Well first for me.  My niece's boyfriend called rather frantic.  They were watching TV and a bug flew in her ear.  Thing went deep and started scratching, biting, stinging ?  He called us and we meet at the emergency room.  They got it out and it was huge!! The thing was easily an inch long and nasty looking.  Her ear is swollen inside and scratched up.  Never heard of that happening to someone before.

I have had a very small fly go in my ear once, I could hear it moving around and buzzing and stuff. It took me almost 8 hours to get it out. Its horrible hearing something in your ear like that.

I used to work with a lady whose brother was killed while trying to hop a train.  Apparently they night before a roach had crawled into his ear.  This is all we heard about her brother... he died with a bug in his ear.  It was very weird that was what she focused on.

Good luck to your niece.

She was freaked out by the event.  Can't say I blamed her.  That was a scary looking bug.

I hope it didn't lay eggs.

I dont think eggs should be a problem if they cleaned it afterward. Did it look like a wasp or bee?

Crazy story.  Good thing they got it out.  Ever since I was a kid earwigs have freaked me out.  Bugs in the ear... not cool.

Once I interpreted for a case where the person had a "forest" growing inside the ear..some sort of greenish fungi... it hurt a lot...it was weird of the doctor saying " it is a great looking forest"..wow.  wonder of what kind of bug of a inch size your niece encountered. 

Every time someone brings up an insect inside an ear, I can't help but think of the Star Trek II Wrath of Khan scene with Ricardo Montalban and the earwig torture.  Aaaauuuugggghhhh!

[video]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ydXenL7iu0w&feature=player_detailpage[/video]

Nate

normally they would crawl out sooner or later. i heard using flashlight to force it out before. most flies and such will fly towards the light. i guess this one was something different. hope she's ok. 

Once treated a young girl in the Urgent Care with a wasp in her ear. Poor thing kept getting stung inside the canal. I've never seen anyone more hysterical. Her face was very swollen. I see lots of folks with roaches in the ear- they crawl in at night.

OMG that's aweful! I sure wish you would have gotten a picture of it. I really hope she's okay and her hearing wasn't damaged.

Maybe We need to come up with ear nets LOL

Nate,
  That is exactly where my mind went when I read the first post!!!
  Then, after reading the other posts, I had flashbacks to my older brothers and sisters scaring me with stories about ants or spiders or other bugs crawling in your ear and laying eggs.
Cheers,
Jim

I've taken roaches, beetles, moths and a mosquito (dead by then, they put baby oil in the ear) from ears over the years. Not sure the attraction of a small dark opening to all those bugs

[QUOTE=eboone]I've taken roaches, beetles, moths and a mosquito (dead by then, they put baby oil in the ear) from ears over the years.[/QUOTE]

Me too, Ed. I like squirting a bit of lidocaine in the ear canal first. The roaches become paralyzed releasing their grip and making it easier to drag them out using a needlenose alligator clip amid the "ew's" and "ahs" from observers.
It's definitely a highlight in an otherwise routine day.

So many doctors here. One of the Doc's in our ED is really interested in my fig trees. I offer her a young start, but she seems hesitant to have anything that takes some commitment, I understand. She says she's not to sure about things that can't make it on their own. Every time I show her a picture she really perks up and asks  more questions. Eventually.
Frank, I never noticed until now that you have your title in your signature line. I thought FMD were your initials all this time.

"... they put creatures in our ears!"  (Chekov's later explanation of the torture they'd endured).  I thought of that clip too, Nate.

There was also a Night Gallery TV episode about an earwig being used in an attempted murder in some jungle, but it was botched and went into the would-be murderer rather than his intended victim.  (Rod Serling's Night Gallery was a short-lived series that came some years after The Twilight Zone had ended production).  It was a freaky / frightening episode, where the kicker at the end was about "females lay eggs"  (OK, mgg, I'm guessing you saw that one too maybe?).  Scared the heck out of me when I was a little kid and saw it.  

I too had an insect get into my ear, just a few years ago.  Mine was some kind of biting beetle.  I went to a walk-in clinic where a nice doctor like Frank or Ed took it out with forceps.  Bloody and swollen, but it healed.  ("Well it got better, you know").
Hope your niece's ear heals soon.

Mike   central NY state, zone 5

That is a terrible experience. There can't be anything worse than having something in your ear moving around, making noise, and hurting you. AND YOU CAN"T DO S**T ABOUT IT.

[QUOTE=leon_edmond]Once treated a young girl in the Urgent Care with a wasp in her ear. Poor thing kept getting stung inside the canal. I've never seen anyone more hysterical. Her face was very swollen. I see lots of folks with roaches in the ear- they crawl in at night.

[/QUOTE]

OMG, I can't imagine,,, bug in the ear would be bad enough,  Wasp stings hurt bad enough,  together??????   wow,,

OK you folks are tough but being a scientist I had to see the bug for myself.  It was still in the tissue so the nurse fished it out of the trash and we took pictures.  All of the ER staff came over to check it.  The bug is next to my thumb ~3/4 of an inch and it looks to be an earwig of all things.              

Earwigs don't have wings and they have pincers on their tail end.
It looks like a little click beetle. What hurts to much is that it can't turn around and the instinct is to keep going. Right into the eardrum.  Miami is really buggy, so first lidocaine, or any an anesthetic, then something oily to kill it, then fish it out.
I feel for the patient.


PS: Why did the nurse pick it out of the trash for the scientist? 

https://www.google.com/#q=earwig

Cause I didn't know where it was otherwise I would have pulled it out myself.

All good , just picking on you.
That has to hurt like crazy to have 6 barbed feet digging in your ear canal.

NC is known for wicked bot flies nesting in people. They think its an ingrown hair til it starts to wiggle....

Well, I'm wearing a shower cap to bed from now on...

So, when I'm really sick, I read gardening forums. I find them really soothing. But AAAAAAAUGH. NO NONONONO. I'm suffering with an ongoing ear problem. And this is NOT what I needed to read.

Anyhow Glad things turned out well.