# Bugs in ears **URL:** \ **Category:** Cecil's Columns/Staff Reports\ **Created:** [April 13, 2000, 3:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bugs-in-ears/1238 "2000-04-13T03:33:00Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 10\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![ndorward](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/c2a13f/32.png) [@ndorward](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ndorward)\ **Post date:** [April 13, 2000, 3:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bugs-in-ears/1238/1 "2000-04-13T03:33:00Z")
Reading about bugs in ears in the latest classics feature– [http://www.straightdope.com/classics/a5\_111.html](http://www.straightdope.com/classics/a5_111.html) & it stirs a small memory: had read a poem by the writer Iain Sinclair, “Kristallnacht” (to be found in his selected poems, _flesh eggs & scalp metal_–great title) with a particularly unnerving quotation concerning the painter Soutine as an epigraph: “when Soutine finally consulted an ear specialist about this terrible earache, in the canal of the painter’s ear the doctor discovered, not an abscess but a nest of bedbugs”. So, ok, now you can worry not just about cockroaches and earwigs but bedbugs (and not forgetting those icky dust mites). --N * * * “english is mandarin” –Tom Raworth ---
**Author:** ![Anti\_Pro](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/8e7dd6/32.png) [@Anti\_Pro](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Anti_Pro)\ **Post date:** [April 13, 2000, 3:45am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bugs-in-ears/1238/2 "2000-04-13T03:45:00Z")
And \* my \* family wonders why I have insomnia problems!! I can scarcely think of sleep when I have to keep flailing my arms around fending off attacks from the insect world! eeewwwyuck! :mad: * * * “Please Disregard the Following.” ---
**Author:** ![malveitch](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/b487fb/32.png) [@malveitch](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/malveitch)\ **Post date:** [April 13, 2000, 6:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bugs-in-ears/1238/3 "2000-04-13T06:22:00Z")
Mal relinquishes his SDMB virginity to state: It happened to me. Only it wasn’t a roach or a bedbug, but a local native we call a Christmas beetle. The little bastards burrow into the ground at night, but this particular one mistook my eardrum for paydirt. By the time I arrived at the hospital, there was blood coming out. Eeeeeeewyuck is right. And let me tell you, it HURT. * * * Little Mal No sig quote at this time. ---
**Author:** ![system](https://global.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/original/2X/e/e489c3b7d8fce19c4b355dd4fc3f88cc39c34b87.png) [@system](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/system)\ **Post date:** [April 13, 2000, 12:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bugs-in-ears/1238/4 "2000-04-13T12:31:00Z")
Welcome, O Mighty **Malveitch!** Great first post. I think. * * * “Why, sometimes I’ve believed as many as six impossible things before breakfast!” - the White Queen ---
**Author:** ![Annie-Xmas](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/ecc23a/32.png) [@Annie-Xmas](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Annie-Xmas)\ **Post date:** [April 13, 2000, 2:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bugs-in-ears/1238/5 "2000-04-13T14:23:00Z")
When I was living in Minnesota, I knew a woman who got a woodtick in her ear. It attached itself and started sucking blood. By the time she knew it was in there, she had to have a specialist do minor surgery to get it out! ---
**Author:** ![Quadzilla](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/q/a4c791/32.png) [@Quadzilla](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Quadzilla)\ **Post date:** [April 13, 2000, 8:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bugs-in-ears/1238/6 "2000-04-13T20:50:00Z")
My dad, working the ER in a small clinic, once saw a teacher who came in after complaining of hearing loss and a strange “fluttering sensation.” Upon further examination, Dad discovered that the woman had a moth in her ear - it had flown in and gotten stuck, and was attempting to fly back out. All together now…Eeeeeew. :eek: * * * Christopher Robin Hood - he steals from the rich and gives to the Pooh. ---
**Author:** ![Anti\_Pro](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/8e7dd6/32.png) [@Anti\_Pro](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Anti_Pro)\ **Post date:** [April 14, 2000, 4:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bugs-in-ears/1238/7 "2000-04-14T04:16:00Z")
## Oh mal!! Do you sleep with ear muffs on now?? Poor thing! It’s nice that you finally posted, on this buggy subject too!! Judy * * * “Please Disregard the Following.” ---
**Author:** ![warinner](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/8edcca/32.png) [@warinner](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/warinner)\ **Post date:** [April 15, 2000, 5:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bugs-in-ears/1238/8 "2000-04-15T05:12:00Z")
> [@](#): > > Indian J Chest Dis Allied Sci 1992 Apr-Jun;34(2):103-5 > > Cockroach in right main bronchus–an unusual foreign body. > > Gokhale AG, Rajagopal P > > Department of Cardiothoracic Surgery, Nizam’s Institute of Medical Sciences, Hyderabad. > > Foreign body aspiration in children is not a uncommon clinical problem. Usually the foreign body is of vegetable origin. It is distinctly uncommon to find a living organism like cockroach, especially a large one as a foreign body in respiratory tract. Here we report one such rare experience. Andrew Warinner ---
**Author:** ![kingnixon](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/ea5d25/32.png) [@kingnixon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kingnixon)\ **Post date:** [July 21, 2005, 11:45am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bugs-in-ears/1238/9 "2005-07-21T11:45:36Z")
> [@malveitch](#): > > Mal relinquishes his SDMB virginity to state: > > It happened to me. Only it wasn’t a roach or a bedbug, but a local native we call a Christmas beetle. > > The little bastards burrow into the ground at night, but this particular one mistook my eardrum for paydirt. > > By the time I arrived at the hospital, there was blood coming out. > > Eeeeeeewyuck is right. And let me tell you, it HURT. when i was a young dan (8 or so), a mosquito flew into my ear and started slurping. damned if i know what it was doing in there, but blood started pouring out of my ear, and as you said, it HURT. i can only imagine how blindingly awful it must have been to have something _burrowing_ in your ear; that stupid little vampire was quite enough for me. ---
**Author:** ![C\_K\_Dexter\_Haven](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/b2d939/32.png) [@C\_K\_Dexter\_Haven](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/C_K_Dexter_Haven)\ **Post date:** [July 21, 2005, 1:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bugs-in-ears/1238/10 "2005-07-21T13:37:21Z")
Welcome to the Straight Dope Message Boards, **kingnixon** , we’re glad to have you with us. By the way, note that you’re responding to a thread where the prior response was over five years ago. Most of the people who posted to this thread way back then are no longer posting here, so don’t expect a response. (This is why we discourage reviving very old threads; the posters often aren’t around to respond. There’s no particular rule per se for this forum, but it’s usually a trifle awkward. No biggie, and, as I say, welcome!)