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Does anyone have any pics of those...

n/an/a Member Posts: 168,427
edited December 2008 in US Military Veteran Forum
Camel Wolf Spiders. I hated those darn things...their darn fangs were as big as two of my fingers. When you stepped on them, it sounded like you were stepping on a crab...they had a hard shell.

Comments

  • Wild OkieWild Okie Member Posts: 1,280 ✭✭✭✭✭
    edited November -1
    camelspiderlarge.jpg

    Have you seen this picture and read the usual accompanying story about "camel spiders" or "Fallujah spiders" in Iraq that anesthetize and eat people alive? This is a hoax. The arachnids in the picture are not spiders, they are solpugids and they have no venom. They eat roly-poly bugs, crickets, and scorpions. And they aren't just in Iraq; they are found in deserts. There are some in the southwest U.S. Also, notice that the picture was taken to make these arachnids look bigger. Compare them to the partial hand on the right instead of the leg behind.
  • Red223Red223 Member Posts: 7,946
    edited November -1
    One walked into our tent and everyone freaked out, I threw a bucket over it and slid a piece of cardboard under it to catch it. We made a box to keep it in and fed it scorpions. It would tear a scorpion apart and crunch on it like it was nothing. The ones in Saudi were black and not that light color-they get big.
  • n/an/a Member Posts: 168,427
    edited November -1
    quote:Originally posted by Red223
    One walked into our tent and everyone freaked out, I threw a bucket over it and slid a piece of cardboard under it to catch it. We made a box to keep it in and fed it scorpions. It would tear a scorpion apart and crunch on it like it was nothing. The ones in Saudi were black and not that light color-they get big.




    Yeah....the ones I'm talking about are probably bigger than that pic and they looked a little different. I was bitten by one while asleep one night and my arm swelled up as large as my leg.
  • One shotOne shot Member Posts: 1,027
    edited November -1
    I don't think I saw one of the camel spiders the entire time I was in country. I did get the chance to see a cobra. can you imagine running into that some night.
  • n/an/a Member Posts: 168,427
    edited November -1
    I remember turning on a flashlight in a bunker one night while on gaurd duty and seeing hundreds of baby scorpions all over the place...it sucks when you have no choice but to sit there with them all night long.
  • SGSG Member Posts: 7,548
    edited November -1
  • Gunny52Gunny52 Member Posts: 6 ✭✭
    edited November -1
    Maybe the "rags" could use a few.
  • amsptcdsamsptcds Member Posts: 679
    edited November -1
    Those look like the things we call "Sun Spiders" out here in this desert. I have only seen ones that big out in Wonder Valley.

    Do they "run" pretty fast?
  • lboogy90lboogy90 Member Posts: 40 ✭✭
    edited November -1
    quote:Originally posted by amsptcds
    Those look like the things we call "Sun Spiders" out here in this desert. I have only seen ones that big out in Wonder Valley.

    Do they "run" pretty fast?


    Camel spiders are pretty fast, ran one of my marines up onto the railing of our balcony!
  • JuggernautJuggernaut Member Posts: 719 ✭✭✭✭
    edited November -1
    http://www.nmpest.com/images/Jsalpuged.JPG
    They actually are here in the U.S. although they are substantially smaller. The claims about Camel Spiders are completely bogus and they are not even technically spiders and are not venomous, although they can give a good pinch, but are solifuges such as (false spiders, haarskeerders, jagspinnekoppe, jerrymanders, roman spiders, sun spiders, walzenspinnen, wind scorpions).
    One of my hobbies is raising Arachnids such as Tarantulas and Scorpions and Reptiles such as Monitors and Pythons.
  • jsuggsjsuggs Member Posts: 110 ✭✭✭
    edited November -1
    what freaked me out were the big lizards in kuait. i have never seen anything like it even in centeral america, a lizard that can out run a gun truck is just crazy.
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