Camel Spider Stories

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June 20th, 2006
My very first deployment in the Army was to Somalia, Africa on Christmas day 1992. During that deployment my helicopter unit was living at an abandon Russian/US airfield called Balidogal in the interior of the country. We had frequent night time visitors in our tent to include ants, Emperor Scorpions, and the illusive Camel Spider. The Camel Spiders we found in Somalia were about the size of a tarantula but had a large mass of finger like tentacles around the mandible. (I have a picture at home that I can send) We caught a large Emperor Scorpion, which we named Sinbad, and kept him in a blue bucket. We liked to catch other critters and throw them in with Sinbad to watch them fight. We tried lizards and ants and other adversaries but Sinbad would not attack much of anything until we caught a Camel Spider. Apparently Scorpions have an affinity for the taste of camel spiders. As soon as we threw the camel spider in the bucket Sinbad attacked it by grabbing the spider by its head and abdomen with his large claws. Sinbad would disable the spider by eating the legs like french-fries. First one set of legs then spinning the spider around the other set of legs were devoured. After the legs were gone Sinbad would begin chewing on the abdomen and a milky white fluid would run out as he chewed. Sinbad was never able to totally consume a whole spider in one sitting and would grow lethargic as he ate the abdomen. In the morning the job would be complete and the Camel Spider would be non existent. This is a very true story and if you don’t believe me just go to the deserts of Somalia catch an Emperor Scorpion and a Camel Spider and throw them in a bucket together then sit back and enjoy the show. Sincerely, B. Buglehall

June 14, 2006
So, here's my story, I live in Vegas and two years ago I am at Target in the garden section in the middle of the day just slacking off. It is as usual hot as hell out and it is just me and the kid they stuck out there who has a green mohawk and a crappy attitude. He don't like me so, I don't like him. No reason just that kind of day. So I am wandering around with no particular need in mind and they have a little stand set up with a catalog of storage sheds on it. I am flipping through the thick laminated pages about waist high when I turn the next page I am belly to face with what I would later describe as a crinkle cut french fry with huge friggin fangs glistening with venom. So I did the first thing that came to mind which was SCREAM LIKE A LITTLE GIRL. Really! Hands a flappin and everything. What the hell is that! It's an alien. I know bugs and that thing was made in a lab somewhere cuz I have never ever seen anything like it.
Slash looks over at me like this is just why he hates me and I say " Oh yeah you come f)&*%ing take a look. He does and without so much as raising an eyebrow goes over picks up one of those aluminum shower heads old ladies use on their plants and sqaushes it right where it sits. Oh yeah it never moved a muscle other than opening those huge jaws like it was gonna eat my belt first.
That was two years ago and this entire time I thought this must have been some Sumatran nightmare that go smuggled in a teak garden bench box. Until tonight! I am following my usual ritual of smoking a stogie outfront while reading my emails and I spot this little spider looking thing that is so small I can barely make him out but he is moving pretty fast. I dawns on me this thing looks kinda like my crinkle cut monster so I go through the ten minutes of work it takes to get him out of the crack in my patio and kill him. No problem. We haven't had any issues with bugs since that time in our last house that I was convinced the wife was a mexican goddess of scorpions and they felt it was necessary to follow her home. I killed two or three a night and my neighbors claimed to have never seen one. I found one in the friggin loofa!! We moved. It was that bad.
So I go on the internet and come across your site and all is revealed. Holy crap these things are normal? Why the hell don't more people know about them? I can certainly rest assured that my mother won't be coming to live with us now:) She's your problem now brothers. And I could probably lower the heck out of my property values pretty quick by showing one to pretty much anyone east of Chicago.
I decide to go in and grab another stogie. I come out and just as I am about to sit back down in my favorite Tar-get' patio chair I see that little bastards momma run out from under it! She is bigger than a french fry and faster than my lazy butt. Strangely enough I have one of those rechargeable 3 million watt flashlights you see everywhere now sitting right opposite of me so I blast her with it and she runs and hides under a big piece of MY KIDS SIDEWALK CHALK!!! It's not helping cuz she is bigger than it is. Even though I am crawling out of my skin I decide it's her or me and go inside to arm myself. Why didn't I buy that shotgun? I knew this would happen. I come back with a six foot broom handle, my cave crawler headlight on and a pair of boots. Luckily she is still frozen solid behind that chalk. Well I move everything off the patio and get that handle right up to her and SMOOSH! She just friggin explodes guts all over and most amazingly, even though I have popped her like a balloon she has bitten on to the end of that handle and wont let go. I actually dragged her out like that, trailing guts all the way. I threw her into one of those clay chimineas we all have out here but never use and she was still biting up to a minute ago, gutless and all. I have got the friggin heebie jeebies like you read about now. It was no help to read one of your stories that said they travel in two's and three's. Well here we go again. Just like the friggin scorpions! Think twice before marrying a mexican. She might not be telling you everything about herself. I'm sure the neighbors will say they have no idea what I'm talking about:) Tim Boyle

June 15th, 2006
I’m a civilian contractor that’s worked in Afghanistan in 2002, and am currently in the Middle East. I’ve not seen any camel spiders in the UAE, Qatar, of Kuwait as of yet…not complaining. I have seen dozens in Afghanistan that were enough for a life time. I’ve seen them jump, charge after people, and even attack a blower/vacuum cleaner.

What I’ve seen in Afghanistan:
Small CS jump about 8in high, and sometimes nearly a foot in distance.
They do bite humans.
Although they don’t have venom, they have some kind of bacteria (or something) that causes the bite area to swell profusely and in some cases causes the skin to turn a blackish color.
They definitely get larger than 6in. One I killed just the body was 6 inches and the size of a mini maglight. Others were between 6 to 8 inches counting the legs.
They almost always come out at night, and are as said, extremely aggressive.
They’ve been known to eat birds, lizards, and scorpions.
They’re called camel spiders because their mandibles are can chew through a camel’s hide…which is thought to be very tough leather by the indigenous personnel.
They must have some kind of numbing agent in their bite, because nearly everyone that I’ve seen or heard of was bitten at night and was asleep at the time—and did not awake from the bite. I don’t know about you, but if something took a 1/4’’ bite out of me, I’d wake up. I’ve had one run across my face when I was sleeping, and I jumped up screamingThe ones I’ve seen look different from the Iraq/Saudi version, but the Afghani version look similar enough to know they’re from the same gene pool.
If you’re ever in a tent out in the desert and it’s Friday Fight Night between a scorpion and a camel spider…always bet on the camel spider.
Laters, C. Knapp

May 16th, 2006

So, if it is in the group of solpugids, why is it known in south africa as the roman Spider, or the hair shaving Spider? also, do all solpugids have two legs, and two eyes, with extremely large "fangs"
one last thing, my uncle was in iraq, and I don’t remember where he was stationed as for the name of the camp, but, he said he saw one that was around 11" long including the legs. and that it was so fast he could not shoot them.
id like to see one of thesse tings in person, but my arachnophobia wont let me, the damn hobo spiders up here are killing me enough. thank you for your time. A. STONEBRAKER

April 10th, 2006

Hey! Being from the Sultanate of Oman and in the capital Muscat I always heard stories about the camel spiders and how it stings can kill you and how it can jump and run really fast and doesnt die if i stepped on the sand plus how big it is. To me those were all old folks tales until one night me and my friend were walking in this dark alley in which my friend was walking slower then me when suddenly i hear him yell (JUMP BACK!!!!!!!!!) so i leaped back luckily with my right leg pulled up when i saw a huge 3 and half inch camel spider(considered a baby) leaping to my right leg and missed it by a couple of cm. I didnt know what I did to piss it off or why it attacked me but what i did know is that i started to run like hell towards the well lighted road since i knew no way in hell i could have killed it as it was big, leaps,fast and the place it attacked me was sandy anyways we ran and jumped at the same time never looking behind until we got into a super market where we could catch our breath even then i thought it was still chasing us. Thats one night i would like to share with all of you to know how scary these spiders are. Muntasir

Dec 28th, 2005
While stationed in Kuwait in 2003, awaiting orders to go forward in support of 3rd Infantry Divisions invasion, I was on my way back from the shower trailer to my tent on the outskirts of Camp New York. I had just had my first hot shower in a week and was feelin' mighty fine, walkin' in my shower shoes, all relaxed and all, you know the deal. Well, I'm about 200 m from my tent, walking with my Mag-lite 3D cell flashlight beaming over the smooth sand in front of me when all of a sudden I notice movement in the sand. I point my light right at the spot and next thing ya' know I see this thing shoot (shoot is the best way to describe it) across the sand about 5 m in front of me, heading to my right flank. I see in the light that it is a spider-looking thing, bigger than a kitten and i just about *#@^%&* myself. I noticed how it made the dry sand spit up behind it as it ran, leaving a dust trail hanging in the air and I immediately ran to my left. As I started to run, I figured I'd run a semicircle to get as far away from this thing as possible as I went to my tent. I was horrified of this thing whatever it was. I realized as I was running that if it was really after me it would have got me by now, due to the speed it had exhibited. The sand kicking up from my flip-flops felt like THE THING fast at my heels. I made it back okay and shared my experience with my SGT., who began to recount the stories of the camel spiders he encountered on his first tour there. All I can say is now that I'm back in the states, and out of the service, is that my arachniphobia that I had before I went to Kuwait and Iraq is nonexistent. Now, when I see a spider, real spider that is, I just smash it with my hand. During my tours of the Middle-East and Southwest Asia, I eventually came to accept them as part of daily routine. I do believe however that if I ever see another camel-spider in person, I'll have a nervous breakdown or something. These things alone are enough to give someone P.T.S.D. The Iraqi's I talked to said that they believed the camel spider was "Allah Mujad" or "fighters of God". Their word for camel spider is pronounced, as best as I can in type anyway, "ainkabout",like INKABOOT. I spoke with one boy who said that INKABOOT ran across his face while he was in bed and he considered it a blessing. The Iraqis think INKABOOT fights for them against the American forces. Well, that's my story and I still have nightmares sometimes about those things. Dave Holmes, Formerly Spc. Holmes, United States Army.

Dec 24th, 2005
I am a desert storm vet and had an unfortunate run in with one of these things in 1991. Anyway, this is my short story. . . We were in Saudi Arabia about ½ an hour from the Iraq border. It was just after the ground war and we were on a forward mission to setup tents for the rest of our company who were still in Iraq. I was sitting on my cot and had moved a box containing food when one of these things scampered out between my legs, just inches from my hand. Having never seen something like this before I overreacted a little bit. I screamed like a little girl, flung back my body, and tumbled head over heals to ground. As the rest of the tent laughed at me, one of my buddies said “there it goes” and it disappeared under the side of the tent. Those little buggers blend in real well with the desert sand. We never saw another one in the area and I was really glad. To my recollection, it was only 8 to 10 inches long, moved quickly, and never made any screaming sounds. I was the one making the screaming sound. It sure did scary the heck out of me but it was just as scared of me as I was of it.

Dec 15th, 2005
Back around July 2003 after the war was declared over me a some of my Marines were sitting in our house playing cards. Our location at the time was in Al-Kut on an air base that we had taken over during the war, me and my guys were living right by the river, that exact spot seemed to be the “ Mecca” of Camel Spiders. It was pretty late that night all of us sitting around the table, my back was to the wall by the front door. All of a sudden one of my guys said there is a big Spider on the wall behind you. I looked over my shoulder and sure enough I think that was the biggest one we all have seen there, I would say it matched your three inch size, give or take a couple centimeters.
Well I slowly stood up and reached for the first thing I could get my hands on to kill it, (by the way these things are hard to kill) As I stood up he just sat there watching me then I hit it square and hard with a stick that I always kept in arms reach for that purpose. The Spider hit the floor and just disappeared in thin air.
My boys started laughing and said “Yeah he is going to go get his homeboys and come back here to kick your butt.” I walked back to my room to get my four cell Mag Light then I walked out on my front porch when I shut the door I heard a thud….I flicked on my light and there he was. This spider had jumped off the roof onto a MRE box that was on the porch, he just sat there and looked at me. Once again I swung at him, but he was to fast and got away, after a few minutes of scanning the area I went back inside to finish the card game.
The war started about ten minutes after the first encounter….and sure enough my boys was right. He got his home boys and can back for a fight. To make a long story short I killed eight of those things that night there had to have been 12-15 of them that came back to get me. This is just one of many encounters I’ve had have fun and be safe.

Nov 24th, 2005
I am not going to argue your facts about Camel Spiders, merely add some witnesed facts to them.
When my ARMY unit was deployed in Iraq back in 03 we came across what we would come to know as a Camel Spider, it was dead so we took some measurements. The thing measured just under 10 inches (including the legs) and had a good 3/4 inch bite, it was something we didn't want to run across while it was still alive. Sure enough we never saw one again in Iraq, Kuwait was a diffrent story. We must have seen at least a dozen of them walking together down our motorpool and scared the crap out of everyone. The next day there was one right out side our tent (the tents we had were 10 feet high) and the damn thing jumped on top of it effectively clearing out the immediate area of any human presence. I came across someone a week later who had a run in with one with a 8 inch patch on his back where a Camel Spider had effectively eaten about 1/4 inch deep 5 inch round area out of him.

I find your truths about their size, jumping abilities and threat to humans, may be accurate for some species but not for the ones I witnesed with my own two eyes.

Corpral, U.S. ARMY

Oct 11, 2005
Sirs
Your site is great and I'd thought you'd like another story. I'd been used to camel spiders for some time having worked in Libya in the early eighties. The one's we saw in the Sahara weren't particulary large, usually up to 2" long and never seemed aggressive although the usual stories about people having bits chewed off abounded. I then moved to Syria for work, located about 10 miles from the Iraqi border. On the about the second night a group of us were sitting around a fire enjoying a beer when what I thought was a giant spider walked into the circle. It was approx. 8" across and was waving its front legs in the air, when I approached it it reared up on its back legs and waved it's front four legs in a threat posture. At this point I realised it had 10 legs and that it was a variety of camel spider. This creature would not back down no matter what we threw at it and eventually we vacated the area leaving it to it's own devices. Over the months we saw many more of similar size and just avoided them and made sure none were in the rooms when we went to bed (mindful of the myths). Then one night while sitting outside shooting the breeze we saw a particulary large one walking across the desert about 30 yards distant (remember it was night and the only illumination was a few lights from the camp). A wild dog puppy decided to investigate and began sniffing the aforementioned "monster", the scene that followed has only been matched in Alien. The camel spider sunk its jaws into the pups nose and wrapped its legs around it's snout. The noise the dog made was horrific and we could hear its screams for minutes as it ran off into the night complete with living muzzle. Anybody who says these things are harmless are probably the same sort of people who think pandas are cuddly. Regards
Mick

Sept 27, 2005
Wow! Thank you so much for this website! I have told my camel spider stories to many disbelieving people over the years, and now I am vindicated! Back in 1996 I was a still in the US Air Force working as an explosive detector dog handler (K9). Just after the Khobar Tower bombing in Daharan, I got sent to the newly reopened Prince Sultan Air Base which was in the middle of nowhere as I could figure it. My job was to use my dog and search incoming trucks onto the base for explosives which put me on one of the entry control points to the base. These entry points were about the most isolated parts of the base, at the end of a long dirt road through the desert (don’t ask) at the edge of a never-ending fence line (I guess incase we found what we were looking for). There were no structures out there, just a few of us Security Police, some cots, camo netting, and a light-all unit. I worked the night shift, and the trucks stopped appearing after midnight, so there was lots of down time for us to worry about things that go bump in the night.
Not long after I arrived, I was working at one of these points when I first saw one of the most horrifying creatures I've ever seen. Like from a bad monster movie, a camel spider came creeping out of the darkness. One of the guys who first noticed it let out a yell like we were under attack. Though not as big as the ones in the "famous Iraq" picture, this thing was monstrous to a New Jerseyain such as me. It just sat there at the edge of the light cast by the light-all unit, and I swear it was sizing us up. None of us had ever seen, or heard of a camel spider, so we did what came natural, we threw rocks at it. This definitely did not have the expected or desired result. Instead of running off, it was clearly agitated by the rocks impacting nearby. The closest guy was at least 15 feet away, but this mutant seemed to be searching for the source of the rocks, rotating left and right, scanning its horizon, seeking a target.
When a rock finally found its mark and beaned it in the head (head, or whatever), this thing freaked out and blasted off towards the nearest guy at an unbelievable speed. At this point all bravado was lost, and the command post across the desert must have thought a group of Girl Scouts were being attacked as everyone ran in different directions screaming hysterically knocking over cots, tent poles, etc. The monster attacked the guy it was after (long since forgot his name, but not his face that night) by somehow attaching itself to his leg. A bloodcurdling scream pierced the night air “AAAAAAAAAHHH GETITOFFMEEE!!!!!!” In the mayhem and thrashing about, the spider hit the dirt, only to get up and regroup. Another guy ran over and ambushed it, and stomped it into the ground. There was a second of relief until he picked up his foot. The spider had sank into the soft sand relatively unharmed, and emerged from its grave exceptionally pissed and went after its new enemy number one. After some more chaos, screaming, and foot stomping (sort of a crazy-looking frenzied line dance) this armor-plated arachnid finally succumbed to the US issued desert boots. Not to sound too gruesome, but any avid monster movie watcher knows never to leave the dead monster intact, because it will come back to life and get you, so using an e-tool (folding shovel) the spider was chopped up and its parts spread out into the desert where hopefully they wouldn’t find each other and regenerate.
After that night no one cared about insurgents or terrorists, but rather all were on extra vigilance for more of these abominations, and we all prayed it didn’t have a bigger brother. I just wish I had a camera, because those that haven’t been there have no idea.
Sorry for my long-winded story, but to all those who didn’t believe me…HA!
And to take a line from one of my favorite movies that applies directly to Camel Spiders:
“My mommy always said there were no monsters - no real ones - but there are, aren't there?
Why do they tell little kids that? “
“We'd better get back, 'cause it'll be dark soon, and they mostly come at night... mostly. “
AJ fron NJ

Sept 27, 2005
I have read the stories about camel spiders with interest. I grew up in South Africa, and have encountered thousands of these creatures. They are very scary indeed.
In South Africa they are called Roman Spiders or Hair Shaving Spiders. They are very aggressive when bothered, but I do not hear of bites very often.
What makes them very scary is that they are so fast. They are also very keen to get out of the hot sun, and when you encounter them in a field where there are no shade, they will pursue your shadow, scaring the living daylights out of you in the process. They will however stop and stay in your shadow when you stop.
The reason why they are called Hair Shaving Spiders is creepy. They will neatly chew of a piece of your hair with their scissor-like jaws while you are asleep. They then use it to line their nests. They bite the hair off very close to the skin. therefore it appears like a rough shave. If they bite it is very painful, but they have no venom and it heals quickly.
Arnold Meyer
Pretoria
South Africa

Sept 19,2005
While stationed in Muscat for the first Gulf war, I met a very friendly omani citizen whon showed me an actual camel-spider. It was a youngster for it was no larger than the palm of my hand. At that age they are also called something like "silverback-spider" as when young they are covered with white silvery silky hair and I was explained that when they run on the dunes under the full moon they appear like silverbolts as they are very fast. They tend to loose this very shiny aspect as they grow bigger and older. They are said to bite through camel leather to get flesh. You can imagine the size of their tools to go through a very tough skin. If you are bitten by one, you don't feel athing until their natural local anesthetic wears off. Then you feel the pain of having been eaten alive. Sorry I have no more on the little furry thing. I'll try to get a picture of the one I was shawn if I can. It was captured inside a electric shack in the desert and preserved under plastic resin. Best of.

Sept 3, 2005
Hi,
I teach kindergarten in Henderson, Nv. The first week of school one day while the kids were packing up they said, "There's a big spider over here!" Since 5 year olds tend to freak out over a small jumping spider I was not concerned. I walked over and saw a 2 inch camel spider on the ground. I had NO IDEA what it was and told the kids to back up. I then placed a plastic basket over it. Then a large clay bowl on top of the basket. Then, still feeling uneasy, I put a chair on top and wrote signs saying "Keep away!!! Very large spider under basket!!!" I had the 4th grade science teacher (who hates spiders) come down after school and together we got it into a jar with holes in the top. Then we went to the computer room and looked on the internet and found out what it was. OK, so it's not poisonous, but it's damn creepy looking!!!! Tomorrow I'm going to bring it home for the long weekend and feed it some crickets. Apparently they're fun to watch eat. We've decided to call him Abdul.
Alison

August 2, 2005
I had a more intimate experience with a camel spider. I was bitten on my big toe will sleeping in my tent, the wound looks exactly like the picture with the bite on the guys arm. My wound was also cleaned extensively (painfully) and I was given antibiotics. The medics felt the need to document the occasion with a few up close and personal pictures of the puncture wounds left by the camel spiders' fangs. They haven't sent me any copies of the pictures yet, I will send them your way.

Jeremy

ATTENTION SOLDIERS! Did you have an experience with camel spiders you would like to share? Please e-mail us at hair-raising-camel-spider-story@camelspiders.net and tell us all about it. Include your name only if you like. If you would like to include pictures, feel free to do so. Thanks to all the troops, their dedication and sacrifice.

UPDATE Aug 24th: CLICK HERE TO SEE THE BIG TOE CAMEL BITE...OUCH! Thank you Jeremy for your pictures and your service.