Doctors remove small spider from woman’s ear canal

A 64-year-old woman in Taiwan who heard clicking and rustling sounds for several days turned out to have a small spider in her ear canal, doctors said.

Dr. Tengchin Wang, director of the otolaryngology department at Tainan Municipal Hospital, co-wrote a case report for the New England Journal of Medicine detailing the case of a woman who sought treatment in April.

Wang said the woman complained of a feeling of movement inside her ear as well as clicking and rustling sounds that prevented her from sleeping for several nights.

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Doctors looked into the woman’s ear and discovered a small spider and its discarded exoskeleton inside the woman’s ear. They used a suction tube to remove the arachnid and its exoskeleton.

Wang said the woman did not feel any pain from the spider’s presence because it was only 2 to 3 millimeters in size — about .08 to .1 inches.