Spider crawls out of woman's ear in 'traumatic' experience as TikTok video goes viral: 'Crying, throwing up'
A woman has gone viral on TikTok for sharing the details of her too-close-for-comfort encounter with a creepy crawler.
Desirae Kelly (@desiraekelly) of Farmington, Missouri, posted a video of herself sitting at the doctor’s office, where she waited to be seen for something stuck in her ear.
After the nurse took a closer look into Kelly's ear, the health professional confirmed that there was indeed something in there — and it appeared to be curled up in the back of the woman's ear canal.
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In the video, which has nearly seven million views, a tearful Kelly reacted with sarcasm about the "wonderful" news as she waited for her ear to be flushed out.
"I am so embarrassed, first of all, because that’s so gross, and I’m a clean person," the Missouri mom said.
"But also, it’s an uneasy feeling — there’s a bug in my ear."
The video jumped forward to reveal what was living rent-free in Kelly's ear.
"It was a spider," she said through tears and a shaky breath.
"It was alive. I threw up. I’m never sleeping again."
In a second video, posted on Tuesday, she reflected on her "traumatic" experience, starting with how she awoke from a "dead sleep" at 5 a.m. with a strange feeling in her ear.
"I thought it was the tassels on the end of my comforter, so I went back to sleep," she said.
"About 10 or 15 minutes later, I woke up again, and this time … I actually felt something move in my ear."
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Kelly said she sat "straight up" after feeling the fluttering in her ear and decided to go to Urgent Care the next morning.
The fluttering continued, with some pain, the next day, as Kelly compared it to a "big clump of wax moving" at the base of her eardrum.
"It was so uncomfortable," she said. "I started to cry in the waiting room."
Once Kelly was brought into a room, the nurse confirmed that what was in her ear was not a moth, but it was definitely something "curled up in the back."
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The nurse began to flush out the ear though nothing was moving.
Then the nurse stepped back to refill the water bottle.
"We’re not spraying at this point, and I feel stuff moving," Kelly said. "I felt, whatever that was, crawl out of my ear … and I watched out of the corner of my eye something fall and land on my sweater."
She wrote as well, "I should’ve known this wasn’t just a normal little bug when the nurse jumped back a step."
The nurse collected herself and began pulling on Kelly’s sweater to free the bug, which was still alive, from her shoulder.
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"As it falls from my shoulder to the floor, I watch it crawl," she said. "I watch this black spider with all eight legs crawl across the f---ing floor."
In what Kelly considered a "fight or flight" response, she said she "screeched" and ran across the length of the office.
"My eyes are wide open, my hand is clutching my chest, as I’m, like, trying to breathe because all oxygen has escaped me," she said.
"And all I can say is, ‘Spider.’"
In two minutes, Kelly said she went from trying to breathe to heaving, as she watched the nurses trap the spider in a clear container.
The patient admitted her embarrassment over her initial reaction of "crying and throwing up," joking that she left the office without a bug in her ear or her "dignity."
The nurses confirmed the bug was a common house spider and checked to make sure Kelly’s ear was free of any remnants, including eggs, limbs or "extra buddies."
"But I am traumatized," she said. "Every night since that night, I have had earplugs in my ears. I don’t think I could ever sleep without earplugs again."
"That is the most uneasy, violating feeling ever to quite literally feel a spider crawl out of your ear."
TikTok blew up with similar uneasiness, with many users expressing their own disgust over Kelly’s experience.
TikTok user @emill9908 said, "Girl I’m traumatized and I wasn’t even there."
A user named Hannah commented under the second video, "*Adds ear plugs to cart.*"
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TikToker @thetruekaren wrote, "Dear algorithm gods, please don’t think I’m interested in ever reliving any future spider-in-the-ear story."
"I would be screaming for the rest of my life," @kat_v_s sympathized.
Kelly told Fox News Digital on Thursday that going viral has felt "surreal" as her video hit millions of views overnight.
She confirmed that she's sleeping better, now that she's back to her own bed after a week of bunking in her guest room.
"I sleep with earplugs in and I'm not sure I'll ever stop," she said. "There are moments I stop and say, ‘There really was a live spider in my ear.’"
Since this kind of experience isn't preventable, Kelly suggested seeing a professional about any concerning movements in the ear.
"The nurses were so sweet and passed no judgment like I thought they would," she said. "If I had waited longer, it could have been worse."
She added, "There isn't a way to prevent this, really, but how you respond makes the difference."