Of course it's safe to eat. My farmer grandfather always said that if there's a worm on your apple (corn) that's the one you should eat; if the worms like it means it's good.

Not only is the corn safe to eat but so is the worm. Corn ear worms are listed as edible, save for humans, and having a light nutty flavor.

Do you have any tips for avoiding earworms when shopping for organic corn?

check over the entire ear, look for holes in the husk. holes mean something's chewed its way through the husk. otherwise, husk the corn as soon as you bring it home, to eliminate the insects before they get huge.

i've encountered a huge one (like 2 inches long)...named'im Stanley before i tossed him out.

@HelsBells - I love that advice from your grandfather! My parents have a small apple & pear orchard, and my dad always says the slightly wormy apples make the best applesauce - more protein!

I got some nice strawberries at the market last weekend, and going by some advice I'm pretty sure I found here on The Kitchn, I keep them in a sealed glass jar in the fridge. Last night I went to slice some up for my lunch today, and several of them had tiny white worms crawling out of several of them! I've been getting market strawberries for at least a month here in NorCal, and this is the first time I've noticed any of these worms. Anyone know anything about them? Thanks!

I have seen these before I just escort them outside with a few kernels of corn.

Welcome to organic farming. I grew up on a small homestead type farm, grew and raised all our own veggies and meat. This is just a fact of life if you don't use chemicals to get rid of bugs. And bugs are just fine. You cut them out, remove the blemish, etc. Fruit and veg are NOT suppose to look like what you buy in a store (i.e. perfect specimens). Fruit is imperfect, and beautifully so. It's sad that most people today have never even tasted a true tomato or eaten small farm raised meat.

We have two pet frogs (Ferdinand and Isabella) and they love to eat the occasional corn earworm. I think it's nice to give them something besides the usual crickets once in a while.

There are some varieties of corn with longer husks that reduce the number of earworms getting in but they don't necessarily taste as good as the more susceptible types.

Many of the farmers markets I go to have 'husking stations', which is just an area off to the side with a big trash can where you can husk your corn before buying or leaving. It lets you check for worms and the husks get taken back to the farm to be composted.

People think I'm weird when I say this, but it's somewhat comforting to find bugs in produce. (Except maybe bees in squash blossoms). It means that the produce is fresh and has so few pesticides on it that the bugs can go on living their lives without dying after a bite or two. Though, to tell you the truth, I handle bugs that appear to be hanging out on the surface better than those that have dug *into* my food.

These guys look sort of like the Tomato worms we have in Texas. My chickens love tomato worms, I wonder if they would find these things equally delicious.

I agree with ChicagoCook. Since the bulk of my produce comes from the farmers market, I like being reminded of where it originated from. I usually just brush it off, rinse it off and keep on eating. Hasn't hurt me yet.

As a kid, I always had to help shuck bushels and bushels of corn from our fields. And at least 1 in 5 ears had a worm. You just pick them off and keep on shuckin'!

I remember the first time I found one of these in corn - scared the crap out of me! I've come around to ChicagoCook's way of thinking, though.

be warned: those little critters have teeth. at the farm I worked on, we had to shuck the ears of corn in the field, so we could fling (a wrist flicking motion worked best) the worms off the corn before we brought it in, and i remember getting a bite or two on my fingers.

LOL @ ephraim_oakes, do they actually have teeth?!

yep, they've got pincers. the bigger the "worm," the nastier the mandibles.

They say that if the worms can eat it it means there's less chemicals that they used on the product. That's automatic plus (well besides the worm)

One of the best farmers' market corn I've had was small worm infested, thankfully they left a lot left, it took a while to clean the corn.

When I was a kid I remember checking corn for worms with my grandmother in the store. To this day I still check my corn no matter where I purchase it!

...hey, if it works for mezcal....

Man, you people are so enlightened...I mean, I totally agree with everything you're saying, but finding these still gives me the willies.

I find it reassuring that maybe the corn is less doused in chemicals if it has a worm that I can just flick off.
Husking stations are a good idea--I wish some of my local farmers would do that. I hate to watch people husk the corn and toss it aside to sit there and dry out if it is not up to their standards.

I have a confession. After I made chicken stock the other night, with some CSA greens, I found that I had boiled a green worm in it. (Not a corn earworm, but the kale equivalent.) I haven't thrown the stock out yet. I'd just come to the conclusion that maybe I'd use it for my husband (he doesn't care) and me, and just not serve it to guests. But I'm still thinking about it.

It makes me so happy that everyone's just like "eh, no big deal." Highfive organic!

In theory I think it's no big deal, but I have to admit - worms in general give me the willies. This is why I make my boyfriend shuck the corn :). I don't mind eating it afterwards, I just get disproportionately creeped out by them.