Just came across this picture of camel spiders: http://www.snopes.com/photos/bugs/camelspider.asp
:yikes:
Stuart, you know deserts - is this true or not???
:yikes:
Stuart, you know deserts - is this true or not???
Spiders?
- Thread starter Kath
- Start date
Don't know about arabian desert life but the holes in the Arizona desert floor big enough for a very large mouse to occupy are where the the tarantulas live, and the black widows occupy nice shady spots :roll: :roll:Kath said:
David
They do exist but most of the things said about them in that artical are untrue. It was a sort of a gulf war 2003 april fools joke...... see here for more info.
http://50.lycos.com/040703.asp
Ed
http://50.lycos.com/040703.asp
Ed
When i was much younger i was on a trip to South Africa with my dad. We were staying in a shelter and there was a tidal river running past it.
I went for a swim one day and left my towel on the floor.
I got out and found this on my leg
http://www.scienceinafrica.co.za/2002/november/baboon.htm
http://www.tarantulas.com/kbaboon.asp
Ihave never felt such a shock in my life. It was on my knee, with its legs spread out covering it. I hit it off and it ran along the rocks and went against a wall. Having calmed down i went over and inspected it. It was the biggest spider i could ever have thought to exist. Big black hairy ugly looking thing.
To this day whenever i see a spider it freaks me out. Do any other bushcrafters on the forum have arachnaphobia? How common is it? I really want to be rid of it as whenever im in south africa i dont want to be freaked by spiders every day!
Cheers,
Jake
I went for a swim one day and left my towel on the floor.
I got out and found this on my leg
http://www.scienceinafrica.co.za/2002/november/baboon.htm
http://www.tarantulas.com/kbaboon.asp
Ihave never felt such a shock in my life. It was on my knee, with its legs spread out covering it. I hit it off and it ran along the rocks and went against a wall. Having calmed down i went over and inspected it. It was the biggest spider i could ever have thought to exist. Big black hairy ugly looking thing.
To this day whenever i see a spider it freaks me out. Do any other bushcrafters on the forum have arachnaphobia? How common is it? I really want to be rid of it as whenever im in south africa i dont want to be freaked by spiders every day!
Cheers,
Jake
Jake !
You need to come round our house for a couple of hours. We have a chilean Rose Tarantula (Grammastola Cala)
And a Mexican Red Knee Tarantula (Brachypelma Smithi)
The red knee is called "Elf" and the Chilean "Pagan". They're both cute as hell and after about an hour or so you'd probably be playing with em :-D
(just like a furry mouse with 8 legs is all)
You need to come round our house for a couple of hours. We have a chilean Rose Tarantula (Grammastola Cala)
And a Mexican Red Knee Tarantula (Brachypelma Smithi)
The red knee is called "Elf" and the Chilean "Pagan". They're both cute as hell and after about an hour or so you'd probably be playing with em :-D
(just like a furry mouse with 8 legs is all)
Maddave ... having a spider bigger than yer hand is pretty mad! I'm not particularly bothered by spiders but I dunno how they would make me feel!
What stops them giving you a nip/bite? Also, can't they flick hairs at you that are irritating?
Just curious! :-D
What stops them giving you a nip/bite? Also, can't they flick hairs at you that are irritating?
Just curious! :-D
Arachnaphobia is one of the top three common phobias, and probably with a good evolutionary basis. Instinctively we're wary of things that make fast, jerky movements. Treating phobias can be quite successful, usually with some form of exposure therapy, it's possible to do it yourself, but professional help can be useful. Cardiff actually has quite a good service if you want to prepare yourself for the holiday.
I've quite cool with the spiders I've found in the UK, but I must admit that the film Arachnaphobia had me jumping all over the place :yikes: :yikes: :yikes:
I've quite cool with the spiders I've found in the UK, but I must admit that the film Arachnaphobia had me jumping all over the place :yikes: :yikes: :yikes:
Spiders.................yuk!!!.............cant stand them, used to play with them as a kid but no more.
Its the only thing that bothers me, I must look a real pratt when I have my Scouts in the woods all 6' and 19 stone of me leaping around getting the smallest of spiders off of me (normally helped by my 10 year old daughter). No No No to spiders.
Sorry Maddave, I would not be playing with your furry friends, they would most probably be stuck on the sole of my boot, sorry but I cant help it, I have tried and failed, its even sending shivers down my spine writing about them. :shock:
Its the only thing that bothers me, I must look a real pratt when I have my Scouts in the woods all 6' and 19 stone of me leaping around getting the smallest of spiders off of me (normally helped by my 10 year old daughter). No No No to spiders.
Sorry Maddave, I would not be playing with your furry friends, they would most probably be stuck on the sole of my boot, sorry but I cant help it, I have tried and failed, its even sending shivers down my spine writing about them. :shock:
Its not the tarantulas that scare me the most. Its the skinny ones...the ones that run fast and move quickly with there long legs. They go through me *COMPLETELY*. I was in the pub yesturday and was washing my hands in the sink in the toilets..one of those house spiders was in the sink. I almost jumped into the urinals.
My Dad used to be a clinical psychologist, he once treated someone with such serious arachnophobia that she couldnt leave the house. When she had finished treatment, she could pick them up. I should ask him to help me, i never thought it would work!
Cheers,
Jake
My Dad used to be a clinical psychologist, he once treated someone with such serious arachnophobia that she couldnt leave the house. When she had finished treatment, she could pick them up. I should ask him to help me, i never thought it would work!
Cheers,
Jake
Spiders don't bother me in the slightest, mainly because I've seen them eating the things that really do scare me, wasps :shock: :shock: (or anything else with 6 legs and stripes that I don't instantly recognise as a hover fly)
is it just me thats wondering how your ment to cook ones such as shown by maddave? there is a tribe that do eat them, the fangs make good tooth picks
:rolmao:
when i saw the thread i was looking in new posts bit and naturaly thought it was for food. maybe this should go the "you know when your into bushcraft when" thread though have you noticed that nobody has yet said how odd it wa sthat i thought about cooking them
Hi, I am a bit of a newbie to all you guys, but I have seen both baboon spiders and Camel spiders on exercise in Kenya.
Camel spiders do shift when they have to, we had one of the other arachnophobes chase one through the mess tent one night whilst madly swinging an entrenching tool.
We also found that our tented billet was sited on a baboon spiders home, I was the only confessed arachnophobe in the tent, but you have never seen a tent empty so quick, leaving me and my furry lttle friend to get aquainted.
No-one else would come back into the tent untill it had been caught, which meant I had to do it. He was then handed over to the RAMC who identified it for me. I was not best pleased.
Camel spiders do shift when they have to, we had one of the other arachnophobes chase one through the mess tent one night whilst madly swinging an entrenching tool.
We also found that our tented billet was sited on a baboon spiders home, I was the only confessed arachnophobe in the tent, but you have never seen a tent empty so quick, leaving me and my furry lttle friend to get aquainted.
No-one else would come back into the tent untill it had been caught, which meant I had to do it. He was then handed over to the RAMC who identified it for me. I was not best pleased.
sorry i must have missed this post!
the answer is NO! that site is complete rubbish, which i suspect was posted by soliders trying to make the desert look more dangerous and scary then it is
they are no where near as big as that photo suggests, they do not eat camels, they are not poisonus and as far as i am aware they dont jump or make any noise.
they do move extreamly fast but they are very shy, for all my time in the desert I personly do not recall ever seeing one
I would be more worried about sandflys the can transmit Leishmaniasis though there bite which results in weeping sores:
just make sure you are always covered up (as you should be in the desert anyway)
its always the little things you should be carful of the big things rarely do any harm :-D
Yer not cookin' em !! Ya bunch o monkeys !!:evil:
Adi' They can bite and have 3/4 inch fangs (yup they have venom too) But the chances of getting bitten are remote. They will warn you first by rearing up on their back legs, then if you're persistent they'll turn their back on you and flick hairs with their rear legs. These hairs are called Urticating hairs and are an irritant similar to fibreglass "itch". heres a pick of a flicking spider and a close up of the hairs
After this if you still insist on annoying the spider, he'll probably bite ya !! The feeling is similar to that of a bee sting i'm told. I've never been bitten yet :-D
Adi' They can bite and have 3/4 inch fangs (yup they have venom too) But the chances of getting bitten are remote. They will warn you first by rearing up on their back legs, then if you're persistent they'll turn their back on you and flick hairs with their rear legs. These hairs are called Urticating hairs and are an irritant similar to fibreglass "itch". heres a pick of a flicking spider and a close up of the hairs
After this if you still insist on annoying the spider, he'll probably bite ya !! The feeling is similar to that of a bee sting i'm told. I've never been bitten yet :-D
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