A Kent man who called in sick to work suffering from vertigo later discovered that a spider had crawled into his ear during the night.
Liam Gomez, 27 - who had earlier disturbed a nest full of baby spiders in his doorway - woke with a blocked ear, felt dizzy and unbalanced and could hear a faint scratching in his head.
He applied olive oil to ease it and was horrified to see a spider's leg stuck to the end of the cotton bud.
Liam, from Folkestone, who has now vowed to sleep wearing earmuffs, then spent the next hour extracting the spider in bits.
The self-professed arachnophobe, who works as a (you guessed it) web designer, was happy just to get rid of the creature, and is relieved his hearing is back to normal.
He said: "My initial reaction was just to get the bloody thing out of me as fast as possible - I was obviously revolted as I hate spiders!
"Once I'd calmed down a bit I did then think 'well, that's one for Facebook!'.
"I arrived home from work on Tuesday evening to discover a spider's nest above my front door, with lots of hatchlings.
"So I swept them away with a broom, and went to bed. The next morning, I woke with blocked ears and vertigo, so I called in sick to work.
"I put a couple of drops of olive oil in my ears and decided to go back to sleep for a bit - I could feel tickling in my ear, but put it down to the oil.
"When I woke up a couple of hours later, I could still feel the sensation, but also hear a faint scratching sound, so I decided to investigate with a cotton bud.
"It came out clean, apart from a single leg! It was at that point I thought - 'oh god, I know what that means!'.
"I used a hairpin and the cotton bud to retrieve the spider, making sure to count the legs coming out, then made sure to give my ear a good clean.
"Total Sod's Law as I'm an arachnophobe - absolute nightmare! And the irony is - I'm a web designer for a living!"
Liam, who suffered the ear infestation on October 8, added: "I definitely think ear muffs are the way forward!
"I can only presume one from the nest I cleared must have snuck into my ear overnight - maybe as some sort of revenge mission!
"I didn't think to check if it was female. I'm hoping it was male, because I'm really hoping it didn't have to chance to lay eggs!"
