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I'm sleeping with earplugs for the rest of my life

Today I learned (through a random conversation with a woman who's an audiologist) that cockroaches can't crawl backwards.

I've seen plenty of cockroaches in my life, and somehow I've never noticed this.

Why is this important? Because, apparently, if a cockroach crawls into an ear canal, it can't get out. They can go in to your ear, but since there's no room in your ear to turn around, and since they can't crawl backwards, the only way to get cockroaches out of your ear is for a doctor to remove them with tweezers.

- Hence the title of my post.
 

12 Comments:

Judy said...

It kind of grosses me out to think of where you might be to give a cockroach the opportunity to crawl in your ear!

Noisy Quiet said...

Ha! Sounds like you've never lived in a large city. They're common. Kind of like house flies. In most cities I know, seeing one would be no more unusual than seeing a fly in a house. But I hate the thought of one finding its way into a bed. Could happen though :oO

Masked Mom said...

I have lived in rural-ish areas in the Northeast most of my life and consequently have only ever seen ONE cockroach. It was on the back of a sofa in a rent-to-own shop and I had to ask my friend (who grew up in Georgia) if it was what I thought it was.

As to the ear canal information...I work at a halfway house for recovering alcoholics and addicts. Many of the guys who come through the house seem willing to tell me anything including incredibly graphic bodily function things even though I am not (nor do I pretend to be) medically trained or in a position of needing to know these things in any detail. Consequently, I have told them I keep a file called "Shit Shawn didn't need to know." and congratulate them for adding something new to the file.

The cockroach in the ear thing? Totally goin' in that file. ;)

Noisy Quiet said...

You had to ask what it was? Wow. Very definitely not from my part of the world! As for that file, I almost labeled this "TMI" but I tend to reserve that for bodily functions! Lol!

Thanks for making me laugh today! :D

Daryl said...

ewwwwwwwwwww ... ahem. Thanks for the visit .. I dont usually go to blogs to say thanks for the nice comment (I'm at work and surfing the web is not smiled upon) BUT since you are a friend of Judy's .. if you want to get replies to comments, you need to link your blog/email to your comments otherwise your comment ends up in the blogger's email but has no reply/return address ..

Noisy Quiet said...

I agree on the "ewwwww" May I offer you some earplugs? ;)

My email is linked to my Blogger account, but it's not public. Cuts down on my spam! Even though there's no "reply to" email address when a blogger is notified of my comment, if leave a comment on someone's blog, and click the "subscribe to" button/link for those comments, if someone then comments after me (whether it's a reply to my comment or another random comment on that post) I get notified by email. So it kind of works for replies, but in a more roundabout way :)

Thank you for dropping by! Sorry for icking you out! Lol!

Stella said...

Hm. I had a friend who got a bug in her ear that was "sleeping" in her showercap. . . she ended up in hospital to get it out. The doctor says what you do is pour oil in your ear (I guess cooking oil? I never asked.) and that drowns the bug and stops it scrabbling on your ear drum.
I always thought this would be very hand information to remember.

Noisy Quiet said...

I'm thinking cooking oil or baby oil would be better than say... motor oil ;) I'm pretty sure there'd be no time for that with me. I'd be freaking out too much to take a few moments for that. Then again.. .maybe if I doused myself in an ER they'd take me straight away... if for no other reason to keep me from making a mess of the place... Especially if I DID use motor oil ;)

cathy jones said...

I've always thought having a bug in your ear would make great horror story material. Or at least something to scare the kids with (you better stop eating in bed or you'll get a bug in your ear). Never thought about the one way thing. Yuck. :D

Noisy Quiet said...

Oh my gosh, the horror story would be over for me in two seconds. All you'd have to do was start to describe the sensation and I would be done. Shortest horror story ever!

i never thought about the "scaring kids re eating in bed" angle! Lol! Maybe because I don't have kids, or know any who sneak food into their beds. Maybe there's a way to use this to keep kids from eating in other parts of the house...

Thanks for stopping by cath!

Darren Mcandrews said...

As they say, an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure. It is good that you are taking precautions to protect your ear. Having bugs sneak inside your ears will not only cause you extreme pain, but may also cause ear infection, or worse, hearing loss.

Noisy Quiet said...

Nice work Darren. I'll let your spam through because it's actually applicable ;)

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