Man who complained of itch had live cricket in his ear

A man who complained of an itch in his ear found out the source of his discomfort was just that— discomforting.

Doctors in India extracted a live, 3-inch cricket from the unidentified man’s ear— and they caught the graphic procedure on film— Medical Daily reported.

During the procedure, doctors used narrow tweezers to pry the Indian house cricket from the man’s ear canal.

Indian house crickets are known to be an invasive species, Michael Sweet, lecturer at the University of Derby and an expert on invertebrate biology, told the Daily Star Online. The insects prefer warm countries and hide during daylight.

“It is likely this cricket crawled into the man’s ear while he was sleeping and was just hiding there until night came around,” Sweet said.

This isn’t the first case of a critter crawling into an ear canal. In early 2014, Medical Daily reported that a Taiwanese woman complained about an earache and later discovered larva living inside her ear. Doctors reportedly extracted her hearing aid to find that the larva had caused bloody fluid build-up.

Side effects from ear injuries include redness, swelling, and discharge such as blood, inflammatory fluid and pus. Dizziness, loss of balance and nausea are other, more extreme symptoms of ear problems.

While the patient in India did not suffer any severe side effects, Sweet said the man could suffer from temporary balance and hearing problems due to inner-ear damage.  Those who think a foreign object is in their ear are advised to seek medical help, especially if they have severe pain or a fever, or if they witness any swelling, discharge or bleeding from that area.

It isn’t uncommon for insects to crawl into human ears, Dr. Richard Nelson, an emergency medicine physician at Ohio State University Wexner Medical Center, told LiveScience.

Cockroaches are the most common type of bug to infest the human ear, Medical Daily reported.

“They tend to run toward small, dark places, which fit the description of the ear,” Nelson said.

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