Camel Spiders

Cecil's Columns/Staff Reports
21

Again, Trunk, we don’t know exactly how the photo was faked. Most probably, the camel spider is close to the lens, the soldiers are much farther away, and the little sign was added by some computer graphic program.

I was at the Chicago Field Museum of Natural History last night, at a “behind the scenes” festivity for contributors. I spent some time talking with the spider expert lady, who showed me a camel spider – ugly lookin’ li’l brute, clearly the same critter as in the photo, but smaller than the palm of my hand. She said they can get a wee bit larger, but these fake photos on the internet are clear fakes.

22

LOL. That was hysterical, Trunk. Did you come up with that?

23

An associate in Yemen told me that camel spiders are a problem in the desert there. Their saliva apparently dissolves flesh, leaving big scars and chunks out of the camels they feed off.

Again, just word of mouth, no photos.

24

There seems to be a distinct difference in story between those here who have actually seen a camel spider, or done some factual research on one, and those whose husband’s friend’s cousin saw one. I know who I believe!

Those who are in awe of these photos, you can see the soldier’s hand in the top right frame of the screen right? And his sleave hanging open? That’s the hand that is holding the spiders. You also see that there are two spiders in the picture, one hanging off the back end of the other? Can you now see that the spiders aren’t 12" long?

25

I’ve been collecting arachnids for over twenty years- scorpions, tarantulas, centipedes, millipedes, AND solpugids (aka Camel Spiders, Wind Scorpions, Sun Spiders, etc.). Having owned and handled quite a few of these lil’ devils, I really have to laugh at the ridiculous stories that circulate about them. Solpugids are fast, voracious, and entirely NON-venomous. Stories about solpugids anesthetizing and eating people/camels are most probably made up by Arab grandfathers pulling their grandchildren’s legs or folks that have been hitting the kif a little too hard. Solpugids will generally only bite someone under two conditions- A) someone reaches into their hiding place, and the solpugid mistakes a wiggling finger for a tasty caterpillar or something, or B) someone, for instance, stuffs their foot into a boot where it happens to be hiding, and in fear of being crushed, it bites defensively. Otherwise, they’re quite content to perch on the palm of your hand, and even eat out of your fingers with a bit of practice. A solpugid bite does hurt- I recall reading in one journal (not sure if it’s been verified) that the solpugid has the strongest biting force proportionally of any animal on earth- that particular researcher estimated that one the size of a chihuahua could bite through a quarter inch steel plate (in theory)! There are many species of solpugids all over the world- most are yellowish brown or blonde, though I recently saw some lovely jet black specimens. And yes, they DO get considerably bigger than a five year old’s hand- the largest specimens I’ve seen are generally what are commonly called “Egyptian Banded Solpugids”- I’ve seen a few that were pretty darn close to six inches in length. That seems to be the upper limit however. Yes, they can run very fast (I’ve never clocked one, so I can’t speak for the 10 MPH figure), and yes, they do seek shade, hence darting into people’s shadows and giving folks the mistaken impression they’re being “chased”. Everything else though- foot-long specimens, poison and/or anesthesia, eating camels and/or human limbs- silly nonsense. BTW, the other reference to the “child of the earth” or “ninos de los tierras” generally refers to what most of us call Potato Bugs, or Jerusalem Crickets. They are a large (2-3" upper limit) burrowing cricket that somewhat resemble solpugids, although they generally are much more sluggish. They are truly ugly critters (I think the Zantee Misfits in the Outer Limits episode were modeled on them), and while they can give a painful pinch or nip if threatened, again, are basically no more dangerous than any other cricket. BTW- one last bit about solpugids- while they tend to make interesting pets, they generally do very poorly in captivity- I’ve rarely heard of one lasting more than a month or two.

26

darn, and i was wondering if it would make a nice change from tarantulas=\ They do just fine in captivity, but I wouldn’t like to take something out of its normal environment just to have it die, that is just irresponsible. Maybe I will get another tarantula =)

27

Camel spiders may not be poisonous, but my friend who is over in Iraq right now was bitten by one on the knee and it was no fun. He had to have minor surgery on it.
He’s coming back to the states soon. (Not because of the bite)
I have other friends who are just being deployed now.

28

fnordle-
Thanks for the informed input. I’m reading my comments from earlier, and I can’t find my source to back it up now, but I distinctly remember reading about a variety of solifugid native to India that did have a (slightly) venomous bite. Does that ring any bells for you?

folly-
No, the varieties native to northern Africa and the Arabian peninsula definitely aren’t venomous. But they bite hard and deep, leaving wounds that are both very painful and exteremely vulnerable to infection and necrosis. (Especially under the poor to mediocre sanitary conditions that our soldiers in the field are having to deal with.)

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FYI, the July issue of National Geographic Magazinehas an interesting article on camel spiders. Some really stunning natural habitat/behavior pictures too (as could be expected from NG).

I thought their violence was overstated too. That is until I saw pictures of them having sex!

30

Well, one of the predominant opinions as to why they perish in captivity is that they are extremely active creatures- they tend to cover an incredible amount of ground in a night’s hunting- and that the cramped conditions of the average small terrarium kind of force them into an unnatural state of lassitude, which causes their eventual decline and death. An experiment I was thinking of trying was to set up kind of a Habitrail sort of set-up- lots of interconnecting tubes, boxes, places to hide and places to run to. With a set-up like that, one could position prey at various spots in the “maze” on a daily basis, and I’d imagine the lil’ solpugid could play minotaur to his/her heart’s content. As they’re not terribly bright creatures, I’d imagine the “maze” would fool them into thinking they were actually covering lots of ground, and keep them from getting the “captive blues”, as it were. Other things to consider are temperature/terrain requirements, and diet (I know most people feed them either crickets. mealworms, or “super” mealworms, but I had a friend who fed his California wild-caught solpugids primarily moths, because when he caught them, he observed them hanging out under streetlights and chasing down moths that landed, and his seemed to last much longer that way). I wasn’t particularly careful about any of the above- being used to scorpions and tarantulas, which are, as you say, pretty darn tolerant of any conditions they’re in. I think solpugids are a bit more sensitive, but if you’re willing to go the extra mile, they might do just fine. I remember twenty years ago or so that chameleons (Jackson’s. Veiled, and the like) used to die like clockwork in captivity, but thanks to the efforts of many dedicated hobbyists, almost all species are not only thriving but even breeding in captivity. If you decide to try the “Habitrail” route, let me know how it goes- I’m curious. Also, care sheets for stuff like solpugids can be found at insecthobbyist.com (the scorpion forum is a good place to start).

31

**fnordle ** (no idea why I like that name :smiley: ), lately I’ve noticed a bunch of very annoying guests with nothing to add. (maybe its just me) Its great to see someone new who has a lot to add. C’mon join up and stay awhile. We’re reasonably friendly. Well most of us anyway.

32

Agreed. ANY bite or deep puncture wound- be it from an insect, arachnid, animal, or plant can result in something nasty- PARTICULARLY when you’re in an area that you’re not “indigenous” to. I’ve gotten stings, bites, scratches, and gouges locally that I shrugged off- they’d scab over and heal. When I was in New Guinea around ten years ago, though- oh brother! I had to slather antibiotic ointment on EVERYTHING, otherwise the next day it would be a big, infected mess. Now I suppose if I moved there and stayed a few years, my immune system would acclimate, but when you’re just visiting…

Like I said before, too- solpugids DO have incredible jaw strength. A tarantula bite (in terms of force) is NOTHING compared to a solpugid bite. They’re unlikely to do it, but when they do- OUCH!

33

Yes, and they all don’t seem to understand that the plural of anecdotes is not data :dubious:

I just noticed that **1920’s Style Death Ray’s ** location was Broome, Australia. No wonder Bush wanted us to join the war :wink:

34

One of the other Special Forces Groups there had a large terrarium where they staged Camel Spider fights. Looked really cool at night, with the contestants doused with different color chem-light juice.

It’s a large nightmare spider-looking thing, but the stories told about it are typical soldier tales invented to amaze the folks back home.

35

It’s interesting that no one has reported on the spider camels. These are regular camels, one-humped, living in the desert, but instead of just spitting, they spit silk in the form of webs. They do this to lure prey (mostly Afghans, but the occasional Ottoman) into the webs, and devour them.

Since they chew their cud, they often spit out whole body part, and then chew them back up again.

American soldiers in the area have been confused by the notion of “humping”, which has a different meaning amongst the spider-camel herders.

36

www.arabianwildlife.com/nature/insect/ins09.html

check this link out…they have straight dope on these nasty critters.

additionally, my son is going to iraq soon, they have been schooled on these.

with typical military bluntness and accuracy. pictures of a gi that was feasted on in his sleep. didn’t feel a thing. looked bad as hell, but healed fine.

M. :o

37

Actually, I moved from Iraq recently. I hear that somebody’s been looking for me?

38

AHAHAHAHAHA! :smiley:

39

airforcewife, come on, really now, your husband knows someone who was eaten by a bug? His entire FOOT? Before you go bashing people here about speaking truth look up the “spider” its scientific name is listed as Solpugids, its been mentioned many times here, and if you go to www.google.com and put in that name, you’ll come across a link from National Geographic, it will tell you what they are in truth. I sent you to the NG site because its a very well known magazine that does stories on many animals and insects. There is a blurb at the bottom that gives the facts from fiction.

These although not near the size they get in the middle east deserts exsist in Central California, that is very Desert Climate. I was a senior in high school when my cat was playing with a pale pink thing of “string” when I investigated it, she had actually caught what I thought at the time was a spider (eight legs means spider to me). Woke my step dad up, he put it in a zip block baggie, showed it to our bug guy, we were told it was a Wind Scorpion, who used a bite not a stinger, but were not poisonous, no venom, no poison.

So when I saw this straight dope I went to some pictures and went, huh, that looks like a HUGE wind scorpion, so I looked it up by its name Camel Spider through google and found it’s scientific name, then looked that up as well and found indeed it was what I thought it was only the Middle East Desert variety. 6.5 inches is HUGE for this, and sure I’d chase you down too if I knew you were going to run… but Damn wolf spiders will chase you too, its usually to keep you out of their “territory”.

They are “scorpions” or “spiders” but they dont eat people, they dont have anything in their bite to ‘numb’ you so they can eat away at you. Imagine you eating an entire Human being in one night, full sized adult. That’s what people are trying to say that this insect does each night by eating a foot of a human. Something that at its absolute largest is still bigger than itself greatly. It would eat itself to death, too much food. Sheesh.

I dont care if your husband knows a guy, I dont care if you know a guy. Really don’t always listen to what you hear, fish tales make the fish bigger with each telling. Be an intelligent person, learn to do some research and learn fact from fiction.

Damn, its like trying to explain to people that that the “daddy- long legs spider” is the most venomous spider in the world (its really the funnel spider in Australia the male spider’s bite with out anti venom has documented cases of death as a result of their bite). the DDL Spider aka Cellar Spider while true its jaws are too small to bite humans, their is no research or documentation in regards to their Venom, so who knows. But to humans they are not dangerous, they eat our other spiders in the house so keep them around.

fnordle, thank you for your post, sooner or later stubburn heads will learn to do research and maybe listen to people who actually do study such things. Makes you wonder if when their doctor tells them they have the flu, to go home and rest if they argue that no they are dying of pnemonia. Sheesh.

40

Yet another pre-coffee post, so I’m not going to look up cites right now. I know it’s been discussed on the Boards.

There are two kinds of animals called “daddy longlegs”. One is indeed a spider that has venom, builds webs, and everything. The other is the harvestman, which is not a spider although it looks like one. (I’ve only recently seen harvestmen.) An episode of Mythbusters had a segment on the DLL spider. The skinny guy stuck his arm in a box full of DLLs. (Apparently he’s slightly arachnophobic, BTW. At least, they said he was.) The spiders did not seem interested in biting him, but eventually one did. Needless to say, DLLs are not dangerous to humans; but it did show that DLLs could bite humans if they want to.

I was in Daggett once (Mojave Desert) when we found a flesh-coloured solifugid in the living room. Dad called it a “vinegaroon”. This think looked like a spider, and did not have the “whip” of the whip scorpion. Nor was its abdomen especially large. Does anyone have a photo I can look at so I can say, “Yes, that’s it.”?