Dead ants found in cookie-eating girl’s ears – CNA ENGLISH NEWS

Dead ants found in cookie-eating girl’s ears

2011/05/20 14:31:04

Taipei, May 20 (CNA) It is not unusual for mothers stop their children from eating in bed, but now doctors are also telling their patients the same thing — if they don’t want ants crawling into their ears.

Although it is common to find small bugs in the ear canals, a local doctor said Friday that he recently found as many as 25 dead ants in the ears of a 16-year-old girl.

Before seeking medical help, the girl, who has a sweet tooth, had been suffering from ear pain for several months, said Hung Yaun-tsung, chief of the Department of Otorhinolaryngology at Taipei City Hospital.

Hung suspected that her habit of eating cookies and cakes in bed lured the ants into her ears, causing unbearable itching.

“She confided that she would pick her ears while eating snacks and later go to sleep without brushing away the crumbs, ” the doctor said. “The ants might have found their way into her ears following the cookie crumbs and stayed there because there was enough food there to keep them alive.”

The ants he found, however, were dead upon examination, possibly because the girl had dropped some oil into her ears to ease her discomfort, Hung said. Her inflamed eardrums improved after medication and no ants were found in follow-up sessions.

Ear pain resulting from insect intrusion is common, said Hung, who receives patients with small cockroaches, mosquitoes and ants in their ears on a daily basis. “But it’s the first time that I’ve found so many ants in both ears,” he added.

He noted that sufferers can put a few drops of cooking oil into their ears to kill the bugs if immediate medical attention cannot be obtained. “But remember not to scratch your ears, because it could push the bugs further into the ear canal,” he warned. (By Nancy Liu) ENDITEM/J

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ok…I found this news quite disturbing…anyone else?

(I think I just found my inspiration for a horror movie though)