News from Iraq! The Camel Spider!--CAUTION: IMAGES
 

Holy crud! Can you believe this thing?

http://www.camelspiders.net/large-camel-spider.jpg

http://www.camelspiders.net/

Baked, boiled, or fried?

Crikey! Put a saddle on that monster and you can ride it.

I wonder if that would be the biggest spider in the world but I am really afraid to ask

Yeah my dad came across a few of those during his tours over there, they're bloody nasty things. Give a nasty bite too. Aparantly my dad said that when they only had very basic toilet facilities i.e. a tube into the ground for peeing into critters would hide in there away from the heat so you had to be careful not to get your family jewels nipped by some local wildlife :huh:

thats the last thing one of our military men needs to be worried about. Having some great big spider nipping at your old man. :nope:

I had something like this:
http://www.camelspiders.net/camel-spider-bite.htm

happen on the back of my left leg, just above the knee. Only it wasn't a camel spider. Never was sure what exactly bite me. Doc's thought maybe a brown recluse. But they did to me exactly what was described in that link.. EXACTLY. My leg was so badly infected that local anesthisa didnt work. They milked puss out of my leg for 20 minutes (no joke, by the time i was able to get medical attention my leg was so far gone i couldn't bend it anymore). They Also cut out the "necrotic tissue". It Hurt like hell (i was given a wad of gause to bite down on) when the doc cut it out. It was like he took a core sample out of my leg and set it on the tray next to me. I could see the skin, the lay of fat under it, the meat under that ,etc. Sure did make a nice scar.

Thats one nasty looking bugger there:yep: How big do those get? It looks pretty darn big in that picture, is that a common size?

Shoot the bugger, ugly sod.

Fkn ****...its so dam big!
I never so one of that size...:o

The image is somewhat misleading with the perspective.
The biggest Camel Spiders are about 5" leg span.

Sod the insurgents, MOAB those buggers!! :o

Ugly nasty looking thing.

It looks like an alien facehugger !!! :o

If I ever saw one of those things, I'd scream like a little girl and run away !

Some have been recorded at greater than 6" by the way - as referenced on that site.

-S

:eek: Now I would not like to encounter one of those during a nocturnal trip to the can! :eek:

Spiders (or at least spider like creatures) don't normally bother me, infact some are quite cute; but I think I could make an exeception for that beast. :yep:

On the subject of desert creepy crawlies, my great grandfather was stung by a scorpion in Mesopotamia (basically Iraq) during WWI. Forgot to shake his tunic before he put it on. It swelled up too, and had to be lanced, my grandmother said that half of the palm on one of his hands was a big flat scar from it. No mention of camel spiders though, but no doubt he encountered them too!