Spider Sense Is Tingling! Doctors Find Brown Recluse in Woman's Ear

A Kansas City, Missouri, woman got a rude awakening recently when she found a venomous spider nestled in her left ear. 

Last Tuesday, Susie Torres woke up to the sensation of water in her ear that wouldn't go away, she told WDAF-TV. So she sought help from a doctor. 

What they found was way worse than water: a brown recluse spider. The arachnid, which was about the size of a dime, had apparently crawled into her ear while she slept. Luckily, it did not bite her and it was removed without incident.

The brown recluse spider “cannot bite humans without some form of counter pressure, for example, through unintentional contact that traps the spider against the skin,” according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control. “If a brown recluse spider wanders indoors, they may be found in dark closets, shoes, or attics.”

The brown recluse is often found in the American South and Midwest. 

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