huge scary looking iraqi insect

that is one scary looking #er, i would hate to see one of those up close and personal . Very creepy indeed

Have a look at the link, this dispells or the secrets of the dreaded camel spider.

www.snopes.com...

Link edited by DJDOHBOY

[Edited on 23-4-2004 by DJDOHBOY]

A new Nat'l Geographic story I found should ease some of the anxiety about this creature

Camel Spiders: Behind an E-Mail Sensation From Iraq

Cameron Walker
for National Geographic News
June 29, 2004

This spring, an arachnophobe's biggest nightmare started to pop up in e-mail in-boxes.

A photo of two huge spiders, each the size of a man's calf, was accompanied by an alarming note. The sender said his or her friend�or friend of a friend�knew a soldier stationed in Iraq who had said that these spiders could inject a sleeping soldier with anesthetic, then chew out a chunk of flesh.

Creepy? Yes. But arachnid experts say it's a hoax.

Still creepy, but not as bad as the rumors....
(photo:Nat'l Geographic)
National Geographic

Didn't that kill a soldier when he was getting in his sleeping bag, the thing was burried inside of it? I could of sworn there was a story on that.

it's not an insect

insects have 3 pairs of legs,that thing has 4 it's an arachnid

Originally posted by DarkSide
it's not an insect

insects have 3 pairs of legs,that thing has 4 it's an arachnid

You mean it's a spider. Camel Spider to be 100% exact. Evil looking buggers, wouldn't wanna see one of them crawlin in my backyard. *gets BB gun*

Originally posted by Thorfinn Skullsplitter






Sleep tight

That critter on the wall, like a previous poster from Queensland said, is a huntsman spider or triantelope. Common all over Australia, & that one's far from the biggest I've seen.

Harmless they may be, but anything that ugly just isn't cool to have around!

Zeddicus' story reminds me of my time in Saudi.

We had a #load of calemspiders, Scarabs, and scorpions all around. The camel spiders were a problem, because they did bite, the adults. The could get as big as your face. We used to capture them and feed them to our pet scorpions, and wed have scorpoin fights. Seems this is a pretty common thing amongst troops in the middle of nowhere with alot of time on our hands.

Anyway, the camel spiders in Saudi were kind of a putrid, maggot white,. The had the huge pinchers and did bite. They jump on camels, kind like a tick, and bite the camels. This insect pretty much looks like a standard camel spider. They do get pretty damn big. But scorpions love to eat them.

I had a pet scorpoin that I fed and took care of. Used to let him run around on my field desk while I did paperwork. One day, while we were having a scorpion pit fight, my scorpion just sat there, and the other scorpoin crawled on top of him, and they were mating. I realized my scorpion, named Tim, was a she. After they were dont, Tim ate her lover. We were laughing. I couldnt collect on the winnings, though, cuz sex isnt allowed in the combat arena, but after that incident, I decided it was time to set Tim free so she could have her babies.

Anyway, that poicture set off all sorts of memories. Thats a pretty big camel spider.

Ive enevr heard any stories about camel spiders eating off peoples faces though. Thats a new one. They do bite though.

Its interesting they say they eat scorpoins. We used to feed them to scorpions. Maybe they eat one another, its a matter of who catches who first?

i found one in my tool box one night, I scooped it out with pilers and fed him to Tim.

They are nasty criters to look at, though I was unaware of the legends surrounding them, like they supposedly scream when running. Thats a new one to me.

Used to see swarms of em come out after a good storm. See swarms of scarabs (aka dung beetles) right along with em.

You wanna watch a cool bug, look at the scarab. If you tockle thier backs, they rear up on thier hind legs and wave thier four front ones at you as if trying to scare you. Its some funny #! They also are toung little bugs. We tried feeding them to the scorpions, but the scorpions stinger couldnt penetrate thier shells very well, so wed let em go.

Originally posted by Skadi_the_Evil_Elf
You wanna watch a cool bug, look at the scarab. If you tockle thier backs, they rear up on thier hind legs and wave thier four front ones at you as if trying to scare you.

It would have succeeded in my case! I have an irational fear of any creature whose mouth parts I cannot clearly identify..

yeah,theyr camel spiders,saw quite a few in africa.not as big as those ones.rain spiders took care of them lol

Originally posted by Shugo
Didn't that kill a soldier when he was getting in his sleeping bag, the thing was burried inside of it? I could of sworn there was a story on that.

yeah,i heard that too,but the story i heard was that the camel spider ate part of his face before he woke up cause its venom acts like a local(anesthetic).just a story,not true.

one of the medics cought a (red widow)in africa and nothing could touch it.killed anything dropped in the cage.nasty one she was lol.

Old link not working here i got a new one:

www.snopes.com...



God I bet even Terminex would even cancel Your appointment. We know only one man who can stop them and its John Goodman from Arachnophobia.

[edit on 4-10-2004 by IBM]

[edit on 4-10-2004 by IBM]

It's slang term is "Camel Spider". They are quite common in middle east and they are not as big as the photograph makes it appear with the close up. Camel Spiders are not poisonous and cannot fly.