I've never had worms in dried fruit before, but I found that the fruit tastes better if dried then frozen. After drying, I put them in individual baggies, then put the bag inside a freezer container. The worm problem never occurred to me, but the fruit seems to keep color and flavor longer if preserved this way.

I keep these freezer containers in the upper part of the fridge, handy for use in baked goods, etc.

Just my 2 c's.

Bejay

Here's a picture of the pears....my apologies to those with weak stomachs. There are two visible inthis picture, the white one being easier to spot.
I am very fussy about everything being super clean,free of decay etc. so am struggling to figure out how this happened!

At some point your fruit was exposed to the air. Dried fruits are very susceptible to all kinds of stored products pests. Look up "Indian Meal Moth" on Google and see where you find them - fruits will be listed.
The will chew into plastic bags to gain entry.
The female laying moths are very small and many are nocturnal (flying and laying eggs when you are asleep). Eggs will be laid in kitchen cracks (with small quantities of food present that you will not even see) and will serve as first food.
When I dehydrate fruit, I always store in the freezer (in Foodsaver bags) as they keep their color better and don't get weevils .
Jim in So. Calif.

Thanks Bejay and Jim! They did sit out on the trays overnight to cool before jarring.
Only thing I could think of was possiblity of eggs in the pears/apples that had survived the temps of drying, and that didn't seem right.
Looks like I'm going to need another freezer (we dehydrated bushels of apples) as this was a lot of work, not to mention waste of food, to let it happen again!
Now I've got to shake the image of moths flying around my kitchen at night...
S

I don't think you have to leave the dried fruit in the freezer indefinitely - just long enough to kill any insects. Most books on dehydrating fruit discuss either freezing or putting the food into the oven to take care of extra critters.

I routinely put my grains and beans into the freezer as well to prevent outbreaks of insects. I take them out when I need the room again.

Thanks dogear6. I actually had to sit a jar on the back deck in the snow cause the freezer was too full! It was minus 10 degrees here Saturday morning, so should be cold enough until I swap it out for the one in the freezer. Need to make sure each gets consistently cold temps for a long enough period to kill any possible nasties.

Reading about the Indian Meal Moth on google jogged my memory. Last fall I discovered a riddled plastic bag of seed corn that clearly had been feasted on by worms, and there were a few moths buzzing by it....guess they found my apples :(
S