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Doctors pull brown recluse spider out of Missouri woman’s ear

Posted at 12:48 PM, Aug 23, 2019
and last updated 2019-08-23 12:48:33-04

KANSAS CITY, Mo. -- Doctors in Missouri recently pulled a brown recluse spider out of a woman's ear after she complained of discomfort, according to WDAF.

Torres, who despises the creepy, crawly arachnids, said she first noticed some discomfort in her ear Tuesday morning.

"I woke up Tuesday hearing a bunch of swooshing and water in my left ear. It was like when you went swimming and you have all of that water in your ear," Torres said.

At first, she just thought it was the effects of an allergy shot. But when she went to get her ears checked out, it turned out to be much more.

"The medical assistant came to check me out, and she's the one who noticed it," she said.

With the help of a few tools and a bit of magic, doctors removed a dime-sized brown recluse spider from her ear.

Torres said doctors told her she wasn't bitten by the crawler, but according to the Missouri Department of Conservation, the spiders can and do bite.

Although most brown recluse spiders go unnoticed, their bite can bring chills, fever and discoloring to the infected area hours after the initial bite.

Torres is making sure a creepy crawler doesn't climb back into her ears again.

"I went and put some cotton balls in my ears last night. I'm shaking off my clothes, and I don't put my purse on the floor. I'm a little more cautious," she said.