(11/3/2003) Camel Spider
I just basically just stumbled upon your website. Very interesting to say the least. Anyway, after looking at all the various insect pictures people have sent in for identification, I thought I would share this picture with you. Seems kind of appropriate for the Halloween season: Well, here is the nastiest creature God ever placed on this earth. This is what I had to deal with while in Kuwait during Operation Desert Storm … I present to you the infamous “Camel Spider”. A vicious insect that lives in the middle eastern deserts. Although they are not actually spiders, they resemble a cross between a spider and a scorpion. Also called the sun spider, solpugid, wind scorpion, and a host of other terrible names that do not come close to describing the pure, unadulterated evil that makes up this ‘hell-spawned’ beast. The Camel Spider can grow to the size of a coffee cup saucer , it can run upwards of 5 miles an hour and j ump several feet into the air . That’s not the worst part either. The worst part comes when they catch you. (And they will catch you.) Although they are not poisonous, Camel Spiders will inflict a horrible bite. It will jump on you and run up your back until it finds exposed flesh. If you’re wearing shorts, it will go for your legs; otherwise it may go all the way up to your face or neck . Its mouth opens four ways to become 4 very sharp fangs. If you are sleeping, i t has been known to eat at your face and rip at the flesh. Don’t worry, its saliva will numb the wound almost instantaneously… by destroying the nerve endings. The saliva also inhibits healing. When your nose grows back , it’ll be hideously scarred. I honestly believe if these evil creatures were the size of a German Shepard, they would rule the earth!
Ron Larson,
Pilot
Army Missile Command
Redstone Arsenal, AL
