Related experts said that because prunes are not protected by the rind, natural situations will attract fruit flies to lay eggs on the fruit. "But these bugs will not have much effect on the human body." After a few minutes of soaking in salt water, prunes will indeed be drilled out of small insects, but experts say, prunes drilled out of the bugs like rice worms, cabbage worms, it is difficult to avoid, but non-toxic. The Zhejiang Provincial Department of Agriculture and the Zhejiang Provincial Yangmei Industry Association say there is no particularly effective way to prevent such worms.
"Most of these bugs are lepidopterous insects of the wheat moth family. The mothers lay their larvae on the fruits before the prunes are ripe. The rich nutrients outside the kernels of the prunes then become a breeding ground for the larvae, which do not leave until they have feathered into moths." Wu Yinqing, a fruit tree expert at the Shanghai Agricultural Hotline, said. Because the bugs in prunes are mostly larvae, and because they are hidden deeper, they are less easy to recognize with the naked eye. "Of course, after the prunes are picked from the tree and the fruit starts to die, the bugs multiply faster, so sometimes you can see above a pile of prunes, there are always some small bugs flying, which is what this lepidopteran insect looks like after it feathers."