Camel Spider

[atticus]

Link to a video showing a camel spider eating a lizard. I think its in Iraq:

http://www.big-boys.com/articles/camelspider.html

 

[DEVES]

Wow that thing is freakin huge.
That would make a nice stomp, or maybe even a nice friend to snuggle up to at night.
Just jokes.

Take care.

 

[Sh0rtbUs]

Pfft, thats nothing! This one time at band camp...

 

[Zartan]

Shite, lovely.

Really, if you enjoyed that, try and find a Goliath Tarantula. They're only two feet long and eat birds. :dontpanic:

 

[Slim]

Are Camel Spiders agressive...Anyone bitten over in A'stan?

 

[paracowboy]

Are Camel Spiders agressive

yup. I readied the first time one came at me.

...Anyone bitten over in A'stan?

not on my visit.

 

[Springroll]

that is the ugliest spider I have ever seen, and I have alot of them living outside my house.

 

[George Wallace]

You have camel spiders living outside your house?

 

[Springroll]

I have alot of big spiders living outside my house. Maybe I will take a pic of one of them that visits me when I am hanging my laundry out on the line..YUCK!

If there are any of those camel ones, I am getting the heck out of here!!
It might try to eat me!!  :'(

 

[Gramps]

Camel spiders are actually a member of the scorpion family but, they are not as aggressive as one may think. No, they don't eat your face. Yes they move fast and can jump but most of the time they are looking for shade or a free handout, they get their name because they are found in the same areas as camels not because they eat them. I have had one or two follow me in the desert, if you leave them alone, they will usually leave you alone. Either way, they freak me out and I think they look like an alien of some sort. Check out the following link for more.


http://www.snopes.com/photos/bugs/camelspider.asp

 

[Springroll]

I don't usually get grossed out by spiders and such, but those pics of the camel spider just grossed me out!!

The hair on the back of my neck is standing at attention right now...EWWWWWWW!!!

 

[Gramps]

Try having one follow you at night time in a desert. It is really hard not to run like a scared child when they surprise you. Or how about eating in an "Open Air" restaurant in the hills somewhere in Oman and one scurries right in front of you while you are eating. One of the creepiest creatures I have ever seen for sure.

 

[paracowboy]

It is really hard not to run like a scared child when they surprise you.

wish we'd had information that accurate when we went over. We were told the myths, by official sources. And when we'd find them, we'd go to kill them, only to have the suckers raise their front legs and come straight at you!

Hardened paratroopers running and screeching like schoolgirls.  :

 

[Springroll]

I would go running and screaming like a little girl(even though I am a girl..lol) if that happened to me.

I am going to save one of those pics and will send it to my mother on April Fools....she absolutely HATES all bugs that look like that camel spider!

 

[Slim]

Hardened paratroopers running and screeching like schoolgirls.   :

That's ok paracowboy

I've seen schoolgirls that act like hardened paratroopers! But that's a story for another time...

 

[karl28]

       Man that is one Ugly bug ! I just hate spiders they give me the creeps

 

[Armymedic]

To bad too many myths have gone around about these insects. I too heard them from credible sources.

Unfortunately, they do not deserve the bad rap. Like most predators, thier proximity to us either reduces or eliminates the precence of other creatures which are even more creepy crawly. The are aggresssive, because on their food chain they are the big baddies,

I have seen a bite on an US soldier....the dummy picked one up...by the front "legs"...

Gee..I wonder why he got bit?

Other then the couple punctures in his finger, and the HUGE razzing he got from we medics (we can be totally heartless) and his buddies, he was fine.

 

[Springroll]

So they are not poisonous like a regular scorpion??

 

[muskrat89]

They are not scorpions, although they are in the same class as spiders and scorpions.

Here in Arizona, my backyard is full of Black Widows; scorpion stings are the most common type of call to the Poison Control centres, and my wife has twice been hospitalized for Brown Recluse bites. I did find a smaller version(species) of the camel spider (sun spider/wind scorpion) in my bath tub once...

We also have Gila Monsters and Tarantulas - oh, and about 6 or 7 species of rattlesnakes  ;D

 

[Springroll]

There were quite a few reports of brown recluse bites when i was in Oak Harbor, WA, most of which hitch hiked their way up there with service members posted there.

Spiders and such don't scare me or gross me out. I tend to leave them alone since they help me out by taking care of the mosquitoes and other little flying bugs that like to "bug" me when I am enjoying my back deck.

I just wrecked a huge web that went from my clothes line to the ground(approx 7ft high) and I know it was not there yesterday...