Arachophobia

Camel Spiders

Sarah called this Friday evening to say that she and her friend were traveling to Tennessee to visit Miss Melanie. She said that I needed to blog the impresive camel spiders that our troops encounter in Iraq. Sarah said they are horrible. "They can run 30 miles per hour and have a terrible scream!" " "They can jump 4 feet into the air and eat the stomachs out of camels!"

Of couse, these are all myths. Camel spiders do live in Iraq, but it could be any desert area -even in the US Southwest and Mexico! Habitation is a warm and arid environment - which includes virtually all deserts in Eastern and Western Hemispheres excluding Australia

These spiders have NO VENOM, however, if they do bite, infection from bacteria is the problem.

A camel spider, which is also in the class Arachnida with spiders interestingly enough, is not a spider at all. A camel spider is actually a solpugid, and there are about 900 species of them known to date. Around 50 species of camel spiders are found in southwest US and about 240 in southern Africa. The reason behind the name ‘camel spiders’ is simply because they are found in the desert. A Camel spider is also known as wind scorpion, sun spider, and wind spider.

Remember the urban legend and popular myth that camel spiders can run at 30 mph and they have a terrifying scream while they run! Very few animals on earth scream and the camel spider is not one. The truth is that a camel spider can only run about 10 mph. Camel spiders can get up to 6 inches long and are nocturnal creatures (prefer the night). The Camel Spider will dig holes and burrows where they spend time during the day. Because the camel spider possesses no venom and is not poisonous, they must rely on other assets, for example their force and their speed.

If you recall I said camel spiders reaches a length of 6 inches. There are modified photos that make the critters look bigger.

In fact, the picture of the soldier holding the camel spider is really a picture of two camel spiders attached to one another and held out in front of the soldier to make it appear larger than it really is!

The picture of the smaller camel spider below is what you can expect

What spooks so many people is that the camel spider seeks out shadows, so if your walking (and even running), the camel spider will actually follow your shadow! This leads to people imagining that the spider is screaming while chasing them!

Because they run so fast and stay in your shadow, you might think they are chasing you but in fact, they are simply staying out of the light.

You have to love a guy who shows off with a dead camel spider.

If you are hungry, here is a short video of a camel spider munching on a scorpion. Enjoy!