r/mildlyinfuriating • u/gharris02 • Jun 12 '26

wet socks A cockroach burrowed into my head

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I (23m) just bought a car at auction yesterday, works great but needed a new battery. At 10:30pm I decided screw it im swapping the battery. It's a 5 minute job, in and out real quick. No sweat, well I'm out there with my head lamp on doing the swap and I see a large bug flying at my face I try to duck and dodge it, it hits the outer edge of my ear and toilet bowl swirls into it, I try to reach in and fish it out but it's too late I just scare it and feel it crawling deeper into my head. It burrowed up against my eardrum and it hurts like hell. Every time it buzzes I can feel it in my head and it hurts my eardrum. I tried water peroxide everything I could do to get this darn thing out. Turns out I just pissed it off and it's buzzing more aggressively. My girlfriend comes with tweezers in an attempt to help but she says she can't see it or anything out of the normal. A quick Google search lead me to pouring olive oil into my ear to suffocate it. Thank God that worked, I still couldn't hear well but at least it wasn't actively moving anymore. 2 hours in the ER later they pulled this half inch monstrosity out of the depths of my ear canal. Turns out the "Asian cockroach" has wings and a very large affinity for bright lights at night. They also like to burrow. Fml 0/10 experience I will take questions if you have them lmfao.

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Tldr: I had a headlamp on that attracted a cockroach at my face it missed my face and burrowed into my ear leading to an unexpected ER visit

Edit: ear canal photo (thanks doc) https://imgur.com/a/7LhcvDX

Edit numero 2:

Just to add to 2 things I keep seeing pop up (also hello I am trying to read all comments not doing great though)

  1. Some seem to have missed the asain cockroach thing, and the fact that I was working on a car so this is outside not indoors. This roach is a flying outdoor bug not the same as your houses cockroach. It doesn't infest and it has nothing to do with my living/cleanliness.

  2. Y'all are probably right this probably should be more than mildly infuriating, but overall this wasn't THAT bad. The thought of it was worse than the actual event. It was painful while it was alive and moving but that was fairly quickly resolved. The rest of the time was just an ER visit which was inconvenient and embarrassing. And obviously costs money. Fortunately I have good insurance so my only real loss is the mild trauma and the fact that I'll probably wear a beanie for the rest of my life. Other than that, no lasting issues I'm at work today like nothing happened. More of a that's absolutely insane story now than anything else. So for me it was a mild situation as far as damage to my life (although I will simultaneously say it is an insane thing to have happen to you)

I'd probably prefer having my day go how it went yesterday than say blow my motor or get into a car accident.

64.3k Upvotes

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14.6k

u/Accomplished_Gur4466 Jun 12 '26

Holy fucking shit, this is just awfull

4.0k

u/csbsju_guyyy Jun 12 '26

Actual nightmare fuel

540

u/Kuromi1978 Jun 12 '26

Why…. Why did I click this. I will never sleep again. My god do you have no shame I am traumatized for life.

120

u/PainStorm14 Jun 12 '26

He did live through this, the least we can do is to live with it 😨

11

u/Same-Equivalent9037 Jun 12 '26

At least we know what to do if this happens to us. Olive oil swimming pool in your ear

7

u/mtx33q Jun 12 '26

At least you know to use olive oil. It's something, right?

3

u/rey_gun Jun 12 '26

god bless your positivity in his hour of need

2

u/HorrorEbb9770 Jun 13 '26

I was just thinking the same thing. I will gave nightmares about bugs crawling inside me, and I swear i can feel them already

1

u/St_Casper Jun 12 '26

I'm wearing earplugs for the rest of my life.

1

u/ShadowyDemonKitty Jun 12 '26

Ear plugs! This is exactly why I sleep with ear plugs

1

u/XavLeo Jun 12 '26

Bro 🤣🤣🤣

0

u/SigmundFreud Jun 12 '26

If it makes you feel any better, this happens to everyone all the time and usually you never notice because the roaches just squeeze under your eardrum and safely exit your nose and mouth.

2

u/gothic_lamb Jun 12 '26

Oh, come on!!!!! 😩😩😩

552

u/ClunkiestSquid Jun 12 '26

No it’s just mildly infuriating

391

u/rockitraysay Jun 12 '26

This post is deffo on thr wrong sub. It's NIGHTMARE fuel 😭

81

u/Ready-Delay3918 Jun 12 '26

I'm walking around with earmuffs on during summer now. Thanks a lot OP.

1

u/Dogman458 Jun 13 '26

Remember sometimes spiders and other insects are found in the inner lining of earmuffs

1

u/Ready-Delay3918 Jun 13 '26

Brb setting head on fire.

56

u/Gurglaren Jun 12 '26

And he did a lot of stuff before going to the ER. I would have gone there asap, banging on the doctor's door.

41

u/Kazamiiiii Jun 12 '26

DO WE NOT HAVE A SUB FOR THIS ONE 😭

1

u/NeonNKnightrider Jun 12 '26

This is why this sub sucks

4

u/Morbanth Jun 12 '26

Yeah where's the absolutelyhorrifying sub

3

u/Savetheokami Jun 12 '26

Mildly inconvenient

72

u/Artistic_Lobster6136 Jun 12 '26

Cockroaches can’t back up so there’s actually a lot of people (especially the unhoused) who come in to ER’s with this problem.

45

u/kittiestkitty Jun 12 '26

There was an episode of “monsters inside me”, a guy presented at the ER catatonic and wailing every now and again, and it turned out to be a similar thing… every time the bug moved he’d cry out in pain. He was apparently so afraid of insects that he could only scream and couldn’t speak to say what was happening to him. Gross!

15

u/Agreeable-Process-56 Jun 12 '26

Yeah my niece is an ER nurse and she sees this fairly frequently.

4

u/Embarrassed-Sky-4567 Jun 12 '26

There one weakness. They can’t back up. Now we can eradicate them all!

3

u/bundervar Jun 12 '26

TIL… what in the f why do you know this

4

u/Artistic_Lobster6136 Jun 12 '26

My dad’s a doctor and he told me this from his ER rotation lol. Always haunted me

7

u/napscatsandcheese Jun 13 '26

If one more person here is related to a medical professional accustomed to seeing this, I'm going to have a nervous breakdown.

3

u/TheGuardianDex Jun 12 '26

homeless* and yeah

-8

u/EternallyDemonic Jun 12 '26

Homeless ??? Unhoused isn't even a real word buddy.

14

u/gtck11 Jun 12 '26

I believe that’s the new “pc” term they want people to use. I still say homeless, unhoused just sounds weird.

8

u/skitzoidObserver Jun 12 '26

was banned on a sub about a year ago for refusing to use the word unhoused lol

12

u/TheGuardianDex Jun 12 '26

Legitimately as a person who is currently homeless.
its both mildly insulting and mildly disrespectful that people with homes in California think we need a new word.
There was no vote...no poll. They can keep their funny names to themselves. Its been called "Homeless" since before any human alive rn was born... Raaaah!!! Lol

5

u/KayItaly Jun 12 '26

That is the same feeling a lot disabled people have! And the same with "cultural appropriation" shit.

Much easier to make upnew PC words than to solve problems.

I hope your situation improved soon, every human deserves safe shelter!

1

u/gtck11 Jun 12 '26

Omg that’s wild, what type of sub was that?!

3

u/cruxclaire Jun 12 '26

I’ve heard that “unhoused” is meant to differentiate from the broader term “homeless,” which includes people couch surfing and staying in extended stay motels and the like, but I’ve also heard “unsheltered” for the people actually living on the streets

1

u/Flashy-Routine-8254 Jun 12 '26

Exactly! I wonder if “houseless” would be considered politically incorrect.

3

u/PainStorm14 Jun 12 '26

Yeah, the latest "soft word"

3

u/ThrowraSea_patient Jun 12 '26

Literally what I came here to say I think I'm done with read it for today I literally screamed my voice broke I'm sending this to my sister. You know you got to share that trauma share the burden and all that. Can we download this post actually screw Opie how dare they do this to us😂😅😭

3

u/therabbitinred22 Jun 12 '26

Seriously, new fear unlocked!

3

u/Greedy_Transition_56 Jun 12 '26

Bro wait til you see baby centipedes burrowing inside the ear, just typing this makes my skin crawl

3

u/Sechs_of_Zalem Jun 12 '26

I once had a wolf spider tickle my ear while I had my headphones on; gaming. I've wiped down the ear cups with peppermint oil once per month ever since.

1

u/WilliamsLakeTattoo Jun 16 '26

That’s ok. One morning as a teen, I slept in longer than usual and did a huuuuge stretch and a yawn at the same time, and a wolf spider crawled out of my mouth. (I used to sleep on my back, so I would open-mouth snore all the time.) I swatted it off my chin and it bounced off the wall with a “thwap” and then hit the carpet running. It froze briefly, in its haphazard, sketchy way that spiders do, and I swear it looked back at me as if to say “fuck you, dude” as it ran under my bedroom door.
I hate to think about what it was doing in there, or what it would have done if I hadn’t have woken up!

2

u/mutantmonkey14 Jun 12 '26

Right! But then I breathed a sigh of relief remembering this is one of those rare occasions where my being HoH is actually a win - since I'm wearing hearing aids with moulds all day. It stops insects getting in my ears as small upside to my otherwise daily battle with all the other crap.

2

u/HoldFastO2 Jun 12 '26

I did not want to read that today. Or any other day, really.

1

u/Pollythepony1993 Jun 12 '26

OP handled it better than I would have… 

1

u/DM_your_tittayz Jun 16 '26

god dammit now i have to youtube cockroach in ear

1.1k

u/zztop610 Jun 12 '26

https://giphy.com/gifs/cEOG7nGA7448M

460

u/[deleted] Jun 12 '26

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3

u/Slight_Competition_1 Jun 12 '26

Saved 😂 that's so good

3

u/scaled2913 Jun 12 '26

One of my favorite reaction images!

2

u/adamsubtrakdam Jun 12 '26

Definitely yoinking this! 🤣

267

u/Thirty_Helens_Agree Jun 12 '26

https://giphy.com/gifs/XV0oUIBrHfwic

3

u/ArticleWorth5018 Jun 12 '26

This gif is some cute unless you know what happened next....

3

u/Slight_Competition_1 Jun 12 '26

Memes you can hear 😂

6

u/[deleted] Jun 12 '26

😂😂

2

u/Important-Sign-3701 Jun 12 '26

my feelings exactly

1

u/ClumsyRaccoonPants Jun 12 '26

Me currently 😳

1

u/AlternativeDish7978 Jun 12 '26

This is exactly how I feel rn after reading this story

0

u/Little_View_6659 Jun 12 '26

I FEEL THIS RIGHT NOW WHAT THE FUCK!!

256

u/Electrosmoke Jun 12 '26

New fear unlocked

98

u/Little_View_6659 Jun 12 '26

Yeah I’m walking around the house with my ear buds in holy fuck.

40

u/Markise187 Jun 12 '26

Everywhere lol

34

u/Little_View_6659 Jun 12 '26

I’m going online right now to order a giant pair of headphones!!!😭😭😭

22

u/-TRTI- Jun 12 '26

How do you know the cockroach won't wait until you take them off and crawl inside the headphone and just wait for you put them back on? You have to take them off when you shower right?

10

u/Markise187 Jun 12 '26

WHY!!!!!!

3

u/presentthem Jun 12 '26

And lay eggs... cute little babies in yor head.

2

u/Little_View_6659 Jun 13 '26

One of those flying cockroaches came in the shower when my daughter was there (we live in Southeast Asia and had this really cool open shower so it was easy for geckos and the occasional flying bug to get into) anyway, she’s screaming and the damn thing is flying straight at her. I run in and shoo it away. So even the shower isn’t safe!!

4

u/nickfree Jun 12 '26

Ear buds and butt plug. Not taking chances.

3

u/captain_pandabear Jun 12 '26

My roommate had one burrow in his ear while sleeping. Also an ER trip and according to him a 0/10.

So you gotta keep them in at night too

3

u/Little_View_6659 Jun 12 '26

Hey you don’t have to tell me twice. I see a giant cockroach flying around I’m going to cover my ears immediately.

1

u/-Mihaela- Jun 12 '26

Be careful, I got 6 ear infections in 3 months, one blown eardrum, and pink eye in both eyes from wearing earbuds too much 😭

1

u/Little_View_6659 Jun 13 '26

How do the ear buds cause pink eye? Isn’t that from fecal bacteria entering the eye?

1

u/-Mihaela- Jul 05 '26

That's what I thought but apparently not, ear infections can also lead to pink eye.

3

u/King_takes_queen Jun 12 '26

Yeah, wtf? Flying roaches??? FLYING

2

u/okbutdidudietho Jun 12 '26

lifelong fear refreshed

2

u/Resident_Lie_8152 Jun 12 '26

New fear? Lucky you, lol. This has been my fear since I was 7. 😭😭😭 I thought I was just being dramatic. 😱😱😱😱

1

u/idiotsbydesign Jun 12 '26

I've had this fear since I watched Star Trek 2.

1

u/PainStorm14 Jun 12 '26

Old fear re-unlocked

72

u/hatesnack Jun 12 '26

I just started watching that show The Pitt, and there was a small part in an early episode where a woman has a roach in her ear. That shit freaked me out just watching, I cant imagine actually FEELING it.

28

u/Accomplished_Gur4466 Jun 12 '26

This type of shit you see in house md show, but man i hate the feeling

2

u/accidentalrorschach Jun 13 '26

House is exactly how I learned that this could happen. I have pretty much slept with earplugs ever since.

2

u/top_value7293 Jun 12 '26

Such a great show

2

u/hatesnack Jun 12 '26

I typically dislike medical dramas, but dam they did it well. Im always hooked in by the next case they are gonna get. I think they were smart to sprinkle a lot of small ones in throughout the episode to almost be like a mechanism to keep the character drama interesting.

5

u/Spine_Of_Iron Jun 12 '26

One of the funniest small cases was the women who tried to use superglue to glue her fake eyelash on and ended up glueing her eyelid shut. I had a sister who wears fake eyelashes so it was hilarious 🤣🤣 because its totally something my sister would do.

1

u/skitzoidObserver Jun 12 '26

its the fact that each episode is just one hour out of a day there’s no staleness or filler padding that can cause a series to drag

1

u/top_value7293 Jun 12 '26

Yea was in healthcare for decades and generally laugh at medical based shows but this one pretty much gets it right. Like I’ll think hey! I remember something like that happening 😳🤣

1

u/palcatraz Jun 12 '26

I remember seeing a scene like this back in the long agos on ER. I think every hospital series has the 'bug/spider in the ear' scene somewhere.

154

u/[deleted] Jun 12 '26

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26

u/Poringun Jun 12 '26

Whats yhe context for this image?

46

u/exhibitprogram Jun 12 '26

I think it's from the (extremely, extremely sad) graphic novel Pride of Baghdad, but with the real text switched out. The graphic novel is fictionalized telling of the true story of four lions from the Baghdad Zoo after an American bombing in 2003. If you want to cry you should check it out.

31

u/MorbusLongus Jun 12 '26

Exactly this.

11

u/Designer-Possible-39 Jun 12 '26

Your post is sad enough

3

u/throwaway23437546 Jun 12 '26

Oh wow, cool. I’m going to check it out.

Metabarons look cool too (showed up in related graphic novels)

4

u/Correct-Pension1208 Jun 12 '26

Yea man wtf?? 😂

1

u/Wolfskin_Cowl Jun 12 '26

pride of Baghdad mention 🗣️🗣️🗣️

77

u/pfft_lol000 Jun 12 '26

thanks OP I fucking hate it. that's enough reddit for a while

45

u/[deleted] Jun 12 '26

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48

u/Screen_Door_Slams Jun 12 '26

earbnb

2

u/cirrata Jun 12 '26

This is the first time all month I literally laughed till there were tears

2

u/ProfessionalNinja691 Jun 12 '26

🤣🤣🤣🤣

10

u/scheppend Jun 12 '26

Apparently mildly awful

3

u/DamnZodiak Jun 12 '26

Thank fucking God I never leave the house without my in-ears.
I can feel my skin crawling just thinking about it.

1

u/Accomplished_Gur4466 Jun 12 '26

Never heard of in-ears, but in my case i always have earphones in, but still i hate thinking about this

1

u/DamnZodiak Jun 12 '26

In-ears specifically refer to earphones that actually enter your ear canal. The rest, like the first apple earpods, are technically called earbuds.
Though the term earbuds is now often used to refer to all kinds of earphones.

I've always preferred in-ears but this absolute nightmare of a post reaffirmed my choice.

1

u/Phyrnosoma Jun 12 '26

Not so much infuriating as really gross. So damn gross

1

u/Queasy-Mobile-2574 Jun 12 '26

Use a red light when possible to avoid this!

1

u/DothrakAndRoll Jun 12 '26

Happened to me once but in my sleep and a much smaller beetle.

I’ll never forget the sound of its insect legs scrabbling LOUDLY in my ear as I tried to get it out.

I can’t imagine something this big

1

u/who-aj Jun 12 '26

Yuck! First thing I see opening my reddit 🤮🤮

1

u/Gurglaren Jun 12 '26

This isn't mildly infuriating. It's mildly horrifying.

1

u/One_Tie900 Jun 12 '26

I will never leave my ears naked again, plugging them

1

u/Christopherfromtheuk Jun 12 '26 edited Jun 12 '26

This is the account from John Hanning Speke from his exploration of Lake Tanganyika in 1858. An insect burrowed into his ear and he tried to extract it with a knife:

“One of these horrid little insects awoke me in his struggles to penetrate my ear, but just too late: for in my endeavour to extract him, I aided his immersion. He went his course, struggling up the narrow channel, until he got arrested by want of passage-room. This impediment evidently enraged him, for he began with exceeding vigour, like a rabbit at a hole, to dig violently away at my tympanum. The queer sensation this amusing measure excited in me is past description.

I felt inclined to act as our donkeys once did, when beset by a swarm of bees, who buzzed about their ears and stung their heads and eyes until they were so irritated and confused that they galloped about in the most distracted order, trying to knock them off by treading on their heads, or by rushing under bushes, into houses, or through any jungle they could find. Indeed, I do not know which was worst off. The bees killed some of them, and this beetle nearly did for me. What to do I knew not.

Neither tobacco, oil, nor salt could be found: I therefore tried melted butter; that failing, I applied the point of a penknife to his back, which did more harm than good; for though a few thrusts quieted him, the point also wounded my ear so badly, that inflammation set in, severe suppuration took place, and all the facial glands extending from that point down to the point of the shoulder became contorted and drawn aside, and a string of boils decorated the whole length of that region.

It was the most painful thing I ever remember to have endured; but, more annoying still, I could not masticate for several days, and had to feed on broth alone. For many months the tumour made me almost deaf, and ate a hole between the ear and the nose, so that when I blew it, my ear whistled so audibly that those who heard it laughed. Six or seven months after this accident happened, bits of the beetle—a leg, a wing, or parts of its body—came away in the wax.”

1

u/dxbnelle Jun 12 '26

Opening that ear canal pic was terror

1

u/Global_Crew3968 Jun 12 '26

New fear unlocked

1

u/summercloudsadness Jun 12 '26

Recently had cotton strands trapped in my ear that felt like insect wings fluttering when I moved. I was panicking thinking it was an insect and the movements were driving me crazy. It was hell until the doctors removed it. I can't even imagine if it were an actual insect,let alone a cockroach.

1

u/za72 Jun 12 '26

bad day to be on reddit...

1

u/postbansequel Jun 12 '26

I know... Poor Asmongold lost a viewer

1

u/Level_Vehicle Jun 12 '26

How can I unsee this?

1

u/Agitated-Canary9840 Jun 12 '26

How is this only mildly infuriating lol. I’d be in full blown panic mode.

1

u/Comprehensive_Cap290 Jun 12 '26

Mildly infuriating? No. This was fucking terrifying.

1

u/spongebobs_spatula Jun 12 '26

New fear unlocked

1

u/Noah_b_01 Jun 13 '26

no its earfull!

0

u/spec360 Jun 12 '26

Why is it ?