A New Zealand man has had a cockroach pulled from his ear three days after first feeling a squirming sensation.
Zane Wedding said he initially thought the problem was just water in his ear. The Aucklander had been for a swim at a local pool on Friday morning and fell asleep on his couch that evening. He woke up with a blocked ear – and the feeling there was something wriggling inside.
On Saturday, Wedding had his ear syringed. He was given antibiotics, instructions to blow-dry the side of his head, and a suggestion he return if he still felt movement.
“Immediately after, it felt way worse,” said Wedding. He went deaf in one ear and was unable to sleep. The hairdryer didn’t help. He joked: “I’ve been cooking it [with the hairdryer] since Saturday.”
Wedding then booked into an ear specialist. On Monday, she peered into his ear.
“Literally the second she looked, she said, ‘Oh my god … I think you have an insect in your ear.’” It took a few minutes, a suction device and tweezers to pull the now-dead cockroach from Wedding’s ear.
Wedding gave it to the specialist as a memento; she had never extracted an insect before.