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The truth about the boy with the spiders in his ear
Filed under: Health & Safety: Babies
Remember the story about the boy that had a couple of spiders living in his ear? Well, it turns out that it wasn't a couple and it wasn't actually living, so much as just hiding out for a bit. Spiders, it turns out, are strictly predatory -- they don't eat anything they don't kill. So, a spider couldn't hang out in someone's ear for very long and, if you've ever encountered a nine-year-old, you know that their ear almost certainly wouldn't be in the same place when the spider got back.As for the two, it turns out that on closer inspection, the second, "dead" spider was just the skin that the lone spider had shed. It turns out, according to The Straight Dope, that the spider crawled into the boy's ear to shed its skin and was hanging out waiting for the new exoskeleton to harden. Apparently, some journalists reported that the spider was living off the boy's earwax, but that isn't true since a) a spider wouldn't eat earwax and b) spiders don't eat before and after molting.
I'm really glad we got that all straightened out. It's still really creepy, though.
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ReaderComments (Page 1 of 1)
5-29-2007 @ 8:55AM
Amanda said...Ear wax is actually a deterrent to bugs, not food for them! One of the evolutionary purposes of the goo is to keep bugs out!
Reply
5-29-2007 @ 1:22PM
Ginny said...I sure hope that's the last update on this story. Those friggin spider pictures nearly give me a heart attack when I scroll down to them. EEEEEEEEEEEEEK!
Reply