Maggot found living in woman's ear

A Taiwanese woman suffering from an earache has been found to have a fruit fly larva living in her ear.

Doctors found the bug crawling deep inside the 48-year-old woman's left ear canal after she showed up at the emergency department of Tri-Service General Hospital in Taipei.

When the doctors removed her hearing aid, they noticed the ear was full of blood-stained discharge, NBC News reports.

The larva had apparently eroded the skin at the base of her ear canal, close to the eardrum.

However, the woman's ear was less sensitive than usual because of many years of wearing a hearing aid.

Doctors believe the bug had been in the woman's ear for at least a day.

The case was published in Wednesday's edition of New England Journal of Medicine.

Dr Cheng-Ping said the woman's hearing aid may have made the ear especially warm and therefore an appealing home for the larva.

Doctors filmed the bug wriggling around inside the woman's ear before removing it without difficulty and giving the woman antibiotics.

Her earache improved immediately and the erosion in her ear canal healed within a couple of weeks.

Doctors think she picked up the larva in her home as it is common for fruit flies to gather around unrefrigerated produce in hot climates.