This summer marks the panic-inducing emergence of parasitic sojourners like tiger mosquitoes and brain-eating amoebae. Now, the Daily Mail reports that a British woman recently underwent surgery to remove a "writhing mass" of flesh-eating maggots from inside her ear.

Rochelle Harris, age 27, had just returned from a trip to Peru when she suddenly began to experience unbearable pains emanating from one side of her face, pains that were eventually accompanied by menacing scratching sounds from inside her head.

The next morning, she found her pillow soaked in fluid which poured from her ear, and decided it was time to visit the hospital.

Initially, the doctors at the Royal Derby Hospital's accident and emergency department thought that the symptoms were the result of an infected mosquito bite or an ear infection. However, when an ear nose and throat specialist was called in, the situation took a nightmarish turn.

An hour passed in silence as the specialist examined Harris' ear. Harris' mother, who had accompanied her daughter to the hospital, finally asked if they were any closer to a diagnosis.

"My Mum asked her 'Can you see what it is?' and the doctor said 'If you don't mind I'd prefer to speak to the registrar before I tell you anything,'" Harris told reporters.

"My Mum said 'Please tell us' and that's when the doctor said 'You've got maggots in your ear.' I burst into tears instantly," she continued. "I was very scared — I wondered if they were in my brain. I thought to myself, 'This could be very, very serious.'"

The maggots, which were later determined to be larvae from a New World Army screwworm fly, had eaten their way through the ear canal, and would only retreat deeper when doctors attempted to drown them with olive oil or physically remove them.

"I just wanted them out of me and now I knew what was causing the sensations and sounds it made it all the worse," she said.

On closer surgical examination, doctors found that the two visible larvae were not alone, but part of a family of eight large maggots writhing deep inside Harris' ear.

Harris' told reporters that she remembered walking through a swarm of flies in Peru, and that one of them had gotten into her ear briefly — however, she did not realize that the tropical fly had laid its eggs.

Since the cringe-inducing incident, Harris has made a full recovery, and brain scans have ruled out any lasting injuries. That being said, she was lucky to catch the infection early, as the maggots were most likely migrating through her head.

"I'm no longer as squeamish as I was about bugs," she said. "How can you be when they've been inside your head?"