Woman Describes Moment She Found a Spider Living in Her Ear
Missouri insurance agent Desiree Kelly detailed the traumatic episode to 'People.'
A 29-year-old insurance agent in Missouri has described the chilling moment she discovered there was a spider living in her ear.
Desiree Kelly spoke with People about her harrowing ordeal, which began on the morning of October 18. Kelly was awoken by a “fluttering” in her ear, but thought it might be a tassel from her comforter. As the feeling became more painful, her fiancé convinced her to go to urgent care. But Kelly was positive the sensation was caused by excess wax.
“I'm sitting in the waiting room…[and] I started crying, one, because it was uncomfortable, but two, I felt embarrassed that now they're going to look in my ear, tell me it's wax, tell me to clean my ear out, send me home, and I'm going to get a bill in the mail,” she recalled.
After being seen by a doctor, Kelly was told that there was indeed something in there, and the trespasser was “curled up” in the back of her ear canal. Kelly’s nurse then began flushing her ear out with a water spray as the patient held a basin beneath her ear to catch the cascading liquid.
After several attempts, Kelly could feel the spider shifting. She recalled the moment it came loose: “I watch, from the corner of my eye, something black fall from my ear to my sweater, and the nurse took a step back. She literally stepped back. It all happened so fast. She takes a step back and then immediately steps forward again and starts to grab and shake at my hoodie that I was wearing. I watch something jump from my shoulder to the ground. And then I watch it crawl. And that is when I realized it was a spider and that it was alive.
"I was looking at a live spider, and it wasn't small," Kelly added. "I would say it was about the size of a nickel.”
Kelly documented the moment on TikTok, and quickly went viral. She can be seen visibly distressed in the moments immediately following the spider’s eviction. “They had to give me a bag to throw up in because I was gagging,” she says in the footage. “It was so traumatic. And I'm throwing up, I'm watching as they're putting this clear medical container upside down over the spider [on the floor]… I was sobbing.”
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It’s actually quite uncommon for spiders to crawl into people’s ears, according to hearing healthcare site Amplifon. The sharp smell of ear wax deters insects, and the ear employs natural protection against intruders.
Unfortunately, of all insects, cockroaches are most likely to get stuck in your hearing canals. They can burrow deep into your ears, so far that they can’t extricate themselves and medical intervention is required.
As for Kelly, she’s now perfectly healthy and blessedly spider-free for her wedding in two weeks. Since arachnids are quite common where her family lives, the horrifying ordeal spurred her to make some home renovations.
“I knew the seal on our back door in our bedroom needed to be replaced, which let me tell you, it has now been replaced,” Kelly told People. “So, chances are it was just crawling across the pillow, which is so unsettling to think about."