I haven't really bought very many organic things but I saw a nice looking salad mix at Sam's club called Organic Spring Mix. It had some spinach and other leafy vegetables in it and I thought oh yum, looks good! It's also 20 calories per 3 oz. serving, so I thought it would be a good way to get more green leafy vegetables into my diet so I bought it.

I got it home and the first thing I noticed was the leaves were chewed up where insects had chewed them. This was kind of gross but washing them made me feel a little better about it. I then also found dead insects in the spring mix. Now in order to eat this I have to take every leaf and inspect it for bugs and then wash it (it says it's pre-washed, ready to enjoy). And looking over every leaf in a 3 oz. salad is quite a task since it takes a lot to get to 3 oz.

This has really put me off the whole 'organic' thing. I thought they had other ways to deter insects or used safer types of pesticides. I didn't realize they just let the insects go nuts and the salad would be full of chewed up leaves and bugs.

Um, leave the bugs in and call it protein? I grow my own lettuce in the summer, and have joked for years that the bugs add crunch and flavor to an otherwise tasteless food. All kidding aside, bugs sort of gross me out too, but they are nearly as disgusting as the worms. Ewwww....

I'm just really turned off to organic salad now. I think I'll stick to non-organic for things like this. Of course it still needs to be washed.

I had some organic winter squash one time and it was a lot sweeter but at least that has a hard shell the bugs can't get into so easily.

I would have taken that back to the store and gotten the non-organic one. That is nasty and organic or not there should not be bugs and chewed up bits in your food.

Well, this is a timely thread. Just last night I got out my Walmart purchased (same company as Sam's Club) Great Value brand long grain brown rice and found mealworms crawling in the bag! Talk about gross!

I looked at the bag, which was only about 2 months old (I had opened it but sealed it well after using a few cups) and noticed that there were little holes all throughout the thin layered plastic bag. Were the insects escaping or invading through these holes I wondered?

I went back to the store today and tried buying another bag of the GV brown rice. I inspected around 10 bags, and all of them had small holes, about the size of a ballpoint pen tip, throughout each and every bag. Now I knew! It was NOT my problem with the mealworms in the bag, it was Walmarts and the cheap, thin bags they are using for their Great Value rice! They use the same, thin bags for their white rice and I noticed holes in them as well.

I'm going to call the corporate office on Monday and inform them of this problem.

I wound up buy a high end brand of rice which is packaged in thick, durable plastic and it didn't have any holes in it.

Maybe I'll mention the bugs in the organic salad at Sam's Club while I've got them on the phone!

Vito that really is gross! That kind of thing would only be good if you had a pet lizard to feed the mealworms to. lol

I bought a cheap off brand of raisin bran one time and saw a bug fly out of the bag after I opened it.. threw the box away.

There was no non-organic choice really. I usually don't buy organic because I work in retail and have to work within the budget that allows me. That was the only Spring Mix there and it was at a good price.

I bought a sealed package of manacotti noodles one time and when I opened it there were little tiny catterpillars in it, I took it back to the store and they were not willing to do anything other than give me another package. I called the company and was given coupons for darn near a years worth of pasta, it can be worth while to complain some times. As for greens I always buy organic and I do wash it anyway, but have never ever had a problem with any of it (knock on wood)

Thanks Dee. If I do buy organic again I think I'll stay away from greens though unless it's something I can inspect for damage. The package looked really nice it was only after I opened it and looked through the leaves I saw how buggy it was.