You’ve heard the saying: an itchy nose means you’re about to have an argument, an itchy ear means you’ve got a spider living in your head…
Wait, no. That’s definitely not a thing. For one man though, this ‘saying’ became a horrifying reality when he realised the crawling sensation he’d been feeling in his ear was actually a spider that had made itself at home.
The man, from eastern China, visited a hospital to investigate the peculiar feeling, but he could never have imagined what the cause was going to be.
As reported by News 18, the man visited the Affiliated Hospital of Yangzhou University in East China’s Jiangsu Province, where doctors investigated the itch.
At first glance, the team, led by Dr. Zhang Pan, didn’t see the spider in the man’s ear when simply looking inside it – they had to use specialised equipment in order to find it.
As per News 18, Dr. Zhang said:
I didn’t notice it when inspecting [his ear] with the naked eye. However, using an endoscope, I discovered the small spider inside.
A shocking video shows Dr Zhang reaching into the patient’s ear with a needle, before flushing the spider out of the ear canal with liquid.
Nope. No no no no no nope. I’m sorry, but can you imagine being told the news that you’ve got a spider in your ear?
The spider, which had started to weave a large web covering the entire ear canal (yep, that would explain the strange sensation), but was quickly driven out of the ear by the liquid.
Despite a relatively happy ending, the doctor said the man could have sustained damage to his ear canal if he’d delayed the treatment. As such, he’s warning people to seek immediate medical attention if they think they have an insect or spider in their ear.
Dr. Zhang added that although there are certain methods used to remove the pests – such as using a torch to draw out mosquitoes and moths or drowning an insect in oil – the safest way is always to visit a doctor.
As if we didn’t have enough to worry about, now we have to worry about a spider potentially getting stuck in our ear?!
Welp, there’s me sleeping with ear plugs for the rest of my life.
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A Broadcast Journalism Masters graduate who went on to achieve an NCTJ level 3 Diploma in Journalism, Lucy has done stints at ITV, BBC Inside Out and Key 103. While working as a journalist for UNILAD, Lucy has reported on breaking news stories while also writing features about mental health, cervical screening awareness, and Little Mix (who she is unapologetically obsessed with).