Guaranteed to Give You Nightmares

We've all heard countless urban legends involving spiders. There's the one about the woman with a nest of spiders in her hairdo. There's the story about the deadly spiders that live under the toilet seats in public restrooms. And who could forget the gag-inducing tale involving spider eggs discovered in a piece of bubblegum. Each of these legends, you'll be happy to know, is fiction--not fact.

But this morning, I came across one of the most horrifying spider stories of all time. And I read it on CNN.com.

One day, not long ago, a nine-year-old Oregon boy named Jesse Courtney began hearing popping noises (like Rice Krispies) in one of his ears. He thought nothing of them until he woke up one morning with a terrible earache. His mother took him to a doctor, who flushed the ear with fluid. Out came two spiders--one living and one recently deceased. They had apparently taken up residence inside the boy's ear. The "Rice Krispies" noise he had reported had been the sound of the spiders walking across his eardrum.

Jesse has decided to keep the spiders as souvenirs. And I may never fall asleep again.