around mealtime?”
Had this been my wife the scream would have been followed by fainting, that girl hates bugs.
Hmm…I should probably keep all my pasta and such sealed then, eh? Oh well…I hope those eggs can’t live through boiling water.
Tastes like chicken
whether they are safe to eat or not is irrelevant. i doubt most people buying goobers would be pleasantly surprised to find any sort of insect larvae crawling around in it. so saying it 400 times in response to the story is ridiculous. they have the right to be disgusted by the bugs.
also, mxjohnson is exactly right. They’re not mealworms.
it’s also very likely the candy is very fresh, as there would be live or dead beetles or pupae in there too if it were older. the cardboard and paper packaging of pasta or flower is more permeable that the, even thin, plastic over the goobers box. the odds of them being in the goobers during manufacturing is exponentially greater than getting in there after being sealed.
When I was about 16, I bit into a rice crispy bar my mom brought home from the bakery. I noticed that it tasted funky, so I spit it out and looked at the rest of the treat to see half of a big fat cricket. The other half was what I spit out ;b I’m still disgusted by that experience.
My son send me the video from NY and asked me to comment on it.
Those, most likely, are larvae of Indian meal moth. It would be interesting to know the age of the product. I worked for a major food company (not Nestle) assessing comsumer complaints of this type as an Analytical Entomologist. A moth larva can easely perforate the film package or get through any void in the packaging. Just checking the video I would say that the infestation is a few weeks old. Indian meal moth cycle last about 5 to7 weeks from egg to adult depending on moisture and temperature. Food companies do care about this problem by having a good Quality Assurance System in place, however most of the infestation problems arise at the postmanufacturing stage: warehouse, store and yes a the consumer home. If you want to protect yourself of this kind of situation avoid buying from small stores that have slow turn around and DO check the production code.