California teen visits Chipotle, then sees something moving in burrito bowl: "I'd actually pass out"

A high school water polo athlete from Arroyo Grande, California made a startling discovery in a Chipotle burrito bowl that was so unnerving that it dashed her love for the chain. Morgan Devens (@morgan_devens) published a short clip to TikTok highlighting the revolting find.

In it, Devens shows a close-up of the purported Chipotle meal in question. Amidst chopped tomatoes, grains of rice, lettuce, and a swath of what looks like sour scream, is a set of tiny legs upturned towards the lens and moving from side to side.

After filming it for a few seconds, Devens then zooms out, showing the food inside of Chipotle's trademark cardboard packaging, with a stamped foil top emblazoned with the restaurant's logo right above it.

One person wrote: "This is exactly why I eat in the dark." Another penned: "I probably ate so many bugs." A different person on the app remarked that this discovery is the reason why people need to start preparing their meals themselves.

"We need to start cooking and eating at home," they said. Another highlighted the cost of Chipotle meals, stating that Devens should just throw the bug out and keep eating. "Man if you don't plug that alien out there and finish that $18 meal," they penned.

Which was a sentiment echoed by others who said: "Just throw that away and eat the rest." Others seemed more concerned with the species of critter inside of Devens' food, pointing to a bug that traveled from Australia and is now reportedly popping up in Southern California.

"That's actually a Eucalyptus Beetle and they are from Australia but have recently come to Southern California the last few years," one said. "I learned about the Eucalyptus Beetle today and I won't be eating Chipotle for a while," someone else wrote.

According to UC Riverside's Center for Invasive Species Research, the Eucalyptus Leaf Beetle was first reported to have entered the Golden State's ecosystem in 2003. Unfortunately, the bug doesn't have any known predators in the state.

Additionally, females lay anywhere from 30-60 eggs directly on "younger foliage" according to UC Riverside, which culminates in "extensive" damage to leaves once they are hatched and begin feeding. When it comes to pesticide control against the bugs, the center said "research ... is lacking."

While the Eucalyptus beetle is a relatively new addition to California's nature landscape, the Eucalyptus tree is not. These plants were first brought to the area in the mid-1800's and are considered a fixture of its flora.

The fauna portion of that equation, namely its "pests and diseases associated with living trees were not ... introduced," according to the University of California's Agriculture and Natural Resources department.

Prior to the arrival of the Eucalyptus Leaf Beetle, the Eucalyptus Longhorned Borer was spotted in 1984. So it isn't like bugs tearing up the leaves of the imported trees were entirely uncommon before Devens spotted one in her Chipotle bowl.

The Mexican-inspired food chain has over 4,189 locations across the United States. With that kind of footprint, there's bound to be some complaints, especially because it uses fresh local produce for the fare it serves up to customers.

Sometimes, bugs make it into the bags of produce that farmers / harvests collect to ship out to restaurants and consumers. As gross as it may sound, the FDA rules that there's an acceptable amount of bugs and insect parts in food.

That's because harvesting food that's completely devoid of all bugs would require pesticide amounts considered to be too dangerous for human consumption. In fact, the FDA has clearly delineated guidelines for food defect levels in food.

For frozen broccoli, for instance, the defect threshold in an average of 60 or more aphids, thrips, or mites per 100 grams. In frozen brussel sprouts, the average is 30 or more per 100 grams. When it comes to canned and frozen berries, an average of 4 or more larvae or 10 or more whole insects per 500 grams is enough to take action.

Canned citrus fruit juices are allowed to have under 5 fly eggs per 250 ml. If one or more maggots are found in 250ml of juice, then action can be taken. For spices like ground cinnamon, action is taken if there's 925+ or more insect fragments every 50 grams. You can reach more about federal food defect action levels here.

In 2024, another TikTok user said she spotted an insect inside of her burrito. Others who replied to her video stated that they, too, found unwelcome guests hanging out in their meals from the fast casual food chain. Furthermore, this Redditor also stated that they found a bug inside of their burrito bowl and asked others on the outlet if they were "overreacting for puking [their] brains out after finding" it in their food.

As for moving pests, a different Reddit user in a separate post said that they were eating their food when "a little bug crawled out of [their] lettuce right as [they were] almost done eating." Have you ever found something unsavory in your meal? How did it make you feel about returning to the establishment for more grub?