.JPG) Prompted by: just pointing out to others for whom sharing a bivi bag with some creepy crawlies might be a deal breaker 
I was camping with a group in Forest of Dean in 2001 - we woke up to screaming and thumps. Turns out a guy had crashed out with his head in his tent porch/long grass and something crawled in to his ear and was burrowing. The thumps were him hammering his head on to the ground to try to shake it out. Having not a clue at the time, we called an ambulance he was in such pain and distress. It was 4am, the ambulance crew ended up hurting him more and freaking him out by poking in his ear with tweezers. They could see nothing and were questioning his sanity. They took him to Gloucester hospital, where he was treated. He came back in the morning with one of these in a bottle. It was over an inch long. Guess it couldn't turn around so was panicking... . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . The treatment BTW is warm olive oil dripped in the ear - unlike water, it kills the insect.
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| Edited: 11/05/09 13:13 |
This is what he had in his ear
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  yowza!!! i'm taking olive oil with me next time i go camping 
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 nasty. moral - wear earlplugs.
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 Moral. Use a bug net. 
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I think that looks like a "Devils Coach Horse"? Anyway yes it does happen and, even if, like me , you are a very placid person it is VERY frightening because it is so close to the brain and the slightest movement by whatever it is is VERY loud (mine was a small moth and of course could not reverse). A whole hour of panic and fear and i finally coaxed it out by shining the head torch at me ear! Never again please! Its always in the back of my mind it 'could' happen again.
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 Moral - have a lobotomy before you go bivvying (it's compulsory anyway isn't it? ) - then the poor insect can walk right through without needing to turn around!
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I wouldn't know.....
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 (mine was a small moth and of course could not reverse). A whole hour of panic and fear and i finally coaxed it out by shining the head torch at me ear!
rofl genius idea to get it out!!!
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 Having been in a similar situation when Caving, I know just how the poor insect feels! 
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Having been in a similar situation when Caving, I know just how the poor insect feels! Someone smothered you in olive oil?
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<vision of Tony in rubber boots smothered in olive oil......> 
</vision of Tony in rubber boots smothered in olive oil......>
<heads off to book first available lobotomy appointment>
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Having been in a similar situation when Caving, I know just how the poor insect feels!
Someone smothered you in olive oil?
Best not delve into people's private lives on this site especially when olive oil is concerned, it has many uses!
My answer to this problem is not to go to the forest of Dean. Either that or drink less so you can actually get into your tent and zip up the bug mesh before you crash out. And trust someone on here to actually recognise the name of the bugger that got you. And thanks for the photo, kind of went off my lunch (a bit sqeamish when it comes to photographs of bugs).
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Mind you, olive oil might be handy for caving. A bit of lubrication can help you get into a tight fitting hole. 
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Or out of one as the case may be!
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Mike you are a wrong un! I forgot to say -Yes it was a Devil's Coach Horse. I tried to get Lee (the casualty) to sell his story to The Scum or some other tabloid - had to be worth a couple of hundred?
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A few years back we were called to a cave rescue in a cave called Pen Eyre on the Llangattock escarpment. A novice caver of shall we say "larger" proportions had got stuck in a notorious constriction called the corkscrew. On their way out they were dropping down the corkscrew and his caving belt complete with battery had jammed him midway down the corkscrew, trapping his mates behind him. He couldn't get down, and they couldn't pull him back up. When we arrived I could talk to his mates and push my hand past him so I asked one of the rescue party to run down to the commoner's cottages and "borrow" some small bottles of washing up liquid. When they arrived I passed them through the small gap past him to his mates with the instructions to pour the contents down the side of corkscrew and all over him. After about three bottles worth and much pushing from above and pulling from below, we eventually freed him, exhausted but otherwise uninjured. My advice to the party afterwards?..................................................If you go caving with him again, make sure he goes last on the way back out!
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| Edited: 11/05/09 17:31 |
