Doctor removes cockroach stuck inside man's ear for three days
This story is not for the faint of heart.
It's the stuff of nightmares: A 40-year-old New Zealand man recently had a cockroach stuck inside his ear canal for three days.
Zane Wedding first noticed something was up with his ear after swimming in a public pool in Auckland last Friday CNN reports.
The doctor told him it was just water and suggested blowing hot air from a dryer into his ear. That didn't work - he still hear movement, combined with "a feeling of pressure on [his] eardrum," he told the CBC, so he booked an appointment with a specialist. The movement in his ear suddenly stopped on Sunday, but Wedding says his ear still felt blocked.
The following day, the doctor immediately spotted the insect. It took about five minutes to get the cockroach out, which was dead.
"In that moment, I realized every movement I'd felt over the weekend was the cockroach moving around in my ear. I instantly thought of the fact I had just been pumping hot air into my head and cooking a cockroach in my ear canal all weekend. It made me feel sick," he told CNN.
"Once I knew it was a bug, it all clicked together ... That's why the water would move even when I was still. It was a cockroach moving in my head."
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Wedding suspects the insect didn't come from the pool - but rather, his home.
"We're actually getting the house fumigated today as we speak," he told the CBC Thursday.
"Falling asleep on the couch and having a bug climb into your ear is not something anyone wants."
It's summer in the southern hemisphere, and that's when cockroaches are at their most active.
Warmer weather tends to send them out in droves, increasing the risk of an infestation.
As for preventing a future occurrence - the doctor wasn't sure.
"The doctor actually said to me, 'I'd love to give you some advice to prevent this, but I have no idea what to tell you,'" Wedding told CBC.
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WHAT ARE THE ODDS AN INSECT WILL CRAWL INTO MY EAR?
Doctors say that overall, bugs only crawl into people's ears and get stuck on rare occasions - but it does happen from time to time. It's most likely to occur if you're sleeping in a cockroach-infested room (cockroaches are most active at night), or if you're camping.
If you ever suspect you have a bug stuck in your ear, the best course of action is to get to a doctor and explain the situation. Experts advise against using a cotton swab - which could make the problem far worse.
