I wanted to refer to the following SD article about camel spiders http://www.straightdope.com/mailbag/mcamelspider.html which states “They’re not quite as big as your hand (unless you’re a five-year-old)” and “They make no noise whatsoever, they have no venom whatsoever, and they do not eat flesh…”
So I now refer you to the following submission to Coast to Coast, which seems to suggest the opposite on both accounts:
Well im new to this but here goes, i just recieved a picture taken by an Air Force buddy over in Iraq and i agree with you they look a whole lot bigger than a 5 year olds hand. These puppies are at least 1 foot or more. Dont know about the rest but i know they are bigger…no jokeing
You’re being misled by perspective. Don’t look at the leg of the soldier in the background, look at the hand that’s holding it up for the camera. The solifugids’ bodies are just a shade longer than the breadth of the soldier’s palm.
I can’t say what Betsygirl’s photo shows, but she might be wise to look at it again & make a careful analysis of what in the photograph makes her think the beastie is over a foot long. Unless it’s laying next to a ruler, the subjective judgment is suspect …
Well, I had quite a few run-ins with ‘Camel Spiders’ during the first Gulf War. We actually knew them as ‘Sun Spiders’ but they are most definitely the same bug.
That picture is a little misleading. As pointed out in the above post, look at the soldier’s hand for a more accurate frame of reference.
I will attest that some of them get to be damn big, though. I encountered many of these over the course of my desert vacation (about 7 months total). The average size? About 3-4 inches. But there were a few as big as 5 inches, and one big beast almost 6.5 inches long from mandibles to thorax. That one was captured and relocated into one of the leg (non-airborne) support unit tents. Heh heh heh.
And yes, they are incredibly fast and difficult to catch or kill.
Well reading this artical, and having done some time in Saudi Arabia, I can tell you these things are for real!
I used to work on the line of an rsaf airbase (where the aircraft are parked and preped for flight outside, undercover), one morning at about 6.00am we were doing our normal duties, preping the aircraft for the day and removing the wheel covers etc. One of the guys let out an “Oh S#@t!” and as you do we all rushed over, only to find our mate had uncovered a camel spider when he removed one of the wheel covers, it was up on its rear 4 legs looking as big as possible, looked plenty big to me! Yes bigger than my hand and Im 63" 260Lb. This thing didnt like the odds and took off, 1 of the guys gave chase saying something about lets catch it, "idiot " I thought, anyway he came back saying he couldnt keep up! We all looked at each other because this guy was the fitness freek of our team. So I guess he could run faster than 10Mph. We all had a laugh and went back to work.
Thats my story and i`m sticking to it, I want to know if one of these experts have actually seen a fully grown camel spider in its own habitat in the middle East?
I too was in the deserts of Arabia. during desert shield/storm. we saw plenty of thies camel spiders. they where in fact bigger than my hand but as to them screaming when they ran, we never herd them.And I spent a lot of time at night on guard duty. and traviling to differant log bases to repair refrigeration units, and at all the sites we went to, and as a support unit we went to many a sites, we never heard of any one getting bit by a camel spider.
Some by scorpens, and vipers, but not the camel spider.
Our favorit pass time was taking a camel spider and a scorpen and puting them in a box to watch them fight . The spider won every time. I have also seen them chase after people but only to scar them in witch they did. As to the eating of a camel well the only dead camels we saw where the one that step on land mine, and where in many pices but we saw none with their guts haning out from haven been eaten from a spider.
Angel’s-dad
Regarding speed: That 10 MPH number looked low to me too. I’m sure I’ve read somewhere of solifugids clocked at over 15 MPH. A good sprinter on a level track could probably keep up with one, if it ran in a straight line. In army boots, on dirt or sand, chasing a solifugid running an evasion path, not a chance.
Regarding size: stretched out (as it would be when rearing up), from back legs to the end of the pedipalps, a big solifugid probably would stretch longer than your hand. That’s why it does that, of course, to look bigger than it is …
Regarding noise: There are no confirmed reports verifying any kind of screaming sound made by a solifugid. I find it very doubtful.
Regarding camel-eating: No, they don’t eat camels. They are known to take up residence in the rotting corpses of large creatures. It provides shelter & a hiding place to pounce from, and attracts their real food-smaller insects. The flies buzzing around a dead camel’s innards are a solifugid smorgasbord.
Regarding human bites: People have been bitten by solifugids, but very rarely. Like other kinds of arachnids and insects, they’ll lash out when threatened. If someone put on their boots in the morning without shaking them out, they could find out the hard way that a solifugid had moved in overnight … It could be worse, there’s a variety native to India that’s venomous. As if they weren’t nasty enough without a poison bite.
Hello all!! I respectfully disagree with that report about Camel Spiders- My husband has been in the Air Force for almost 10 years, he is on this 5th TDY to the Middle East right now. He had originally told me about Camel Spiders when we were dating because he had been chased (yes chased) by one when he was in Saudi Arabia the first time. He has SEEN them jump on camels, and PEOPLE. And the second time he was in the desert, a guy that he KNEW got the bottom part of his leg eaten off by one that had crawled into his sleeping bag. Now, my husband is not one to make up stories, TRUST ME, SO whoever this is saying that they are just cute little bug eating creatures needs to go over to Iraq for awhile and just see how cute they arent!! I mean, come on- the desert heat may be strong, but it aint strong enough to make people have disillusions of flesh eating spiders! Like I said, this is his 5th trip to the sandbox- he is no stranger to what goes on over there on all accounts- especially all the critters they have to deal with. As if being there wasnt bad enough already! If whoever wrote that story would like to talk to some of these guys that are there and dealing with them everyday- just let me know- I WILL have them write you personal letters! AND take pictures if you need further proof! Respectfully, an Air Force WIFE
On the screaming thing… I’m thinking that what happened was that some tough, macho soldier saw one for the first time, and freaked. When his buddies asked, “Uh, no, of course I didn’t just scream like a schoolgirl! It was the spider! Honest, the spider made that noise!”
I lived for six years in a small town in New Mexico, called Carrizozo. We had a infrequent visitor every now and then that the locals would call “child of the earth” they are no bigger than the second knuckle to the tip of your pinky finger, but they had relatively fat bodies, eight legs and two feeler “legs” so-as to give the illusion of having ten legs. they are miniature carbon copies of Middle-eastern “Camel spiders” but they live all over the southwest of the united states. Locally parents tell their children not to get near them because they believe they are extremely venemous. I have heard from some that they have no venom, and will run away at every given chance. But i do know that if you put them in a jar, or covered glass, they will move and climb around inside very rapidly until they literally expire and die.
i dont mean to be funny but the link u posted http://www.coasttocoastam.com/gen/page440.html states that u can wake up with an arm or leg missing, question, how much can a 5 inch insect eat for god sakes and im surprised that there are any camels or people left over there.
sorry but i think the poor old camel spider has got a bad rap over the years
Friend of a friend. An urban legend term. “It really happened to my friend’s aunt’s hairdresser’s mechanic’s dog’s second cousin’s pet orangutan!” or, in this case, “It really happened to a friend of my husband.”
Sparky, I hail from Albuquerque, now in Denver. I’ve seen a lot ‘o’ the Child of the Earths there. You’d probably agree that they have a bulbous body as well, which would fool someone into believing they have something nasty (as in venom) inside. I hate creepy-crawlies so I avoid anything that’s not Female of the Homo-Sapien type & I appreciated your input below Pally! :eek:
I’m a bit of an Arachnophobe folks (see my note to Sparky). . .I was pulling up articles on the Camel Spider to see if the picture posted on Coast to Coast :eek: was a Hoax. I’m heart-broken to find out that it does exist, such a beast of my nightmares, Daoh :smack: !
But I thank the researchers and the Men & Women who defend our national interest for providing us some first-hand experience as to what they’ve SEEN. It defuses a lot of the “wives-tale” / folklore out of the picture. I would like to see the actual Sick-Bay reports of the Military people who were “munched-on”, for if those tails are true, it should make national news don’t ya’ think?
Well, there are two alternatives. You decide which is more probable.
Camel spiders really are 2-3 feet across, weigh 75 lbs, eat camels, drive jeeps, run 35mph, faster than a rolling O and more powerful than a silent E, mix concrete and sign complicated insurance forms, etc., and nobody in history has ever seen them until a few American soldiers hop over for a few weeks to play in the sand, or
Camel spiders really are 4-6 inches across (larger than a hand, yes—my hand, spread widely, is less then 5" across the longest dimension) and stories to the contrary are convenient exaggerations.
