MetaChat - Kid has earache,

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07 May 2007

Kid has earache, hears "crackling" noise in one ear. Mom takes him to the doctor. Doctor finds spiders living in kid's ear canal. (With video.)

post by: BoringPostcards at: 08:54 | 29 comments

I'm not going to view the video.
Instead, I'm going to find a suitable place to curl up and promptly die.

posted by CitrusFreak12 07 May | 08:56

Oh good, I can't view the video anyway. I don't have the proper plugin.

Whew!

posted by CitrusFreak12 07 May | 08:57

That's one of my worst fears. I will not be viewing the video, instead I think I will go throw up somewhere.

posted by LunaticFringe 07 May | 08:59

Well, it's not like you see the doctor visit, anyway... ;) But the kid does still have the spiders in a little jar.

posted by BoringPostcards 07 May | 09:01

Moommm, knock first, ok!?

I use humor to hide my fears.

posted by danostuporstar 07 May | 09:02

I think this may only be newsworthy because of the presence of video. I remember reading a long NYer piece awhile back about doctors debating the best means of removing various bugs from kids' ears. Apparently it's a fairly common complaint. But don't worry, Snopes assures us they will not eat through your brain.

posted by Miko 07 May | 09:13

The bugs, that is, not the kids. Kids will eat through your brain.

posted by Miko 07 May | 09:14

I don't have the proper plug-in for Firefox either, but that didn't stop me from opening the page in IE and viewing the video from there. I even had to click on it twice and hold 'control' the second time so the pop-up would open.

I wish I had not done this.

posted by essexjan 07 May | 09:15

It's funny, I've been bitten by both a black widow and a brown recluse, both relatively tiny spiders, but they don't frighten me half as much as wolf/clock/chicken-eating spiders do. Or ones that burrow into your brain (and of course they burrow into your brain. Did none of you see The Wrath of Khan? Do you think they just make those beasties up??)

posted by WolfDaddy 07 May | 09:32

I've been bitten by both a black widow and a brown recluse

*impressed*

posted by danostuporstar 07 May | 09:36

NO NO NO NO NO

posted by casarkos 07 May | 09:39

A few months ago, I was cleaning my ears with one of those blue rubber bulb thingies, and out came a fly-sized bug from my left ear. No idea how long it'd been there.

posted by mrmoonpie 07 May | 09:45

No. I deny this event, and all similar events. Just. NO.

posted by Elsa 07 May | 10:03

Heh. I think BoringPostcards has hit a nerve here, no?

posted by taxi 07 May | 10:48

Shuddering uncontrollably here.

posted by psmealey 07 May | 11:13

It reminds me of a horror story I once read when I was about 13. Someone got a bug in their ear, which ended up chewing its way through his brain until it came out the other side. It caused some damage on its way through, which was described in detail. But the patient survived and eventually the bug appeared out of his other ear and the doctors were waiting for it and grabbed it with tweezers.

They thought everything would be ok, until the bug expert examined it and said that it was a female that had recently laid eggs ...

posted by essexjan 07 May | 11:26

I AM NOT CLICKING THAT LINK.

posted by chewatadistance 07 May | 12:41

between that story and the story of the Amazonian Chicken-Eating Spider, just... GAH!

posted by psho 07 May | 12:54

La la la! This doesn't bother me at all!

*dances in happy cirlces around all the scardey cats*

posted by mudpuppie 07 May | 13:06

pups, do you really want us to go to reptile territory in retaliation?

posted by gaspode 07 May | 13:18

Blergh.

posted by deborah 07 May | 14:10

For my own sanity, I refuse to click on that link.

That is all.

posted by Luminous Phenomena 07 May | 14:21

I, too, will not click on that link. My imagination, though rusty, is enough, thank you very much. I will be going to bed with earmuffs tonight.

posted by phoenixc 07 May | 15:26

Spiders are vile. Spiders must die.

posted by King of Prontopia 07 May | 15:33

Actually, spiders are cool. They eat lots of truly vile bugs. However, I do not want them living in my ears. I don't want to imagine them living in my ears.

posted by deborah 07 May | 17:53

Love the final sentence in the news item:

He has taken them to school and his mother has taken them to work.

OK, the kid's excuse is "Show and Tell"; what's Mom's?

posted by rob511 07 May | 19:46

After a full day of running errands, with much time spent in a stifling hot car, listening to boring NPR stuff, this thought occurred to me:

Would the spiders even have decided to nest there if they weren't finding stuff to eat?

And that's when I got a bit squickly.

posted by mudpuppie 07 May | 20:19

Oh, no. No. I just saw moonbird's Mefi post on the chicken-eating spider.

Clock spiders, ear-living spiders, poultry-munching spiders? Aaargh. Also, I seem to have a lot of spiders in this new house. In fact, I think I have a spiderbite on my wrist right now.

posted by taz 08 May | 03:20

Oh, noes! You guys! Big, big spider in my bathroom this morning! Not as big as clock spider, but about two inches across, and knobbly. I'm no spidah-hater, but oye, oye, oye.

posted by taz 10 May | 05:28

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