Just like rats, cockroaches are some of the most resilient little creatures on earth, and why? Because they can survive under the most horrid conditions and can live off just about anything. Apparently, one was trying to find something to eat outside of the cupboard, because a roach was found in a man’s ear, which caused him to rush to the hospital.

According to an Australian news outlet, Hendrik Helmer, of Darwin, Australia was awoken by a severe pain in his ear, and he quickly figured out that it was an insect, which shows the guy must have a serious bug problem if that was his first guess. “I was hoping it wasn’t a poisonous spider,” he said. “I was hoping it didn’t bite me.”

Fortunately for Helmer it didn’t bite him, but unfortunately it didn’t choose to crawl out either, so Helmer grabbed a vacuum cleaner and tried to suck it out, but that was an epic fail and the little sucker stayed put. Then he tried using water, hoping to flush it out, but still no victory and the pain only increased.

“Later on, when I stood up and it happened, it would sort of hunch me over and drop me down to the ground,” said Helmer.

He then went to a local hospital, where a doctor used olive-oil to wash it out, which only made the bug scurry into the ear even further. Eventually, the roach began to weaken and he showed signs of dying, but it took 10 whole minutes for that to happen.

“Near the 10-minute mark, somewhere about there, he started to stop burrowing but he was still in the throes of death-twitching,” Helmer explained. And what’s even more disturbing is that the thing was way bigger than Helmer thought. “They said they had never pulled an insect this large out of someone’s ear,” he said. Remarkably, the roach was a full 2 centimeters long.

Image via YouTube