Ear canal home to ant colony
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ITCHY AND SCRATCHY: A large number of ants are living inside 12-year-old Shreya Darji’s ear canal
Indian girl has over 1,000 ants removed from her head
A 12–year-old girl from Deesa, in Gujarat, western India, has around ten giant ants crawl out of her ears daily, her parents say.
One thousand ants were removed from Shreya Darji’s ear canal by doctors in August last year, when she started complaining of a tickling sensation in her ear.
Her parents say they have tried everything, from traditional medical aids to witch doctors, but the ants keep emerging from her ears.
Dr Jawahar Talsania, 58, senior Ear, Nose and Throat (ENT) surgeon, in Gujarat, told the Daily Mail: “We have conducted all possible scans on the child including an MRI and CT scan but they are all normal. We cannot find any abnormality in her ears.
“She doesn’t experience any kind of pain - despite the ants biting her - and no damage has been found to the eardrums.”
He continued: “The family live a normal life and they have a healthy environment so we can’t even blame their living conditions. We’ve not seen anything like this in our medical history.”
Dr Jawahar said the medics had attempted to rid the mini creatures through a number of methods, including asphyxiating them drops, but to no avail.
A laparoscopic camera has even been used to look inside Shreya’s ear to check for an egg chamber.
“We don’t believe the ants are laying eggs inside the ear as we've not spotted a queen ant inside,” he added.
“We are completely perplexed.”
Father Sanjay Darji, 40, who runs a small television repair business in Gujarat, said his daughter would sit in school and the ants would continue to creep out of her ear.
He’s terrified the condition is getting worse and said: “I have done everything I can. I have taken her to the best doctors but they have failed to solve the problem. I just hope things get better.
“I’m worried about her future and how this will affect her studies. She is a brilliant child and she’s already missed a lot of school.”
Shreya is currently under video surveillance in an Ahmedabad medical unit.