Curious About Which Insects Like to Crawl Into Your Body?
We’ve all been told that spiders will often crawl inside your mouth at night. You’ve likely also heard about cockroaches crawling into people’s ears and noses, with one of the more interesting stories involving a cockroach that managed to crawl inside of a woman’s sinuses and had to be pulled out still alive through her nostrils. But don’t think that those are the only creatures that might decide to crawl into one of your orifices. You may find you need to guard against many other creepy crawlies that want to snuggle up inside of your body. Heck, that place is warm! It’s perfect for the winter!
Your ears seem to be a very popular entrance for different insects to invade. While us Americans may not have to worry as much about an invasion due to our clean homes that protect us from all sorts of things that go bump in the night, people in other countries such as Africa are not so lucky. One hospital in South Africa reported that in the span of only two years 24 people came in needing some kind of insect removed from their ears. These insects included ten German cockroaches, eight flies, three beetles, one tick, one horribly smashed moth, and one assassin bug. As you can see roaches are the most common, likely because they are always on the lookout for food and earwax is one tasty treat for a cockroach wanting a midnight snack. Considering all the other insects that also gravitate towards the ears, earwax may be considered a delicacy my many insects.
Another unfortunate area where invaders might turn up is your rectum…yep, that one. Some leeches are known to crawl into pretty much an orifice they can get access to, including your eyes, vagina, urethra, in addition to your rectum. Few species are able to brave the human rectum, but flies are another insect that seem drawn in that direction. Flies will consume human flesh by laying eggs inside an area such as your rectum, which then hatch into maggots. And flies are not picky when it comes to how they access that flesh. Maggot infestations are common enough that the problem even has its own medical term, myiasis, which has been reported by doctors throughout human history. Oddly enough, other insects have been found in the colon and digestive tract, including ants, ladybugs, yellow jackets and even wasps. I do not even want to know how that last one happened.
Have you or someone you know ever found an insect inside one of your orifices? Where was it and how did you get it out?
