The ear specialist heard there were hundreds of claims relating to cockroaches in ears. "I was laughing because I was thinking oh gosh, you know, that's bread and butter for me," Photo: 123rf
When Northland ear specialist Marg Hunt was driving to work on Thursday morning, she was not surprised to hear on the radio that there were hundreds of ACC claims relating to cockroaches in ears over the past five years.
"I was laughing because I was thinking 'oh gosh, you know, that's bread and butter for me'," Hunt, who has been in the ear-cleaning field for 40 years, said.
That same morning she removed a pesky mosquito lodged in a person's ear canal.
Northland Ear Care specialist Marg Hunt. Photo: Supplied
Armed with a microscope, suction device, and special crocodile forceps to tweezer out any remaining bits of the critter's body, Hunt has all she needs at Northland Ear Care to remove what she calls "foreign bodies".
She says it is a process that only takes a few minutes and afterwards "people tend to take them away with them".
While she does not believe bugs in ears are becoming more common, she understands it is a seasonal problem.
"At the moment in summertime with people sitting outside in the evening [we] tend to get more [cases], less in the winter time, but more through the summer.
"It's mainly flying bugs [like moths and mosquitos]. I've only seen a cockroach [in ears] a couple of times actually."
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If you have ever been paranoid about getting a bug in your ear, you may want to close your ears now: According to Hunt, it is mostly a coincidence when it happens and it is often while we are asleep.
"When the person's asleep, the cockroach is looking for something warm and dark to hide in.
"But flying bugs at night ... just happen to egress into the ear and flutter and cause all sorts of irritation for the person.
"It's got this terrible fluttering feeling and maybe a little bit of discomfort if they've got barbs on their legs like cockroaches do."
It can be hard for young children to express this discomfort if they cannot talk, so one must look for signs like panic or the child putting their fingers in their ears often.
Hunt has had a few cases of people using all sorts of objects to get the bugs out, including car keys and pens.
Her message is do not panic (as hard as it can be), do not poke at it, and certainly do not leave the bug in there thinking it will come out on its own.
"Sometimes pushing it through the skin is likely to irritate the skin and create more trauma on the skin.
"Once they get in, they actually can't get out because there's often not enough turning room ... Insects are generally one direction forward, so they can't turn around and think 'gotta back out of this thing', it's not easy for them, so they just stay there.
"It's not life-threatening once it's dead, it's just annoying. So if you can get to somewhere within the next 48 to 72 hours to get it removed before it starts to break down, that would be great. But I've seen insects come out weeks after and they're still intact, but they're very dry at this point so they're liable to break as soon as you touch them."
She suggests drowning the insect using cool boiled water (as long as it is not too hot or too cold) or saltwater if you are at the beach, or clean cooking oil.
"One guy didn't have any oil, but he had tea tree oil, so he put that in. But that's actually quite a chemical burn on the skin, so he'd really hurt his skin.
"If you can put it on your tongue, you can put it in your ear canal. Put it that way."
But drowning the bug is just the first step - you should also seek an expert to ensure the bug floats back up and is extracted or sucked out using specialist equipment.
Hunt's insect-removal only forms a tiny part of her extensive work for ear health and hygiene, which includes cleaning wax build-ups and treating infections.
She and her business partner make regular work trips to Russell, Whangarei and Mangawhai.
"There's about 150 nurses throughout New Zealand who do specialised ear cleaning.
"Quite often this is within their brief because they've got good vision and the tools and equipment to do it safely and hygienically, so that there's no trauma to the person and that bug is completely removed and that the skin is checked afterwards to see that it's not infected and healthy."
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