According to an old wives' tale dating at least as far back as the 18th century, the small, pincered insect known as the earwig earned its name by crawling into people's ears and boring into their brains, causing madness and even death. Fact or fiction?
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These little nuisances get into my house all summer. I find them everywhere, but especially right inside my back door where there are gaps just big enough for them to enter. I have no doubts about what draws them: cracked corn in the birdseed I put out. I used to grow corn in my back yard. Guess what I would find inside the husks? My speculation is that perhaps they were named earwigs because of their fondness for ears of corn!
My husband got one of these earwigs in his ear during the night when he was sleeping in the 1990′s. I had to drive him to the emergency room while he yelled in pain that it was chewing on his eardrum. When the nurse got the earwig out she also pulled out a plug of wax that was protecting his eardrum, but I don’t doubt that the pincers and barbs on the legs were digging into his ear canal. I can’t say that if the wax plug had not been there the bug would have also at least pinched the eardrum, but the way that it was positioned over the wax plug I think that it would have done some harm. So I don’t know where they get that this is false. Boring into the brain and causing madness or death may be false, but they do get inside the ear from time to time, even if by accident.
I was just woken up by an earwig crawling in my ear, thank goodness i was able to get it out, it really freaked me out. So i agree with you i dont think its just an old wives tale.
Many years ago, there was an episode of, I think it was the Twilight zone, about a bug crawling into a man’s ear and eventually coming out the other ear where the doctors were elated until they discovered the bug was female and had laid millions of eggs in the man’s brain. Scared the daylights out of me and all my friends at school. The story was spun because of the name “earwig” and the urban legend continued because of the episode.
The story appeared on Rod Serling’s Night Gallery in an episode entitled “The Caterpillar.”
I woke up one morning because my ear was tickled I thought it may be a spider or something. I jumped up, turned on the light. Then scratched my ear. While scratching I grabbed an earwig. All I can say is they do get into your ears it grossed me out. And I now have early Alzheimers at age of 42. I am just now putting this together but, maybe they just havent put this together yet. or the Drs are too lazy to really investigate peoples problems.
i had an earwig crawl all the way in my ear, scared the daylights out of me and it was the worst feeling in the world. i woke up to a tickling on my ear and tried to brush/flick whatever was on there off but instead to my horror i felt the bug crawl up inside my ear!! i started panicking and woke my husband at first he didnt fully believe that a bug crawled inside my ear. i looked up how to get it out and came across a helpful site that said to use baby oil. i did just that and out came an earwig, i cried. I dont sleep to well anymore…
TRUE, I just woke up around 1 a.m. this morning with an earwig trying to get in my ear, I am so freaked out right now and all night long. I kept thinking they were going to get in my mouth and eyes.
I had an earwig crawl inside my ear the other night, not a fun feeling. I had my girlfriend hold her phone up to my ear thinking it might be attacted to the light, and it worked.
So yeah just woke up to an earwig around my ear omg im scared it layed eggs in my ear omg
I woke up at 12:00 last night with a pain in my ear. It felt as if I had water deep in my ear. I put my ear to the pillow and it felt as if water was draining, but it wasn’t. After falling asleep and awakened again with the pain, I got up and swabbed my ear to release what felt like pressure. This did not work. I woke my wife up and told her I had a problem and asked her to get the Swimmer’s Ear drops. When she put the drops in my ear, the earwig immediately came out.
My ear is sore and it has been over twelve hours. I get chills down my spine thinking about it!
When I was 8 years old an earwig crawled into my ear. It ruptured my ear drum and cut the inside of my ear canal so badly I was bleeding. Worst pain of my life! I have been totally deaf in my right ear ever since. Sick of people telling me the ear thing is a myth lol.
AHH, I just was sitting online and thank God I was still awake because an earwig was just crawling on my arm headed toward my ear! I thought it was a spider turned on the light and there he was. I went ahead and put some ear plugs in. Plus I JUST got over a double ear infection! Go figure!!
Almost 30 years ago when my son was about 5, he was sleeping in my bed while I did late night laundry. While he slept, I brought a load directly from the dryer which was hooked up in the garage and dumped it onto the bed next to him so I could fold it. While putting the laundry away in another room, I heard my son wake up and complain he had water in his ear. I got a Q-tip (I know, you’re not supposed to put Q-tips in your ear) and tissue, tipped his head sideways, and gently tried to work what we thought was water from his ear canal. Instead of water, a wiggling but small earwig came tumbling out of his ear! This still gives me chills remembering it. If I had not seen it myself, I never would’ve believed it -what odds! Although we weren’t laughing about it at the time, we’ve joked over the years that we should’ve bought a lottery ticket that day -lol! Even though the odds are this will never again happen to me or anyone I know, until I moved somewhere with laundry hook-ups in the house, I never folded late-night laundry on the bed again.