#trending: Horrified family finds caterpillar inside durian, causing some netizens to swear off the fruit

SINGAPORE — A family's excitement at preparing to dig into the king of fruits in their Kallang home quickly turned into repulsion as they uncovered a juicy caterpillar wriggling within the freshly opened durian.

In a video uploaded on Power98FM radio DJ Jerald Justin Ko's personal TikTok account, his mother is seen shrieking in disbelief as she gestures with a knife towards an opened D24 durian on the table.

The camera then zooms in to reveal a thick red caterpillar crawling into a crevice under a durian seed.

Closing the durian husk, the agitated woman repeatedly orders the man behind the camera to take the durian and its critter away.

The 22-second video has received more than 500,000 views and 30,000 likes since it was uploaded on Tuesday (July 19).

Many TikTok users shared similar experiences in the comments section of the video. One recounted: “Mine (also) same thing happened but it (was a) maggot and (was) really fat.”

Another wrote: “You know what’s worse than finding a worm in a durian? Finding half of the worm in the durian.”

For some, the video was enough to put them off eating durian for good.

“You just ruined durian for me,” one TikTok user wrote.

Another commented: “Thank you for this video! You just helped me quit my durian addiction. Confirm won’t get fat by durian anymore”.

Many other social media users, however, seemed to agree that discovering critters in durian is a sign that it is delicious.

“Durian with worms are the sweetest! They know the good stuff. Ate the unaffected side before, though I must admit the worms I saw weren’t this huge,” one user claimed.

A TikTok user similarly wrote: “This means that durian is particularly good, leh. Should find the untainted pieces and eat. Sure shiok one”.

Some others even joked that the caterpillar was a source of “extra protein”.

However, for durian haters, the incident seems to have only increased their distaste for the often polarising fruit.

One wrote: “Now I have another reason why I don’t like to eat durian.”

Another remarked: “Times like this, (it) makes me feel lucky I’m allergic to durian.”

The critter appears to be a type of caterpillar known as a durian fruit borer or, to use its technical name, conogethes punctiferalis.