Woman Has Spider in Ear for 5 Days; Complained of 'Itchy Ear' (PHOTO)
A Chinese woman has finally been cured of her "itchy ear" after doctors discovered that a spider had been living inside her ear canal for five days.
"All insects are cold-blooded, so in extreme heat they develop quicker, which results in more generations popping up now compared to previous summers," said Jim Fredericks, an entomologist with the National Pest Management Association, according to CNN.
The rapid increase in insect population could be why the spider took up residence in the woman's ear. She went to the Changsha Central Hospital to be treated for itching in her left ear, and after several tests doctors were stunned to see the spider happily living inside.
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Doctors chose to flush the insect out by using saline irrigation rather than using an instrument to grab the spider. They feared that the spider would be scared off and retreat further into the canal, so instead they used an irrigation method which allowed the spider to leave the ear on its own accord.
The story is reminiscent of John Hanning Speke, who traveled along the Nile River when his tent "became covered with beetles." The bugs then began crawling everywhere, including on his body and into his ear. He "began with exceeding vigor, like a rabbit in a hole, to dig violently away at [his] tympanum."
According to Speke, the beetle finally began to disintegrate and "six or seven months after the accident happened, bits of the beetle - a leg, a wing, or parts of the body - came away in the wax," he wrote in his journals that were cited in Edward Rice's "Captain Sir Richard Francis Burton."
Stories such as these terrify most people:
"Just read about a spider living in a woman's ear canal in China and now I'll never sleep again," tweeted A.J. Adeleye.
"Spider lives in woman's ear for five days, everyone on the planet winces in unison," added Vamsi Balakrishnan.
