Reader**–
Research can sometimes put you in a worse place.
Let’s talk about the Earwig.
The other day friends and I were discussing how REPULSED we are by earwigs. And we asked the common question–Do earwigs actually crawl into ears?
Then we made the interesting observation. The earwig is called kulağakaçan in Turkish. That means the-one-that-runs-into-the-ear. We wondered why both Turkish and English uses practically the same word for the earwig.
My suggestion was that whenever the english language was developed, we called that little thing an earwig (short for ear-wiggle?). And way on the other side of the world when Turkish was developed, they called that little thing and ear-crawler as well.
So WHY is it?
To find the answer, I did what we do these days, I looked online. WebMD was very adament in saying, no! no! they’re not known to crawl into ears…
But the entire sentence is:
Despite what you may have heard, they are not known to climb into your ears, although there have been cases of earwigs being found in the ear.
What? Didn’t you just say they didn’t go into ears?
This is worse than helpful. It all makes sense now. They DO go into people’s ears. And it’s a bug to get them out. They don’t want us to worry–but we should.
MedMD tried again:
The name is inaccurate. The bug’s name comes from the Old English words ear wicga, which roughly translates to “ear wiggler” or “ear creature,” which is how the myth began about this type of insect crawling into your ears while you sleep.
[A bit of circular reasoning, imho.]
Even more disturbing, the mistaken belief held that once in the ear, these insects can tunnel into your brain and lay eggs there. This, too, is false. These bugs aren’t even interested in entering the human ear.
Also found online about earwigs:
“They are nocturnal, omnivorous, and prefer moist, dark crevices.” Hmm.
So they don’t go into ears, but they do. And they’re historically called ear-wigglers–for no reason. No, they don’t lay eggs in there, either. We promise.
Then, ahem! Why are they called ear-wigglers in two languages?
So I poked around a bit more.
Many European languages follow this pattern that Turkish and English shares:
- German: Ohrwurm (“ear worm”). Also Ohrkneifer (“ear pincher”).
- French: perce-oreille (“ear piercer”).
- Russian: ukhovertka (уховёртка, “ear turner” or “ear twister”).
- Hungarian: fülbemászó (“ear crawler” or “one that crawls into the ear”).
- Dutch: oorworm (“ear worm”), similar to German.
- Romanian: urechelniță (“little ear creature”).
- Azerbaijani: qulağagirən (“the-one-that-enters-the-ear”).
- Yiddish: Oyerverm (“ear worm”).
Healthline.com has the great suggestion for how to avoid being bitten by an earwig:
“You can prevent earwig pinches by avoiding contact with earwigs whenever possible.”
Yep. I’m already on that bandwagon.
And that’s probably WHY EARWIGS DON’T GO INTO EARS ANYMORE.
