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Touch 'Em All: The 'EWWWW!' Factor [GIANT "camel spiders" menace our troops in Iraq]
TheWBALChannel.com ^
| April 9, 2004
| Larry Frum, Jr., Managing Editor
Posted on 04/10/2004 2:38:36 AM PDT by RonDog
Edited on 04/12/2004 5:04:15 PM PDT by Jim Robinson.
[history]
"Soldiers over in Iraq are fighting off more than the bad guys. They've got to deal with these huge spiders that look more like space creatures than anything we normally see in the U.S. They are called camel spiders and, boy, are they nasty looking! There is a site that has an article about them from one of the soldiers over in Iraq. Check it out here: (http://www.thewbalchannel.com/news/2988974/detail.html) Somebody get me the bug spray!!"
TOPICS: Culture/Society; Foreign Affairs; Front Page News; News/Current Events
KEYWORDS: camelspider; hughhewitt; iraq; turass
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To: Allegra
They are known to chase down women who smoke cigarettes.
Then they bum the last one.
Really, no sh!t. I have it on reliable source.
Hey, I'm laying off the convoys for a while. Hope you understand.
21
posted on
04/10/2004 4:08:39 AM PDT
by
Eagle Eye
( Saddam-Who's your Bagh-Daddy now?)
To: BykrBayb
This guy was building an addition to his house and the lumber came from Arizona. Apparently Texas scorpions are not poisonous, but Arizona scorpions are. At least that's what the insect expert at the hospital said.
He had taken off his pants and put them aside, while he did some work in his boxers. Later when he put the pants back on, he first felt the thing scurrying around and he began to panic, then he felt the bite.
His wife described him screaming, jumping around and getting all tangled up in the pants. It was hysterical.
By the time she finished the discussion, she and I were laughing so hard we were in tears.
Poor guy! At least he had a bit of a sense of humor about that part, so he didn't get mad at us laughing.
But he was in tears and felt faint. My crew was all female, but he wasn't the least bit shy about showing me his wound.
The poor thing cried until I gave him morphine. I felt so sorry for him, I wish I could have given him more.
22
posted on
04/10/2004 4:20:37 AM PDT
by
texasflower
(in the event of the rapture.......the Bush White House will be unmanned)
To: Eagle Eye
Oh, they do, do they? Messing with my cigarettes these days is almost as dangerous as trying to cut off the chocolate supply. There'll be some real sorry camel spiders if they try any stunts like that.
Yeah, I undersand about laying off the convoys. I'm glad you're doing that. In fact, we're confined to home base right now.
23
posted on
04/10/2004 4:21:10 AM PDT
by
Allegra
(And WAIT!! That's not all! Call now and receive this FREE....)
To: RandallFlagg
Please be careful over there. Thanks.
"Vigilance" is my middle name these days. :-)
24
posted on
04/10/2004 4:24:21 AM PDT
by
Allegra
(And WAIT!! That's not all! Call now and receive this FREE....)
To: RonDog
But it is now thought that the only risk of injury resulting from them is caused by shock or infection following a bite.That, and the fatal coronary I'd have finding one of them in my sleeping bag.
25
posted on
04/10/2004 4:30:29 AM PDT
by
Jhensy
To: Allegra; MEG33
Dang, I thought everything in Texas was bigger, but this camel spider showing up anywhere near me would freak me out! Those are almost as big as our roaches. Ha!
Allegra, MEG33 and I are up north of your regular hometown. I read where you are and send Texas size best wishes--please be careful!!! Do they have Dr.Pepper? I couldn't go without my morning D.P. :) Good luck to you and hope you never meet up with a camel spider unless a really good looking guy is there to squish it or whatever you do with something that big. Ha! I look forward to hearing some good stories from you in the future!! RebRaider
To: Eagle Eye
A hunting camel spider runs across the desert floor almost at lightning speed, and it is so fast that it is impossible for the human eye to follow... In the past they were considered venomous and extremely dangerous...While I certainly wouldn't want to come within several miles of one of these things, these two statements didn't pass the smell test and the whole thing cried out for a Snopes check, or at least an evaluation for journalist responsibility. Thank goodness someone checked in with some sensible qualifications.
Good grief -- "impossible for the human eye to follow"? Difficult to see, maybe. But considering that a baseball player can follow and make intelligent decisions about the course of a small sphere approaching him at nearly 100mph from 60 feet away, it really shows you what a preposterous, irresponsible statement this is.
"considered venomous"? Well, it's either venomous, or it's not.
Sheesh...
To: Reb Raider; MEG33
Do they have Dr.Pepper? Oh, heck yeah. They've got it at the PX. There are too many of us Texans over here - they've got to stock the DP.
And if one of those camel spiders gets any ideas about hosing one of my DPs, he's gonna be one cold, stiff camel spider with eight creepy-crawly legs sticking straight up in the air.
(Thanks for the good wishes, y'all!)
28
posted on
04/10/2004 4:50:34 AM PDT
by
Allegra
(And WAIT!! That's not all! Call now and receive this FREE....)
To: DJ Frisat
almost at lightning speed Try 10 MPH, tops, which is quite fast, but a little short of lighting speed.
To: RonDog
Sad to say, I have more compassion for these spiders and more regard for them than the Islamonazi's the guys are dealing with.
To: Allegra
Thank heavens you have the important things of life..like DP..gives strength to smack those spiders (double yuk,double Ewww!)Stay safe!
31
posted on
04/10/2004 5:10:39 AM PDT
by
MEG33
(John Kerry's been AWOL for two decades on issues of National Security!)
To: RonDog
=8-0
You don't suppose we could train these critters to bite Islamists?
32
posted on
04/10/2004 5:12:27 AM PDT
by
mewzilla
To: RonDog
some guys aren't afraid of any human, but a bug or something will really scare them.
1967, while in Basic training at Ft Polk, we got lots of guys from up north or the big cities.
One tough guy from Brooklyn was walking fire guard in the early morning hours and came upon an armadillo. He woke up the whole bivouc encampment because there was "some kind of monster" out there making strange noises.
To: texasflower
On the testicle?
That would be unimaginable pain!
34
posted on
04/10/2004 5:58:48 AM PDT
by
R. Scott
(Humanity i love you because when you're hard up you pawn your Intelligence to buy a drink.)
To: DJ Frisat
To: RonDog; PhilDragoo; Liz; onyx; nicmarlo; Happy2BMe; potlatch; devolve; MEG33; Grampa Dave; ...
All I can say is "EWWWW!" Pretty ugly critter alright ! ...
36
posted on
04/10/2004 6:11:03 AM PDT
by
MeekOneGOP
(Become a monthly donor on FR. No amount is too small and monthly giving is the way to go !)
To: 68skylark
From
www.snopes.com:
"...Although whatever is depicted in the photograph above appears to be far too large for camel spiders, the creatures might just look unusually large because they were held close to the camera, creating an illusion of exaggerated size..."
37
posted on
04/10/2004 7:45:26 AM PDT
by
RonDog
To: RonDog
From
www.faunaimportuk.com:
Also known as Camel spider, Wind scorpions, Solifugid.
Galeodes arabs
Native to: Sinai desert.
This rarely imported species occasionally arrives in Egyptian shipments.
This weird looking arachnid is not in fact a scorpion or spider at all but belongs to its own order- solifugid.
This species can attain a leg span of 5" and a body of 2"...
38
posted on
04/10/2004 7:56:15 AM PDT
by
RonDog
To: RonDog
Thank you for the headache and upchuck. There went breakfast.
Anyway, I can now understand why Saddam's hiding place was called "the spider hole." Yuck!!!!
To: RonDog
Why do I have visions of The Return of the King?
40
posted on
04/10/2004 8:10:22 AM PDT
by
jude24
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