do ear wigs really crawl in your ear?

Question

have there been any actual cases of a person hospitalized or or any death reported by earwigs?

Answer 1

In general they do not crawl into your ear. They prefer to live in dark, tropic areas. However, you can still find them under your house in the rocky mountains or even burrowing through the depths of a garden in Washington. The term that they actually crawl into your live ear is based on Hollywood fiction, although, after a coffin begins to rot, an earwig might crawl into a corpse's ear to use as shelter from their savage world.

Answer 2

Here are two takes on the issue:

The name "earwig" is generally said to originate from an old European belief that earwigs crawl into people's ears and lay eggs in the brain. This etymology is given by the Oxford English Dictionary, which states unequivocally that the name is derived from Old English éare, "ear", and wicga, "insect", "from the notion that it penetrates into the head through the ear." Earwigs do tend to prefer being in hidden places, and this etymology parallels the unambiguous French name perce-oreille ("ear piercer"). Another hypothesis is that the word comes from the Late Latin auricula, owing to the ancient use of pulverized earwigs as medicine to treat diseases of the ear. A third explanation is that it is an alteration of "ear-wing", after the shape of the hind wings when unfolded. (that's Wikipedia)

and:

Regarding all the nonsense about bugs in the ear: it is patently impossible for insects and/or other arthropods to enter one ear and chew through to the other; a little logic should tell us so. (Try to trace a straight course for such a journey, without going through bone.) (that's Snopes).

Answer 3

Most earwigs found in Europe and North America are Forficula auricularia, the European earwig, which is distributed throughout the cooler parts of the northern hemisphere. They feed on other insects, plants, ripe fruit, and garbage. Plants they feed on typically include clover, dahlias, zinnias, butterfly bush, hollyhock, lettuce, strawberry, celery, plums, potatoes, roses, seedling beans and beets, and tender grass shoots and roots; they have also been known to eat corn silk, damaging the corn. Typically they are a nuisance because of their diet, but normally do not present serious hazards to crops. Some tropical species are brightly colored. Occasionally earwigs are confused with cockroaches because of the points on the end, the long antennae, and being most active at night.

Answer 4

None that I've heard, but really though any bug can crawl into your ear and cause damage. There was an episode of Rescue 911 for example in which a woman kept collapsing because a small cockroach got into her ear and kept doing stuff to her eardrum.

Answer 5

I've never had an earwig crawl into my ear. I used to sleep outside in my backyard and there were tons of earwigs...but they are creepy looking.

Answer 6

NO, However generally insects will get in people's ears. There have been cases of cockroaches getting in children's ears. Usually they die and a general physician can remove them. Rarely they will poke holes in the eardrums. This usually happens in poor living conditions.

Answer 7

NO. the reaon they call them ear wigs is because they like dark moist places. i dont know y an ear would be moist though....

Answer 8

The kids at camp seem to think so! lol

Answer 9

No, but they will live in your wig.