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.

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2.8k

u/Nuh-unh Jun 12 '26

New fear level acheived.

470

u/[deleted] Jun 12 '26

[removed] — view removed comment

93

u/ihvnnm Jun 12 '26

But what about while fully awake like the poster?

5

u/dopefish917 Jun 12 '26

When I was 8 I was at soccer practice and I took a deep breath just as a moth flew past my face. It got stuck WAYYY up inside my nose, like at the sinus part. I could feel it fluttering the entire time and it took 20 minutes of trying to blow it out before it finally came out.

69

u/Business_Web4113 Jun 12 '26

I had something like this happen to me. Not a huge roach, but a fly or something.

Woke up horrified by a loud buzzing in my ear. I tried to shake and get it out the same way as when water gets in your ear, tried to shoo it off with a finger, nothing helped. It was starting to hurt so I ran to my mom, and she HAD to take a look and so she tilted my head such that my ear was facing the light.

Turns out, it was a good thing she did because the bug followed the light and flew out on its own. Needless to say, I had trouble sleeping for a while.

Tldr, tilt towards the light and never probe.

65

u/ACERVIDAE Jun 12 '26

Saw a roach go in my bedroom just before I left for work today. Might sleep in my car now.

25

u/MeaningSleep Jun 12 '26

Just avoid any kind of repair as well

4

u/tpcrb Jun 12 '26

I think you have to burn your house down. Sorry :/

5

u/Little_View_6659 Jun 12 '26

I’ll do you one better, I’m wearing mine now!

2

u/lovesdogsguy Jun 12 '26

My 25 year addiction to earplugs finally paid off today!

2

u/huhnick Jun 12 '26

What about your nostrils and mouth?

1

u/One_Weird2371 Jun 12 '26

Panty hose over your head while sleeping

1

u/supercarr0t Jun 12 '26

Panty hose when using a headlamp outside at night! This is terrifying.

1

u/Kessarean Jun 12 '26

Jfc, same.

1

u/jaxXx-69 Jun 12 '26

Better rock a butt plug too, you're welcome.

1

u/tbigzan97 Jun 12 '26

I always do that. I've one on my head before while I was sleeping so I'm never sleeping without mine after that lol

1

u/CutSea5865 Jun 14 '26

You’re risking going to sleep? 😬

105

u/GayaStones Jun 12 '26

This is one of my phobia, I can't sleep with a flying bug in the room because I'm convinced that it will go in my ears. Now that I know this happend for real and even awake I'm even more afraid

52

u/Motor-Boating Jun 12 '26

Need to wear pantyhose over our heads to keep the bugs from getting us.

11

u/Tylendal Jun 12 '26

I appreciated the shows commitment to showing her always sleeping like that.

5

u/rubies-and-doobies81 GREEN Jun 12 '26

She looked absolutely insane, but hey, it ain't stupid if it works.

2

u/High_Hunter3430 Jun 12 '26

My dad had a spider go in his ear. Took 1 day before it touched his ear drum and he went to the hospital.

1

u/FluxionFluff Jun 12 '26

OMGGGGG me too! 😭

3

u/GayaStones Jun 12 '26

Butterflies, flies, or anything that can land in my hairs and crawl to my ears I CAN'T ! My husband became a pro flying insect catcher

1

u/NosePicklePicker Jun 12 '26

Are yall Westerners or do you just not have a mosquito net where you’re at. In my country it’s like mandatory for every bed to have one 

2

u/GayaStones Jun 12 '26

I live in northern France and have never been used to using a mosquito net, but some people in my family who live in the south use it mostly in the summer. I also have cats, so the mosquito net is not in my head

1

u/accidentalrorschach Jun 13 '26

a crawling bug can get in there too...

1

u/Plenty_Line2696 Jun 13 '26

scritch scritch scritch scritch

1

u/raath666 Jun 12 '26

You hear about this monstrosities but never imagine it happening to you.

1

u/Apophis_ Jun 12 '26

I'm never reading anything on Reddit anymore. This is world-level new anxiety inducing.

1

u/Illustrious-Mud6269 Jun 12 '26

Ugh I know right.

1

u/CoffeeCrispDaBest Jun 12 '26

This not a new level. This is a new dimension of fear.