Katie Melua has had to have a live spider extracted from her ear after finding out it had been living there for a week.
Documenting her shock on her Instagram account, the singer said she had been bothered by a rustling sound in her ear and went to a doctor, who had to use a micro-vacuum cleaner to remove the creature.
The ‘Spider’s Web’ singer believes the small spider – identified as a member of the Salticidae or jumping spider family – had found its way in to her ear via a pair of headphones.
“Basically I used these old in-ear monitors to block out sound on a flight. A little spider must have been in them and crawled inside my ear and stayed there for the week,” she wrote.
“Though the thing looked TERRIFYING up-close on the doctor’s camera, once he took him out it was pretty small, and now it’s in this little test tube, alive and seemingly fine,” she added, posting a picture of the spider in a plastic container.
A spokesperson for the 30-year-old singer told the Daily Mail: “The ear specialist said he’d never in his career taken out a live bug before. Plenty of dead ones. When it was out it was pretty tiny.
“Katie kept it in the test tube and released it in her garden when she got home. Apart from shuffling and random noises in her ear, the spider was no bother for the entire week it lived there. She was relieved it was what it was as she was worried she was losing her hearing.”
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This summer, Melua made headlines after Christian Aid labeled the singer a “fallen hero” when it was revealed she was involved in the Liberty tax avoidance scheme. The singer was reported to have sheltered £850,000 through Liberty in 2008.