A Bizarre Tale of an Adventurous Bug

by Kevin O’Connor

One of the strangest “pest control” stories I ever heard happened recently. I think this is a pretty weird tale. Let’s see what you think. Here it is, mostly in the lady’s own words.

A Florida woman, Katie Holley, lived through a real-life nightmare and described the gruesome tale of removing a roach that lived in her ear for 9 days. This is how she found out that a cockroach crawled into her ear while she was sleeping. Maybe the bug was drunk and thought he was going to bed at home to sleep it off!

Well, turns out that Katie and her husband recently purchased a new home. They had been quite responsible about obtaining the services of a pest control company, such as pest control Des Moines, to spray around their property every three months to keep the cockroach population down. That’s a good thing.

Unfortunately, one night Katie woke up with this odd feeling “like someone had placed a chip of ice in my left earhole — but it was something way worse.” That’s a bad thing. Maybe the pest control hadn’t got rid of all the cockroaches!?

In an article published in Self Magazine, Katie Holley said she went to the bathroom and took a cotton swab to her ear when, to her disgust, she felt something move.

“When I pulled the cotton swab out, there were two dark brown, skinny pieces stuck to the tip. Moments later, I came to the realization that they were legs. Legs that could only belong to an adventurous palmetto bug exploring my ear canal,” she said in the article. Mrs. Holley thought it best to consult her doctor.

“As the doctor administered Lidocaine, the roach began to…react,” she wrote. “Feeling a roach in the throes of death, lodged in a very sensitive part of your body, is unlike anything I can adequately explain.”

The doctor removed three pieces of what he thought was the entire cockroach. Also, he gave Katie a prescription for antibiotics.

Nine days later, still experiencing pain, she returned to the doctor, and a physician’s assistant flushed her ear four times, discovering what they thought might be another leg.

“She ended up pulling out six more pieces of the roach’s carcass — nine days after the incident took place.”

Her doctor sent her to a specialist.

“Using a tool that looked like very large scissors, the Ear, Nose & Throat physician (ENT) extracted the entire head, upper torso, more limbs and an antennae.”

If you were to ask me what we may glean from Katie Holley’s story—especially since it is a true story and not a parable—I’d have to say one thing is for sure, you can’t be too careful. And that is why it is always best to consult professionals pest control companies just like termite control los angeles ASAP to get advice on how to deal with the pests before they become a real problem.

After Katie Holley’s ear problem was solved, she and her husband established a responsible contract with on-going pest control services. O’Connor Pest Control, (800)284-7985. www.oconnorpest.com.

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