One woman had the fright of her life when the persistent scratching noise from inside her ear canal turned out to be from a spider.

The woman, named by her surname Li, recently arrived at a hospital in Xiamen, south west China, after experiencing intense pain in one of her ears, reported People's Daily Online.

She was told by the doctors that a spider had set up home in her ear canal. Even more spine-chillingly, it had started to weave an intricate web there.

Doctors were surprised to find a spider deep inside Ms Li's ear canal and had even woven a web (pictured)

Ms Li, 25, explained that she went hiking with her boyfriend several days ago.

She spotted a fruit-laden tree behind a cemetery and decided to pick the fruit.

After she got home, the scratching noise began and persisted for several days.

There was intense pain associated with the scratching, which didn't stop even when she took pain-relief and anti-inflammation pills.

At one point, she even thought she was possessed after trampling over the grave.

When she finally arrived at Xiamen Hospital of Otolaryngology for treatments, doctors were surprised to find a spider embedded deep inside her ear canal.

It is thought the spider had entered her ear after being disturbed by the woman's fruit picking.

The spider was resting on her ear drums and had even woven a protective web around itself.

Doctors used medicated ear drops to put the spider to sleep before extracting the insect under surgical conditions.

Chen Zhaoyue, one of the doctors who treated the woman, explained that getting insects in your ears is not unusual.

Occasionally they can be 'lured out' with bright lights.

However, you must never be tempted to extract it any other way yourself as it could force the insect further into your ear canal.

Spiders are not the only creatures to have crawled into human ear canals and made home.

Earlier this month, a woman in Yangzhou, eastern China, had a centipede extracted from her ear.

A man from Guangdong, southern China, was even more unfortunate when doctors discovered a cockroach living in his ear and it had given birth to 25 babies.

This meant that a total of 26 cockroaches had to be removed from his ear.