Bug in my ear!

[Scotto]

Can't tell if it's out now, it might be. It hurt!! I could hear it "crunching in there," woke me out of a sound sleep.

Will putting peroxide in there make it get it out if it starts up again? Thanks!!!

[The Mountain]

If you have an ear irrigator you can probably just flush it out with tepid water.

[kemosabe]

welp, thanks Scotto, you have successfully managed to creep me out and make my skin crawl..
lol

Hope you got that sucker outta there.....


*cringes*
.

[Lilbitsnana]

From the Mayo Clinic:

how to remove an insect from your ear:

Try using oil for an insect. If the foreign object is an insect, tilt the person's head so that the ear with the offending insect is upward. Try to float the insect out by pouring mineral oil, olive oil or baby oil into the ear. The oil should be warm but not hot. As you pour the oil, you can ease the entry of the oil by straightening the ear canal. Pull the earlobe gently backward and upward for an adult, backward and downward for a child. The insect should suffocate and may float out in the oil bath. Don't use oil to remove any object other than an insect. Do not use this method if the child has ear tubes in place or if there is any suspicion of a perforation in the eardrum — pain, bleeding or discharge from the ear.

If these methods fail or the person continues to experience pain in the ear, reduced hearing or a sensation of something lodged in the ear, seek medical assistance.

http://www.mayoclinic.com/health/first-aid/HQ00061

[Scotto]

welp, thanks Scotto, you have successfully managed to creep me out and make my skin crawl..

.

Imagine getting woke out of a sound sleep with the pain and feeling/hearing this SUPER loud "munching" sound INSIDE YOUR DAMN EAR!!......oh hell I was flippin out!

Pretty sure it's gone now, haven't heard or felt anything in about 20 minutes. I think it was most likely a fire ant, they are HORRENDOUS this year, all over the house and I've woke up a few times recently with being bit all over. Had to change bedsheets in the middle of the night from hundreds in the bed....come on winter already.

[Scotto]

If you have an ear irrigator you can probably just flush it out with tepid water.

From the Mayo Clinic:
how to remove an insect from your ear:
Try using oil for an insect.

Thanks for the fast replies!!! MUCH appreciated!!

[BH]

Probably a little late, but use a bright light. Was told by a motorcycle riding doctor many years ago, a bug in your ear while riding, stop and put your ear to up to the headlight and the bug should 'see the light' and go to it....

[Red Baron]

I just pooped a little .....

[mechanic 217]

Had that happen once, used peroxide but a little too much thought I was going to pass out! next time just a drop or two. At least the bug came out.

[Marthanoir]

Had that happen once, used peroxide but a little too much thought I was going to pass out! next time just a drop or two. At least the bug came out.

Forget the peroxide and use Whiskey instead, it won't kill it but the soothing tones of a langered insect singing "Fields Of Athenry" can be very soothing

[idum]

Forget the peroxide and use Whiskey instead, it won't kill it but the soothing tones of a langered insect singing "Fields Of Athenry" can be very soothing

Good Answer!!!

[Chair Warmer]

Imagine getting woke out of a sound sleep with the pain and feeling/hearing this SUPER loud "munching" sound INSIDE YOUR DAMN EAR!!......oh hell I was flippin out!

Pretty sure it's gone now, haven't heard or felt anything in about 20 minutes. I think it was most likely a fire ant, they are HORRENDOUS this year, all over the house and I've woke up a few times recently with being bit all over. Had to change bedsheets in the middle of the night from hundreds in the bed....come on winter already.

I read a tip someone wrote here, they set a pan of oil under each bedpost to keep bugs off the bed.

[Satanta]

I read a tip someone wrote here, they set a pan of oil under each bedpost to keep bugs off the bed.

Might be me and it was about fire ants-used to get swarmed by threm on the horse farm.

coffee cans of transmission fluid with the metal legs of the bed set in them resolved that as long as the sheets did not hit the floor.

Pull the bed away from the wall.

[Dennis Olson]

Imagine getting woke out of a sound sleep with the pain and feeling/hearing this SUPER loud "munching" sound INSIDE YOUR DAMN EAR!!......oh hell I was flippin out!

Pretty sure it's gone now, haven't heard or felt anything in about 20 minutes. I think it was most likely a fire ant, they are HORRENDOUS this year, all over the house and I've woke up a few times recently with being bit all over. Had to change bedsheets in the middle of the night from hundreds in the bed....come on winter already.

We didn't have a winter this past season. Just a "cool period.". Crazy. I got bit by a SINGLE fi ant while running the pups yesterday. One ant. And I've been bitten before and am not allergic. My foot itches so bad (across the top) that I can barely stand it. And evidently I must have crushed the ant against the inside strap of my sandal, because now every time I put my sandals on, the itch flares up again. I didn't know their entire bodies were full of venom. My foot is twitching in its shoe right this moment because it itches so bad.

I can only imagine the horror of hundreds if fire ants in the BED! I mean, even if you took the sheets, you have no idea how many "escapees" there were, waiting to bite the hell out of you. Yeegads!!

[HighStrung]

My wife had a bug get in her ear a few years ago and we used a bulb sucker (not the technical name, but it's the thing you use to remove snot from a baby's nose) to get it out. I'm sure this does come with a risk of pushing the object further down in, but we just made sure that every time we were inserting it we were also letting go of the bulb so that it was creating a vacuum. About 3 attempts, and the baby lightning bug was free.

[Displaced hillbilly]

That is like something out of my nightmares! I hope it's out with no ill effects to you. And thanks, I will most likely sleep with earplugs now for the rest of my life..

[Satanta]

I do not remember the average number because it was one of those interesting facts I read years ago but people swallow lots of spiders in their sleep.

Mouth open, warm, dark and damp hole and the spider thinks "COOL! My new place to lay EGGS!"

Then the swallow reflex kicks in for you...in your sleep.

[Abdon]

cringing just thinking about it.

[Brutus]

I do not remember the average number because it was one of those interesting facts I read years ago but people swallow lots of spiders in their sleep.

Mouth open, warm, dark and damp hole and the spider thinks "COOL! My new place to lay EGGS!"

Then the swallow reflex kicks in for you...in your sleep.

Well, at least they die when they hit the acid environment of the stomach......

























......we hope.

[Brutus]

We had an employee one time get a large bug in his ear here at work (sawmill).

For those who aren't familiar, it's not uncommon for logs to go into the mill with bugs in them, and then when you start sawing the logs into lumber the bugs come flying out. It's VERY common to hit wasps' nests inside hollow hardwood logs from time to time.

Anyhow, a rather large bug was flying around in the mill and for some reason made a bee-line for this guy's ear. He didn't realize what was happening until the bug was already in his ear far enough that he couldn't grab it. He started freaking out, yelling, "It buzzin', it buzzin!!!" We got him up to the office and poured his ear full of alcohol and asked him how it felt then. He said, "It feel full." (lol!)

We got him to the doctor who took a pair of tweezers and extracted the bug from his ear. The friggin' thing was a good inch and a half long and about the diameter of a cigarette.

[SNOWSQUAW]

glad you are better

reminds me of IIRC a twilight zone skit where the bug was chewing , chewing, chewing through the mans brain.. a dr. finally got it out the other side but the last thing you hear is " well, we got it out.. but it was a female and she laid thousands of eggs!!!" {insert man grabbing his head and screaming here}

I will NEVER forget that segment or that show!

off to shower now and scald my ears out.

[Dennis Olson]

Here you go Snowsquaw:

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0660818/

[SNOWSQUAW]

thanks Dennis! That is it!

shiver.....

(and apparently I did forget the show.. it was night gallery - not twilight zone lol.. old age!)

[Bad Hand]

My mom and my great aunts both told me about putting a large tuna can with oil in it under each leg of the bed to keeps bugs out of the bed, also keep the bed away from the wall.

[Dennis Olson]

SS, it was still Rod Serling, so you were in the ball park - lol....

[Jubilation T. Cornpone]

Part 1

Part 2

Part 3

Part 4

[m.anderson]

I always wondered if a quick pass with a vacuum cleaner hose would work

[scubasteve]

I always wondered if a quick pass with a vacuum cleaner hose would work

Near your ear? NEVER ever ever NEVER ever do that. Chances are you'll do severe damage to your ear AND you'll still have a bug in there.

[Dennis Olson]

You could probably get away with it using one of those tiny electronics vacs:

http://www.halfhill.com/dust3.html

[BertaBurtonLake]

Late to the party, but i have always had good results from holding a strong penlight just outside the ear while in a darkened room. Most bugs will "go to the light".

[Scotto]

Thanks for the replies all!

I finally was able to get back to sleep after the adrenaline kept me wired for a few hours. No more ants, what a horrific experience.

[FarOut]

Got a flying bug in my right ear back in April. Flutter, flutter, flutter. Wish I had known about the light trick. Careful with any kind of suction, you could perforate the eardrum. I poured in 70% rubbing alcohol and it stopped moving. Went to the ER, got yelled at by the doc "nothing there, I don't see any bug" and got a nasty ear infection a week later. Suggest you go to your doc ASAP and get it checked.

[Flippper]

We've had really good luck using Amdro to kill ants. It was the only thing we tried that did, and we tried for 3 years everything we could think of. It says it takes a month to kill them, but it only took 2 or 3 days and they were gone. You sprinkle out the granules, the ants drag it back to the nest and feed the queen who dies and they die after her. Good luck, I hate those little buggers.

Dennis, that is the same reaction I get to the fireants, I can't feel their bite but the venom, yes, and the itch lasts 3 days. BF was digging something out of his car, I was waiting to get in, he'd put me right into a fireant nest while I waited for him to finish messing around in the car. I think he finally saw them all over my pants. We knocked off as many as we could but I had bites all over my legs and feet, and was going to Key West the next day. I spent my first 3 days raking my skin with my hairbrush and fingernails. Just before I left FL, I discovered that coconut oil stops the reaction and the itch. You might want to try that.

[Deena in GA]

Many years ago our oldest daughter, when she was young, also woke up from a sound sleep with a bug in her ear. She woke us up, frantic about something making loud noises in her ear. Unfortunately, I wasn't thinking clearly at the time and tried to get it out with a Q-tip. Bad idea! It just made things worse. Then we thought to try water, but apparently I'd already smashed it enough so the water wouldn't wash it away, but not enough to kill it because she could feel it beating against her eardrum. She was screaming at this point. Anyway, we ended up taking her to the ER because we couldn't get it out. We'd never heard of a bug getting in someone's ear, but the reaction of the doc at the hospital was, "well I was wondering when we'd get the bug-in-the-ear for the night". He said it happens all the time. He also told us next time to hold a bright light to the ear. Sure enough, just a few weeks later we were outside and a bug flew into my hubby's ear. We had a flashlight, held it to the ear and the bug flew out.

[Hansa44]

Totally agree with the flashlight to get a bug out of your ear. It happened to me.

My dh and I were sitting outside and suddenly a bug flew into my ear. I could feel it fluttering and the buzzing was driving me bats. dh told me to relax and sit down. He promptly shown the light from the flashlight down my ear, and I heard my ex say, "Ok. Here he comes." and that bug walked right out of my ear.

I suggest you do this in a dark room or even under a blanket to make the light very bright. The bug was nearly as happy as me to be shown the way out. .

[Walrus Whisperer]

I read a tip someone wrote here, they set a pan of oil under each bedpost to keep bugs off the bed.

I did this when I lived in Houston. Only problem is that cockroaches can FALL on you from wherever they are crawling. Like the ceiling. I had this happen to me. It was a cockroach stuck in my ear. The loud noise was its little legs scratching at my eardrum. Went to hospital, doc drowned it in mineral oil, then took it out. he takes it over across the room and the nurse says what is it and he says, a cockroach. Nurse said EWWWWW! I almost passed out from the ultimate grossout. To this day, I pull my hair over my ears at all times. especially when sleeping. I hate cockroaches, thank God I live somewhere where they are not endemic.

Theres that old Star Trek movie, where they put the helmuts on the men with bugs that crawled into their ears. Ultimate freakout.

[Meemur]

I know, I'm late to the party. If the light doesn't work, it's also OK to pour in a little rubbing alcohol. It quickly kills the bug, plus it's safe for those with ear tubes. I used to do that after swimming to dry out my ear canals. Rubbing alcohol kills the bug faster than peroxide.

[knepper]

I had a wasp in my ear last summer! I got it out with a set of tweezers, probably at the risk of puncturing my eardrum. Needless to say, I was willing to take the risk.

[peekaboo]

Last summer I was asleep and got an ant in my ear, not a fire ant just a regular old brown ant......I about gave myself whiplash getting that thing out. Its a good thing no one was between me and the bathroom where the peroxide was 'cause I would have mowed them down.

Chewing noise, fluttering I would have lost my mind and soiled my knickers. If this happened and I were awake I would have coped but coming out of a sound sleep not so much coping.

I'm a country girl and bugs are part of life.... Cockroaches are city bugs and I can't tolerate 'em. If I were living in a place where they fell from the ceiling into my bed or anywhere else I would be sleeping a a tent sprayed with Raid and moving as soon as humanly possible.....

[Satanta]

I know a few people I suspect if they got an insect in their ear then I could simply use the air hose in the other ear to blow it back out.

If it is a beetle it would be cool listening to it bounce around inside of their empty skull. Use them like a gourd or rattle in some sort of musical production... ~WHOOSH!~ rattlerattlerattle.