A Spider Spun A Protective Web Deep Within A Man’s Ear

You have certainly encountered at least one credible story about a person who had an insect, or several insects, stuck within his/her ear canal. Up until somewhat recently, stories concerning insects within a person’s ear had been dismissed as old wives tales. However, thanks to the internet age, numerous stories concerning insects that have crawled into people’s ears have been gathered from credible sources. In most of these stories, cockroaches are the insect culprits often responsible for diving into the ears of unsuspecting sleepers. Some of these stories may seem too sensational to believe, such as one that involved a mother cockroach and her eggs within a man’s ear canal. Even if you think that you have heard it all when it comes to insects in people’s ears, a new story from China may surprise you.

While experts have theorized that cockroaches may prefer the moist environment of an inner ear, it is not often that doctors encounter a spider within a patient’s orifice. Despite the rarity of such an event, a doctor in China recently discovered a bean-sized spider deep within a man’s ear canal. Not only that, but the spider had wrapped itself in silk webbing. As you can imagine, this would be a disturbing surprise for even the most stoical of physicians.

After several days of hearing sudden and very loud noises, some of which sounded like the repeated beating of a drum, a man reported to the hospital only to have a spider removed from his ear. An ear, nose and throat specialist, Cui Shulin, found a spider wrapped in its own webbing two inches inside of a man’s ear canal during an endoscopy. The specialist physician and several nurses were amazed at how deep the spider had traveled within the man’s ear canal.

In order to best determine how the spider should be removed, the specialist used a small instrument to record the spider’s activity deep within the ear canal. The specialist found that the spider had spun various webs in the ear canal in order to shield itself from intrusive fingers and instruments. This was a spider that was prepared to stay put no matter what. Luckily, the specialist successfully removed the spider, and the patient was released from the hospital free from injury. The specialist later claimed that cockroaches are found in people’s ears more often than any other insect or spider species. In a smaller number of cases, ladybirds and flies can wind up in a person’s ear, but very rarely spiders that have spun webs.

Would you respond with panic upon learning that your ear pain was being caused by a spider located deep within your ear canal?