Camel Spider
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Written by Jim on August 6th, 2007 with
195 comments.
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Hi Raegan, you are right about the camel spider, they are pretty cool and I would like to know if they actually have 10 legs as well.
I was just looking up spiders and I saw the camel spider and I flipped out!
camel spider are the radest spider on earth the are all most the biggest spider on earth
I thought I was the only one that had seen that spider. I thought it was from outer space and I tried to explain the thing to friends but they couldn’t imagine. I wondered for years what that thing was and now I know it was a camel spider. I was in valley center, CA. when I found it.
I lived in Colorado and found Camel Spiders there (Colorado Springs). From what I was told they came back in serviceman’s hold baggage from the middle east. The ones I found were only about an inch in length.
When I was in Desert Storm they were all over the screen of our GP med. Some one caught one and it was about 3in long.
As mentioned in the article, this is not actually technically a spider. It is an arachnid, like spiders and scorpions, but it is NOT a spider! Note the ten legs and the pair of distinctly large chelicerae (the pudgy things that look like mini-legs between their front legs). Spiders have eight legs and (generally) smaller chelicerae.
Also, they do not create a numbing anything! Nor will they eat your face. They won’t even try to attack you unless they feel you’re encroaching upon their territory or doing something equally perceived as threatening. With how odd this creature looks, it’s sometimes tempting to listen to myths. But the camel spider is just getting some bad press. Check into things before making such wild claims. The closest thing to anything these myths have claimed is a study done in India that said that ONE subspecies had venom causing paralysis in 7 of 10 lizards they test-injected, but that test has never been replicated, ergo it’s unreliable.
yeah cool till it breaks out of the cage and bites your face off
These spiders are REALLY CREEPY-LOOKING! who in their right mind would want a pet that could bite you and suck your muscle liquid? your kids? spouse? medy has the right idea; scream bloody murder and call the nearest exterminator!! By the way, Camel Spiders don’t live in Florida, do they?
the camel spider is so awesome i would love to have one to scare my self!
I think they’re kind of cute. But of course I wouldn’t sleep with one!!
DUUDE, i want/need one of these camel spiders, it would make an awesome pet to have just roaming in my house, i also think it would be funny to watch it mess with my cats!!! (jk on the cat thing) let me know if they start selling them
i think spiders r not that scary but i hate the little ugly fuzzy things but camel spiders i just got out of iraq and they aint all that bad well when u have a gun anyway but other than that they try to eat just about everything
That Camel Spider is soooo nasty!!!
i think you people are crazy if you want a camel spider for a nasty freaky looking pet. I hope all the soldiers kill them if they see one……. i would :(~ i wouldn’t even take a picture of it…
Medy it actually injects you with something that makes you numb and you wouldn’t even feel it. Imagine that you are sleeping in a tent and you wake up with some body part missing… that is soo sick!
After it bites you you wouldn’t feel it feeding on you….. scary to even think about it.
I live in Alaska, and i don’t really think there are any camel spiders around here because it get pretty cold in the winter… but then again i hope there are none….
Sometimes my cousin would go outside and smoke and there would be spider webs above the window and a spider is near by somewhere and it would be dark outside and moths flying around near the light, he would catch one and throw it on the web and watch the spider bite it or what ever it is doing. then it would role it up and put it off to the side and go back and fix its web…. he would keep catching moths and throwing it in the web….I’ve seen him do that a couple of times and it was soo nasty! he would take pictures of it roling the moth up, but then his wife would delete them…. that was almost a year ago so i don’t know if he still feeds his little friends….well he called them his friends…
Well thats it to it.
12/14/07 at 8:15 PM
I’ve heard a lot about these camel spiders i think they are pretty cool! Whenever somone would tell me more about them i thought that was cool how big they were. One kid in school told me that they were 6ft in length and a sub that i had in school today said he told our class that they were 4ft in body length and 5ft in leg length. I didn’t really believe that though so i went to google.com and looked up Camel spiders an i heard all of your comments and you who have went to Iraq i believe you mostly if you are telling the truth?
One time when i was at my grandparents house at the state border when he walks to his mail box he crosses the border. But anyway i was around his dried up ditch because he didn’t have it running for a few days and i was flipping rocks to see what was under then and it was the first one i flipped and there was a 2″ scorpion, ant, and spider looking thing. I ran and looked for an empty jar and i found a hug kind of pickle jar so i said it works then ran back where the spider was under the fliped rock.
I bet it was looking for shade and it was still there it was all skrunched up and i just picked it up like how people pick up taranchulas. And never went on the web to find out until now and i still have it and i found it about in the year 2003 now it is about 4 and a half inches long i hold it and every thing. I feed it crickets and other bugs its size that wouldn’t hurt or kill it i made it a big forest kind of place for it in a big fish tank.
When it is hungry it goes to the highest point it can and tries to climb. I put a cricket and i either toss it in the cage and it jumps just like a jumping spider and wraps around it and bites it to death. or i hold the cricket in between my thumb and pointer finger.Then it would jump and do the same thing but it would fall but it doesn’t care. but that is my true story it hasn’t had any babies yet i wonder why.
If any one would like to tell me more PLEASE do!!!
Thanks!
I would like to know how much someone would pay for a camel spider? I see them around my home all the time. I would sell your readers a camel spider.
I’ve done my share of time in the sandbox (Central Iraq, near Tikrit) and just like everyone else on this page that has been there, I too have to say that a lot of the stories people spread are false.
They do grow to about 6 or 7 inches (the biggest one anyone in my unit caught was 7 inches), and they do move slightly faster than most spiders (10 MPH is pretty accurate). But the jumping, unprovoked attacks, poison, and all that other garbage is all myth. One thing that scares a lot of troops is the fact that they WILL follow you around during the day, but not to attack. Quite the opposite, really. They are actually trying to stay in your shadow and enjoy the shade you are providing, and are actually rather grateful. They are mainly nocturnal, and are not accustomed to the heat and sunlight of the daytime.
Now, the stories of “Camel Spider Battles” are true. Those I’ve seen take place. Usually troops will try to find the largest ones possible, attempt to keep it fed and battle-ready, and pit them against each other, as well as against lizards, mice, and other small wildlife. Usually a large box or even a garbage can lid can be used as an arena, and I’ve seen many Sunday afternoon battles take place.
As far as bites go, I have been bitten once (I accidentally grabbed an unsuspecting arachnid that was hidden behind a box) and it was a little painful, but nothing excruciating. Unfortunately, I didn’t take a picture of the wound, but they tend to be slightly jagged, and heal fairly quickly if treated immediately.
I believe I’ve seen one of these spiders camping in Orland, CA., on July of 2005. Could be wrong, but the descriptions remind of it and those who’ve seen them in the U.S. make the odds pretty possible.
I hate spiders and everything about them, but the more I look at the bites and the spiders doing this, the more interested I get about them. Its sad to see the pain people are in from these bites, but those pictures just goes to show you, you need medical help if you think you need it. Dont wait until its too late
camel spiders arnt spiders looks like a spider and a scorpion together they are called spogulids. names can be misleading such as a sea spider isnt a spider its an ancient group of arthopods from the cambrian period
holy smokes! if i had seen one of those spiders eye to eye i’d be terrified three weeks from sunday!!!!
I Thought they were about 3ft long but after reading this website i found out that they are only about 6in long and i would find it hard to try to battle them w/ a sorwd but it would be sweet to watch them fight each other.
As kids we caught these things in the semi-desert near Kuruman in the Nothern Cape Province, They are not as big as the myth and none of us ever got bitten. We would put them in a can and when we got two together we would shove them into a face off. Invariably the bigger one would kill the smaller one, but would not last a fight with another one.
I have two of them,,,their verry expensive to purchase and to keep,,the truth is that their verry boring insects,,a tarantula is much more entertaining,,plus the camel spider is to afraid of you,,my tarantula is so cute,,i have so much fun with it,,,i think it likes me,i only think,,,because i sat on it for 20 seconds and it didnt do anithing,it just waited for me to get up!!well i only wey like 72 kg,, a car ran over one and it was fine,it just sank a bit in the sand!! anywheu the camel spider is verry dumb,just stupid,,it looks col,but a hairy tarantula is much mote fun!
My best friend and i caught one and thought it would be cool to keep under his bed for his mom to find. The next day i came over and found it feasting on his leg. he woke up and passed out instantly the moment he saw his leg. He went to the doctor and it got carved up pretty bad. Now he’s got a big patch on his leg. Think twice before you get one of these as a pet. If you insist on having a camel spider, make sure it is IMPOSSIBLE for it to get out!
i think they are very cool. i want one as a pet. i was wondering if anyone has one or can get one for me. thanks.
Those camel spiders are awesome =} dangerous i will love to have one as a pet!
I live in South Africa in the area known as the Little Karoo. We have a species of Camel Spider around here too. It has been said by this one culture, that the spider looks for hair at night to make it’s nest. It uses its mandibles to get the hair out from the root; as a result of this; one is left with a hairless spot, which never grows back again. We haven’t actually seen any cases of this type of thing happening. At night those people sleep with stockings on their heads, as to prevent this from happening.
There was one evening a couple of years ago, when the lounge door was left open and this Camel Spider ran in. It had a huge thorax. It was pretty fast and you could hear it running on the linoleum flooring; if you had to tap long fingernails on linoleum flooring, that would be exactly what it sounded like. It had been squashed with a broom. It’s blood was a very egg yolk-like yellow.
I have a camel spider in my house, its pretty intense it steals all my food
camel spiders are disgusting i went to iraq in 05 and seen a couple but they were no bigger than 3 inches i nmaybe goin back soon and im dreading it.
I really want a camel spider. If anyone can send me one or iknow where i can buy one email me.
man these spiders are so freaking cool send me one
you need to put camel spider bites on this site so we can see them
Just to let you all know…. there is a motion picture that is being made about camelspiders with a twist to it. Yes it takes place somewhere in the desserts of Iraq, and it deals with soldiers fighting against them in a horrific way . It might just work, because these things are based on real events.
I think these camel spiders look COOL!
I just can’t believe my eyes! I’m scared!
can camel spiders be poisonous.
Well for starters I’m not arachnophobic but I don’t like spiders or centipedes or any other crawly leggy spider like creatures I live in Cali and there’s almost always a black widow hiding in a dark spot or a wolf spider near me I’ve been bitten in my sleep a lot,but these camel spiders are so fascinating that I actually want one! It’s crazy but those things are awesome. I’d name it…..Saddam.
These things look so cool i wish i could have one but i already know if i were to get one my parents would kill me. But those who think these camel spiders are creepy looking, you have to admit that they also look so cool. :)LOL
BoBbY jOe WaS HeRe AnD tHeSe ThInGs ArE aWeSoMe!!!
I Have 19 Camel Spiders
hey, ya i got kind of curious about camel spiders so i thought id find out a little more, and they’re amazing!!!we don’t have them were i live but i wish we did! its the only spider i think i can really tolerate…lol..but these things are awesome and if you are one of the lucky ones that get to hang out with these things then go play!!…lol…
ah, now I am scared!
yo Tarantula3453, if u have 19 Camel Spiders then do you want to sell one to me? is u do then email me @ hmong_GT_S@yahoo.com thanks.
These spiders are amazing lol! I wouldn’t like to come across one tho :oO
I am just glad they don’t live in England :o)
if any one can give me better info about these please email me a bugtupper @ msn.com
This is the biggest spider I have ever seen since 8 legget freaks. My uncle is in the army and I asked him about these spider and he told me they wher not a threat to the crew.
yeah they are pretty cool but the myths surrounding them are overrated. if you look in the photo posted the TWO camel spidders that are being held up are only about as big as his sleeve and they contain no poison. they are still extremely aggressive and can travel pretty fast 10 mph average. and yes you can have them as pets- i dunno about you yanks but over here in the UK you can order them online for as little as ?17 or roughly $40 in your terms. but think wisely before getting one of these as a pet although not poisonous their mandibles are treacherous and can even bite through wire mesh. you must get a tamper proof plastic tank and make it impenetrable. due to there aggressive nature and speed and instinct to seek out shade if they get loose you will be screwed! it unlikely that it will attack you but it may attack smaller pets and will be very hard to find so if you are interested in keeping one it is best you either have some experience with previous aggressive arachnids or do your homework and learn as much as possible. if you treat it with respect it will treat you with…..
it wont get the chance to bit you!
What is your problem…why would anyone think that those things are cool or cuddly i cant even look at them or anything like them
so i think all of you who like these spiders are really crazy! You might think that there cute and cuddly but there really not. Blah, they’re gross I hate them
I live in a small town called Hanford, Ca. We see these things all the time. They are only about an inch or two when we see them. They really scare us every time we spot them! I just want people to know that they are not only on the other side of the world or just in the desserts.
they do look cudly!