Darling husband never saw a camel spider while in Iraq, but they all got into the habit of shaking the boots upside down before putting them on in the mornings. He did experience a few of those ferocious-looking sandstorms, however.
May the Lord bless and protect our brave troops. Each and every day, our thoughts and prayers are with you.
Sounds like an very wise move.
(((Hugs)))Here's another story.
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
Good evening Sheeza. Those sandstorms look wicked. Thanks to your husband for his service & for being a Military family!