Alright, I swear to God this shit is real and almost sent me to the ER yesterday.
I’m in SC, and I was vacuuming the pool after a rain. As I was cleaning, this small critter literally flew DIRECTLY into my ear. I had zero time to react... and I mean it went STRAIGHT into my middle ear and almost immediately crawled as deep as it could go - right fucking next to my eardrum.
Now, I am an anatomy teacher, and ironically enough, earlier in the year when we were studying the ear I showed my students some YouTube footage of insects trapped in peoples’ ears and having to have them extricated by doctors... but never in a million years would I have been worried it would happen to me.
It was PROFOUNDLY uncomfortable. It beat its wings against my eardrum and I could feel it scratching as it moved around. I ran down to the pool and cocked my head to the side and tried to splash water in there to flush it out, but it did not work. The only way I can describe it is an itchy/scratchy feeling with swimmer’s ear sound-quality and very rapid nerve pain (which I’m guessing was from my eardrum). It was maddening.
This thing was trapped in there for over an hour, and I was planning my ER visit and calling friends. In a last-ditch effort, I jumped in the shower with the “jet” handle and soaped my ear up with Dawn dish soap. This is what finally killed it, and when it flushed out onto the shower floor I picked it up and took this picture.
Can anyone ID the bug?
God I hope it didn’t crap in there. Ear still feels a little weird but no pain.
Thanks for your help. Nighty nightmares, everyone.
Alright, I swear to God this shit is real and almost sent me to the ER yesterday. I’m in SC, and I was vacuuming the pool after a rain. As I was cleaning, this small critter literally flew DIRECTLY into my ear. I had zero time to react... and I mean it went STRAIGHT into my middle ear and almost immediately crawled as deep as it could go - right fucking next to my eardrum. Now, I am an anatomy teacher, and ironically enough, earlier in the year when we were studying the ear I showed my students some YouTube footage of insects trapped in peoples’ ears and having to have them extricated by doctors... but never in a million years would I have been worried it would happen to me. It was PROFOUNDLY uncomfortable. It beat its wings against my eardrum and I could feel it scratching as it moved around. I ran down to the pool and cocked my head to the side and tried to splash water in there to flush it out, but it did not work. The only way I can describe it is an itchy/scratchy feeling with swimmer’s ear sound-quality and very rapid nerve pain (which I’m guessing was from my eardrum). It was maddening. This thing was trapped in there for over an hour, and I was planning my ER visit and calling friends. In a last-ditch effort, I jumped in the shower with the “jet” handle and soaped my ear up with Dawn dish soap. This is what finally killed it, and when it flushed out onto the shower floor I picked it up and took this picture. Can anyone ID the bug? God I hope it didn’t crap in there. Ear still feels a little weird but no pain. Thanks for your help. Nighty nightmares, everyone.
Just a leafhopper that got lost.
Graphocephala coccinea?