Earwigs DO climb into people's ears!!!! I don't know about laying eggs or burrowing though. My step-son woke up screaming one night because something was making noise in his ear. An earwig came crawling out. NOT A MYTH!!!!

that is discusting

I believe it's spelled "disgusting".

offensive part removed
lol i got goosebumps just thinking about earwigs climbimg into my ears and laying their disgusting eggs in there. I mean comme on thats gross and sorta frightning right?

i'm a garbageman, earwigs like to hide in the rims of garbage cans, when i take the lids off the cans, about a dozen earwigs fall into the can, they also hide under the cans, i have a beard and long hair, so i'm always wondering if earwigs are falling into my hair...today i found an earwig in my hair, but none in my beard so far, just a small grey spider. i was never bothered by the idea of earwigs but several people i know are afraid of them, i've had them crawling on my arms and hands from the garbage before, i think they are just trying to find a new place to hide, its kind of amusing to see them scurry around on the sidewalk with the crickets and spiders when i move the can, they're suddenly so exposed.

that is all.

onetime i woke up and without me even controlling my arm snapped up to my ear and grabbed an earwig that about got into my ear so hey avram thers two incidents for ya

no comment. that none of my business.....

one of those crawled into my ear before
i thought it was going to eat my brain
i shat brix

I believe earwigs were named as such because their wings when fully extended resemble the human ear:

Thought ears needed muffs - not wigs

my friend said an ear wig pinched his brothers skin and wouldnt let go is this possible?????

Fifteen or twenty years ago, I woke with a buzzing in my ear, went into the bathroom, began to fiddle with my finger - then a Q-tip. A giant earwig crawled out!!! I FREAKED!!!!!!!!!!! The worst part was that there was no information available at that time, and I thought they had to be known as EARWIGS for some reason. I called my doctor and spoke to our pharmacist. Neither could offer any help. With visions of thousands of them hatching in my head in the following weeks, I did buy the strongest ear-cleansing products that could be purchased over the counter, and flushed my ear for a couple of days. I still shudder when I think of it, but I'm still here, and my brain still works.

okay its 3:16 am. i jut woke up cuz what i thought was water in my ear was in fact an earwig. sorry i don't have the best spelling but, after i found the guy i put him in a glass and cleaned out my ears with some q-tips hardcore. my ear does in fact have a nick somewhere and i do have blood in my ear. i sleep downstairs on a blow up mattress because there are no other available beds. about a year ago i was sleeping on my brothers old bed and woke up to an earwig crawling across my face. i then screamed my head of and cried for so long. wtf am i supposed to do now? my mom just told me to sleep upstairs and it will go away. but i don't know. anybody wanna help me out? im a freaking pregnant teen that absolutely hates bugs and crap like this is always happening to me. its a good thing i hadn't cleaned my ears or a while. the only protection i had was my earwax.

KORI - Get some electronic pest deterant device?

I'm terrified of earwigs, spiders, centipedes, ect... Or at least the thought of one touching me. I'm trying to study spiders and earwigs and other bugs to get over my fear. And I may have trouble sleeping tonight, cuz it's bedtime soon... Damn Shino...

ok wtf??? am i the only person in the world that when read the info at the top went holy ****... 2 ****s???? and there the size of his body??? then wtf does a girl earwig look like!?!

It is 2:42am and I am freaking out, I just felt sone tickling in my ear and a weird buzzing, so i started sticking my finger in my ear and it would stop, then i put some eardrops in and an earwig literally just fell out of my ear!!! And I'm scared there are more inside me

I know someone who told me of his friend that worked out in the fields all day long. His friend had a bad pain in his ear. He could feel something moving around in his ear & tried using q-tips to fix the problem but got nothing out of his ear, which made him think he might be hallucinating! SO he decided to go to the doctor. The doctor poured hot oil into his ear & somewhere around 6 or 7 earwigs came crawling out(there were so many because they were the eggs that had hatched). Pretty disgusting if you ask me, but if you have the problem try using hot oil (not sure what kind of oil; you'd have to look it up)!

This is no myth... earwig traps are commonly made of smelly oils, it only serves to reason that they are actually attracted to the scent of the ear wax, not to mention a nice dark canal, and if you are working in an area with lots of peat, an earwig in the ear is not so uncommon! Happened to me on wednesday... that thing crawled up me and went RIGHT for the ear, so it is no urban legend. Old wives tales and home remedies often prove true when scientifically tested generations later. As for crawling in your brain and eating, yes I am satisfied there is a barrier, but when a bug crawls in your ear they are flapping and buzzing, and it does make you a little crazy. I was in such distress on the drive to the walk-in clinic because the thing kept burrowing deeper and biting, or something that caused pain. Once at the clinic, i was feeling ok for a little while but then actually leapt out of my chair screaming 'it's starting to burrow again, aggghhhh!'
And yes they do burrow and deep. They looked in my ear with a scope and saw nothing so it was already past the end of where you can see with the scope. The nurse put lydocaine in there and I felt instant relief. No more burrowing, flipping, biting. They flushied the ear and it came out far enough for her to grab it with the tweezers then.
Do i feel better now? No, not after obsessing there may be eggs, these eggs are small, not something that could get totally cleaned out with an ear flush like a ****roach egg sack would. I read the hatch time is between 2-3 months so i will not feel safe from hatchlings till around halloween 2010 now. I can't sleep now, because at night I hear gurgling noises in that ear and have convinced myself there are eggs.
I am looking into putting insecticide washes in my ear until then.
So ... it didn't burrow into my brain and make me crazy, but I believe the 'old wives tale' should stand, uncontested, as I really believe i am going insane!

More testimony here. I have 3 ear wig stories. The first one I just got my finger pinched by one quite hard drawing blood when I was lifting a hanging flower pot - the earwig was hiding in the tube wrapped around the hanger. Some friends don't believe me because they say that earwigs don't bite - bite, pinch, whatever - it did.

The second story was at a really nice restaurant. I took my first sip of a gin & tonic. I felt something in my mouth, but at first thought is was a piece of lime that was stale/hard. Just as I was going to get it off my tongue I was pinched on my tongue - and there it was - a frigin' earwig - drew blood too. UGGGGHHHH!!!

The third story happened to my husband last night - that's why I'm on this site - looking for info. He wakes me up at 5am in a panic saying something is crawling in his ear. I look in his ear in the bathroom lighting - I couldn't see a thing. He is going crazy -I'm wondering if he really is. I can't imagine how freaky that must feel. He gets on his knees on the bathroom floor holding his head - he turned it sideways and an earwig crawled out and fell to the floor. He is wigged out to say the least. It was a female earwig, so now I'm concerned about what a few of you are saying about eggs. This is so creapy - it's going to be so hard getting to sleep at night knowing a friggin' bug can crawl in your ear. It's pissing me off that some of the sights say it's a myth - definately not a myth!!!