Weird NewsNew England Journal of MedicineVideomaggot

Maggot Found In Woman's Ear (VIDEO)

WATCH: Can't Hear? Could Be A Maggot In Your Ear!
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Try not to cringe when you watch this video from the New England Journal of Medicine website.

Being a medical journal, the article is staidly titled "An Unusual Auricular Foreign Body." But what it really means is: "Yuck. There's a bug in your ear."

In this case, it's a live fruit fly larva -- a.k.a. a maggot -- found living inside a 48-year-old woman in Taiwan who had been complaining of an earache. She also wore a hearing aid, which the paper's authors believe created the perfect conditions for the little bug.

First, it made the skin in her ear less sensitive so she wouldn't necessarily feel it wriggling around. And second, it created some extra warmth, making the inside of the ear an especially attractive place for a bug to thrive.

NBC News reports that the bug was removed and the ear healed within two weeks; however, the case was so unusual the doctors wanted to share the video.

“Most cases of animals in the ear canal are the flying objects and cockroaches,” Dr. Cheng-Ping Shih of the Tri-Service General Hospital in Taipei wrote. “The fruit fly larva in ear canal is relatively unusual.”

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Before You Go

Eight Bugs You Don't Know You're Eating
Aphids(01 of08)
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If you thought aphids were only a threat to your tulips and roses, think again. The number of whole aphids that the FDA deems permissible varies from vegetable to vegetable. On the low end, you can expect about 30 whole aphids/100 grams in Brussels sprouts and about 60 of the little buggers in frozen broccoli. (credit:Shutterstock)
Thrips(02 of08)
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Also known as thunderblights or corn lice, thrips are winged pests and are about a millimetre in length. They feed by sucking out the nutrients in the vegetables you'd find in a frozen vegetable mixture. You can expect to find no more than 50 of them in every 100 grams of canned or frozen spinach or in a package of sauerkraut.(Photo courtesy of Flickr/ jeans_Photos) (credit:Flickr: jeans_Photos)
Mites(03 of08)
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There's a good chance that you'll be able to spot if your food is laced with velvet mites since they're bright red (see photo), but you might have trouble with their cousin, the white mite. The white mite can often be found in grains, but has also been known to make its way into frozen vegetables too. Expect to find no more than 75 of them in your canned mushrooms. (Photo courtesy of Flickr/ Enygmatic-Halycon) (credit:Flickr: Enygmatic-Halycon)
Maggots(04 of08)
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Unless you're a Casu marzu connoisseur, the thought of maggots in your food is enough to make you throw up. If so, you'd best pass up canned mushrooms, which allow 20 maggots for every 100 grams of drained mushrooms, according to FDA standards. (credit:Shutterstock)
Fruit Flies(05 of08)
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There's a good chance you've seen a fruit fly before, buzzing around a fruit basket or a wine glass left out too long. There's also a good chance that you've been ingesting these flies with your fruit juice, since there's about five flies in every 1 cup of juice. (credit:Shutterstock)
Cowpea Curculio(06 of08)
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If you've ever wanted a reason to buy dried black-eyed peas instead of the canned variety, thank the Cowpea curculio. It's a type of larva that eventually grows into a small brown weevil, and there's about five of them in every can of peas. (credit:Shutterstock)
Caterpillars(07 of08)
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You'd think it would be hard to miss out on something like a caterpillar in your food, but just because you don't see it doesn't mean it isn't there. Such is the case with spinach, which can be dotted with caterpillar larvae and larval fragments. (credit:Shutterstock)
Corn Ear Worm(08 of08)
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The next time you're shucking corn, keep an eye out for the corn ear worm, which fortunately doesn't go for the kernel, but rather, the silk in the husk. You'll also want to double-check canned corn since these worms tend to leave traces of their skin and larvae where ever they go.
Photo: (cc) By Jack Dykinga USDA Agricultural Research Service, via Wikimedia Commons (credit:Wikimedia Commons )
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