Camel Spiders

Im not sure if this is the right forum but does anyone know if Camel Spiders actually real?

There's an urban legend photo about the things (and some folklore) going around about them. Check on Snopes for pictures and the whole thing:

www.snopes.com...

In general, however, the behaviors reported are not spiderish (spiders don't eat camels, for instance, and couldn't possibly eat camels. They are not designed as scavengers for mammals.) Nor are they as big as reported.

The photo being circulated on the internet has the spiders held close to the camera. You don't see what's holding them, so you assume that they're actually as huge as they appear in the photo. It's a camera trick.

Solifugids,or Solifugae.They sure are real,but like Byrd says,they are the subject of much mythology and rumors.They get to be about the size of a smaller tarantula,and they are aggressive little buggers if cornered or messed with.

www.museums.org.za...

We have several threads on this spider assuming everyone is correct in identifying it. Visit links below.

Giant spiders in Iraq

))

huge scary looking iraqi insect

I believe that these creatures have already been discussed here. (Click to view thread) Evidently there is some truth to this story, though they aren't quite as big as people make them out to be.

EDIT: Beat to the draw, by KingLizard. Drat!

[edit on 10-10-2004 by dbates]

EDIT: Beat to the draw, by KingLizard. Drat!

Care for round two?

I was in Iraq a little over a year ago and while I was there I saw a few camel spiders. They are not all that big and threatoning unless you bother them. They are said to chase you but in actuality, they are trying to get into your shadow, since shad is a little cooler than the sun. The only big thing we had to worry about was the fact that the eat skin. They inject you with a numbing agent where they are going to "chow down" and proceed to eat at the layers of skin. Saw some pictures of a guy who had that happen to him and let's just saw that it wasn't pretty.

Apparently it isn't. But the picture is petrefiying.
I hope it's not real.

Claim: Photograph shows camel spiders found in Iraq.

Status: True.

Camel spiders, also known as wind spiders, wind scorpions, and sun scorpions, are a type of arthropod found (among other places) in the deserts of the Middle East. They're technically not spiders but solifugae (although, like spiders, they belong to the class Arachnida). Camel spiders are the subject of a variety of legendary claims, many of them familiar to Americans because they were spread by U.S. servicemen who served in the Persian Gulf War in 1991, and re-spread at the beginning of the Iraq War in 2003:
Camel spiders can grow to be as large as dinner plates.

Camel spiders can traverse desert sand at speeds up to 25 MPH, making screaming noises as they run.

Camel spiders can jump several feet in the air.

Camel spiders eat the stomachs of camels, hence the name "camel spider." (Legend includes the detail that camel spiders eat camel stomachs from either the outside in or the inside out. In the former case they supposedly jump up from the ground and grab onto camels' bellies from underneath; in the latter case exactly how spiders allegedly as large as dinner plates get into camels' stomachs intact remains unexplained.)

Camel spiders are venomous, and their venom contains a powerful anesthetic that numbs their victims (thus allowing them to gnaw away at living, immobilized animals without being noticed). U.S. soldiers were said to have been attacked by camel spiders at night but remained completely unaware of their plight until they awakened in the morning to find chunks of their flesh missing.

This remember me an arabian legend about Mohamad and the spider. In fact, the spider is an Holy beast in Islam. The story is called "The spider and the cave". It take place before Muhammad received the Noble Quran, when he was tracked by the Koresh family :

www.sln.org.uk...

That may be also a begining for our custom of killing spiders at the morning, but not at evening...

Camel Spiders arent really spiders. They are from a family of insects known as Solipugids and they can be found all over the world in various shapes and sizes. A cousin of mine in the British marines captured one of the iraqui species and he said it was almost as big as a dinner plate. His platoon kept it around as an early warning system for heavy gunfire nearby as these things react to vibrations in the same ways as spiders. there are some large varieties in Iraq, but dont believe all the rhumours about them screaming, or running at 25mph, they are just another big creepy looking bug oh and they also get called Wind Spider/Wind Scorpions depending where your from.

I have killed a couple in my house here in Arizona. Worldwide they appear to be fairly common in dry areas. My cats seem to keep the camel spiders, tarantulas, and scorpions in check.

Contrary to popluar belief Camel spiders are very aggressive. Their natural enemy is the scorpion. We use to have camel spider and scorpion fights all the time and the out come was always 50 50. I remember trying to catch one for a fight and the thing attacked the rake I was using to capture it with.
Those things give me the hibbie jibbies, I've seen one crawl up the side of glass before ewhhhhh

Some way way off remarks been made but camel spider were briefly discussed in a thread in this section. www.abovetopsecret.com...
Search function folks

All I have to say is, Thank God i aint living in Iraq!

Originally posted by Peeder
All I have to say is, Thank God i aint living in Iraq!

Yeah, for more reasons than Camel Spiders.

im glad that camel spider myth has been uncovered Had me a little paranoid

*cry* yeah they are real. theyre like hideous jumping (rather large) spiders. i used to live in saudi arabia and had a rather nasty experience of seeing one in my bath. so yeah they r real. (unless theres a myth about something called a camel spider that is) im talking about the middle eastern jumping (seriously. *shudder*) spiders that can grow a maximum (i think) to the size of your palm. disgusting things.

reply to post by sakura


Once I let a camel.spider fight against a scorpoin. It was an black imperator scorpion. This specimen are not much poisonous, but they are strong and big.
Normally they are peaceful, so the attack is coming from the camel.spider.
The scorpion stop the attack with its pinchers. Then for some hours peace between these both were there, means the spoder got respect. But then in the night, there was a big attack between this both. The scorpion holds the spoder with its pinchers and then it gave the spoder a sting with it prickle.
It hold the spider some time and than waiting for the end of the camelspider.
After death ist ate the spider, but not the abdomen, only the breast.part. The rest it buried in the sand.

reply to post by Lazarus187

Are you really serious? I can't believe this is even still being discussed. Yes there real no there not 2 feet long and no they do not eat humans or camels. There about 6-8 inches long. They occasionally ride on or under camels for shade. That pic on the internet of those marines is exaggerated. its two spiders put together. IN fact there not even really spiders.

Yes they are real, sneaky critters none the less.

They attach themselves to their host, say a camel, hence the name. And inject a venom that creates a painkiller effect, and then proceade to eat the host alive.