In the September 1, 1993 issue of the Journal of the American Veterinary Medical Association, a letter to the editor appeared, entitled “Of Mites and Man”. This letter was submitted by Dr. Robert A. Lopez, and is (ostensibly) a description of the sensations he experienced after deliberately infecting himself with ear mites in 1968. According to the letter, one of his clients had developed a skin rash which cleared up when her cat’s ear mite infestation was cured.  Verified reports of natural human infection with ear mites are virtually unheard of.  Either Dr. Lopez is a dedicated scientist (sort of) or a talented writer.  These excerpts remind me of Kafka’s Metamorphosis.  “One morning, as Gregor Samsa was waking up from anxious dreams, he discovered that in bed he had been changed into a monstrous verminous bug.”

“…Then I … transferred approximately one gram of ear mite exudate from the cat to my left ear.  Immediately, I heard scratching sounds, then moving sounds, as the mites began to explore my ear canal. Itching sensations then started and all three sensations merged into a weird cacophany of sound and pain that intensified from that moment, 4 PM, on and on… At first, I thought this wouldn’t and couldn’t last very long.  However, as the day and evening wore on, I began to worry. The pruritus [itching] was increasing.  The sounds in my ear (fortunately I had chosen only one ear), were becoming louder as the mites traveled deeper toward my ear drum. I felt helpless.  Is this the way a mite-infested animal feels?”

There are many more details, as the letter is a full page and half of small print, but you get the idea.  He repeated the experiment two more times, having less severe signs on subsequent infections.  He recovered fully. If this were a bad movie, it would now say

“The End?”

This post was provided by Dr. Everett Mobley of Kennet Veterinary Clinic in Kennet, MO.