Katie Melua has found a spider living in her ear.

The 'Nine Million Bicycles' crooner has opened up about the terrifying situation, revealing that doctors told her that the arachnid had been there for a week.

Posting a picture of the spider on her Instagram account, she wrote: ''So I had a rustling in my ear for a week and went to the doctor to have it checked out this morning. THIS little fella is what they found!''

The singer-songwriter - who has released six albums, including her hit 2003 debut 'Call Off the Search' - hypothesised over how the eight-legged creepy-crawly got into her ear, blaming it on an old pair of ear-pieces.

She explained: ''Basically I used these old in-ear monitors to block out sound on a flight, little spider must have been in them and crawled inside my ear and stayed there for the week.

''It was no hassle at all, apart from the occasional shuffling noises...''

Despite the strange experience, the 30-year-old insists that both her and her spidery friend are now safe and well.

She said: ''Though the thing looked TERRIFYING up-close on the doctor's camera, once he took him out ( using a micro Hoover ) it was pretty small, and now its in this little test tube, alive and seemingly fine.''

A spokeswoman for the star added that there was a happy ending for the arthropod, revealing that it is now living in 'The Closest Thing to Crazy' singer's garden.

She concluded: ''Katie kept it in the test tube and released it in her garden when she got home.

''Apart from shuffling and random noises in her ear, the spider was no bother for the entire week it lived there.''