That horrible pain might be a four-inch-centipede camping out in your ear

This week, an Arkansas teenager woke up with an earache and pulled a live four-inch centipede out of his head.

According to Arkansas Matters, 14-year-old Grant Botti “was asleep when a pain in his ear woke him up. After feeling around to see what was causing the pain, the boy pulled out a 4-inch-centipede.”

His mother, Angela Botti, took him to the hospital where doctors bandaged him up and sent him home. The Bottis don’t know where the centipede came from, but they said maybe the beach.

It seems Botti is fine now, and even emoji-ing about his experience.

https://twitter.com/GrantBotti/status/616258641537011713

Good on you, kid.

Turns out, there are a few dos and don’ts to finding a living creature in your ear. The National Institutes of Health recommends trying to tip the insect out, kill it and float it out with oil, and warn not to stick a finger in the ear (you might prompt the insect to bite). Always seek medical attention.

Though this is a truly nightmare scenario, its not the first time that someone has found a bug in his ear. In 2014, an Australian man found an inch-long (roughly) cockroach in his ear, and couldn’t even remove it with a vacuum. So it could have been worse, sort of.

Danielle Wiener-Bronner is a news reporter.