We’ve had a bad drought this year, and deer and rodents have been hitting crops they normally leave alone - eg tomatoes, potatoes, squash, herbs, etc. I went out to my squash patch today and found that nearly all my butternut squash have some damage - ranging from half eaten to small nibbles on the surface.
Anything with major damage went into the compost pile, but I did harvest the squash with minor damage. Now I’m second guessing keeping any of it.
Would you eat a squash with obvious (but minor) gnaw marks?
Do you rinse strawberries from the store before eating them?
More likely to carry bacteria that will harm you than a butternut squash or eggplant with minor gnawing…