Some common Camel Spider Myths:

1. Camel spiders can move at speeds over 30 MPH, screaming while they run.
2. Camel spiders can be as large as a frisbee.
3. Camel spiders venom is an anesthetic that numbs their prey.
4. Camel spiders can jump three feet high.
5. Camel spiders get there name because they eat the

Sounds like #2 refutes your friend...but interesting none the less. Have to read a little more though.

I don't get it? The site says that they don't get bigger than 6 inches but the photos show spiders much larger than 6 inches? Typo?

THE FACTS

Most of these claims are false or greatly exaggerated.

1. Camel spiders top speed - 10 mph.

2. Size: Up to 6 inches

3. They have no venom.

4. They don't jump.

5. Called camel spiders because they live in the desert.

They actually aren't spiders at all, they're solpugids.. Along with spiders, they are members of the class Arachnida.

[edit on 21-11-2005 by MacMerdin]

Darn thous things are UGLY .Can you say Squash!

Look at the spider in relation to the soldier's CUFF in the right of the image, rather than in comparison to the soldier's leg behind the thing.

Zip

"While my guitar gently weeps" was the perfect soundtrack for that spider eating the lizard.

yeah met a guy who was stationed in the raf and he told me about these things b4 i even knew what they were. he said about the bite that u dont know of, and then they eat chunks of your flesh.

greedy buggers

him and his raf mates stationed out in iraz and other places saw these things and scorpions. I think i will stay in united kingdowm thanks

My brother, who is in the Navy, sent my mother the e-mail that's been circulating for a long while about these supposed "monsters". It included that picture.

I admit that he had us all fooled for a while, until I reposted this information to a blog of mine, and had a friend correct me.

What's sad is that we have those things around here, only we call them "vinegar roons". And we still believed the purported "facts", even though we've never heard one screaming.

They're still ugly, though, and they leave unsightly brown streaks when you smash them.

Why is this thread in the "Cryptozoology and Mythical Beasts" forum? There is nothing cryptic or mythological about camel spiders.

whaaaaaat!? "camel spiders"? those things are simple windscorpions, also known as sunscorpions.

They live predominantly in hot dry desert like areas, there are only 6 species in Europe and they all live in the Southern Europe only. They can stridulate (make a noise) by rubbing together a piar of horny ridges on the insides of their chelicerae.

and vinegaRONES, not vinega roons, are the whipscorpions. these have a whip-like tail, and they are called vinegarones because if they feel threatened they secrete a substance that smells like vinegar. but the windscorpions arent part of the vinegarone family.
oh and youve probably guessed by now, but windscorpions arent related to spiders except for being in the same class, arachnida. so if they were "camel" anything, they would be "camel scorpions". i think this thread should be closed, though i dont have the power to do so.

[edit on 22-11-2005 by Hawker9]

[edit on 22-11-2005 by Hawker9]

thas a big spider i wonder if it would be easy to kill

Ahh. The camel spider. I read somewhere a year or so ago that they inject camels with their venom (which numbs the camel) and then it will eat the camel alive!

Originally posted by xeroxed88
Ahh. The camel spider. I read somewhere a year or so ago that they inject camels with their venom (which numbs the camel) and then it will eat the camel alive!

Except, if you study the spider, you will find they do not produce, carry or inject ANY venom whatsoever.

- One Man Short