Is there anything more nightmare inducing than envisioning a cockroach crawling in your ear when you’re sleeping? For years this has been seen as an old wives tale or something that kids would talk about, but unfortunately there might be more truth to this than you might want to believe. In this article we’re going to breakdown do cockroaches crawl in your ear when you sleep and how you can protect yourself from this!
Do Cockroaches Crawl In Your Ear When You Sleep?
Generally, cockroaches are afraid of humans (even sleeping humans), but they have been known to crawl in your ear when you sleep on a quest for food! Because roaches are nocturnal animals they are on the hunt for food at night, and earwax has been known to be a suitable food for roaches. There have been cases where roaches will crawl into someones ear in an attempt to eat their earwax, but have then gotten stuck inside the persons ear and had to be removed by a medical professional. Similar has happened with cockroaches crawling in your mouth.
Cockroaches are actually attracted to the scent of earwax, because it’s similar in pheromones to their natural food source of items that contain volatile fatty acids such as cheese and bread.
Furthermore, sometimes cockroaches aren’t looking to eat earwax, and are simply looking for temporary shelter, and they think your ears are a nice place to stay safe, not knowing that they’re attached to a human.
How Can You Prevent Cockroaches From Crawling In Your Ears?
The idea of a cockroach crawling into your ear is enough to make you sleep with earmuffs on for the rest of your life. But thankfully you don’t have too much to worry about. In a study conducted in South Africa, they found that only 2% of all insects found in a human’s ear were cockroaches.
Along with this, unless you have a severe cockroach infestation, the chances of a cockroach getting near you while you sleep is extremely low. Cockroaches are naturally afraid of humans, and will generally avoid humans at all costs.
If you are worried about cockroaches crawling into your ears, you should focus on keeping your home clean and tidy to prevent cockroaches in the first place.
If you’re dealing with an active cockroach infestation, you might be slightly more at risk because baby cockroaches might be more willing and able to crawl in your ear, but generally speaking you don’t have much to worry about.
Final Thoughts On Cockroaches Crawling In Your Ear:
As disgusting as the thought is, generally speaking you don’t have much to worry about. Although cockroaches might be attracted to the scent of earwax, they are generally very afraid of humans and will do anything in their power to stay away from humans.
That being said, if you have an active severe cockroach infestation then that puts you at a higher risk, but if that’s the case I suggest you take a look at our guide on how to get rid of cockroaches.
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