This is the pregnant German cockroach found burrowing into a sleeping man’s ear canal where it then laid a large sac containing dozens of hatchlings.
The male patient in his 20s took himself to Dongguan People’s Hospital in South China’s Guangdong Province after experiencing a sharp pain in his ear, Guangdong Television reported yesterday (9th July).
Mao Zhiqiang, the hospital’s chief ear, nose and throat specialist, found a large cockroach obstructing the patient’s entire ear canal.
Doctor Mao said: “He came to us with pain in his ear. It happened in the middle of the night.
“When I looked inside, I saw the legs of a cockroach. Its head was facing inside.”
The medic anaesthetised the insect, believed to be a German cockroach (Blattella germanica), before removing it with a pair of tweezers.
He then made an additional discovery after noticing a dark-brown cockroach egg case, known as an ootheca.
He added: “It’s standard procedure for us to inspect his ear canal again. That’s when I found a second foreign body inside. It was dark, almost black.
“I removed it and realised it was a cockroach egg case. The female cockroach had laid the sac in his ear. The patient was terrified.”
Dr Mao said the cockroach had not been in the man’s ear for more than an hour before the patient went to hospital to have it removed.
He added: “The cockroach entered his ear with a purpose. It laid its egg right away.”
The patient’s warm and dark ear canal is thought to have been the perfect den for the German cockroach female, which throughout its lifetime can lay up to nine oothecae.
Each egg sac houses between 35 to 50 hatchlings.
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Story By: John Feng, Sub-Editor: Michael Leidig, Agency: Asia Wire Report
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