We heard an odd story this week about a woman who had a cockroach crawl in her ear while camping, but it turns out this isn’t odd at all. The Queensland ear, nose and throat specialist who featured in this story reported that he treats 1 case of bug-in-the-ear every 2 weeks, and even more often during warm weather.
Considering the weather has been extra warm recently we wanted to give you some tips in case this happens to you.
Do NOT:
- Put water into the ear as it can flush the bug further down the canal.
- Use tools such as tweezers to dig it out, you may cause serious damage to the ear canal or ear drum, and the bug may use the barbs on its legs to burrow deeper into the ear.
DO:
- Turn out all the lights, then shine a torch and see if you can get the bug to fly out on its own.
- Smother the insect by dropping some room temperature baby oil or olive oil into the canal.
- Seek professional medical help.
We love bugging you about your ear health (get it?), so if you have any further questions contact us on 0403 690 980.
If you want to read more about this ear-ie story, click the link below.
https://www.abc.net.au/news/rural/2023-01-04/cockroach-crawls-into-campers-ear-what-to-do/101824778