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Camel spiders

Swan said:
Doing a search on Arachnids I found this, now heres a thing that defininately needs to be hit repeatedly with a shovel
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a shovel? no bloody way a shovel will kill that! :eek!!!!:

a steamroller more like! even then im not sure!!!!!
 
I think the rumors about the spiders eating the stomachs of camels and jumping some feet in the air, sounds like bollocks to me.
The link Anome provided was quite comprehensive and I think it mentioned they were not even venomous. And maybe dinner plates are smaller in America than they are here but coat me in honey and feed me to the lesbians if ive ever seen a spider as big as a dinner plate.
The largest spider in the world
is the giant bird eating spider of
Guyana, Surinam, and French Guiana.
In 1965, a male specimen was
collected that had a leg
span of more than 11 inches. Thats about 24 cm which is just about dinner plate size. It follows that everything else is smaller than that which is fine by me.
News just in.
Sun spiders are 1 to 3 inches (25 to 75 mm) long and are yellow or tan in color.
 
Fenris said:
I think the rumors about the spiders eating the stomachs of camels and jumping some feet in the air, sounds like bollocks to me.B]
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if you are talking about the link i gave, you obviously didn't read it all as they state they they are false.
 
I thought it said undetermined. but I only glanced over it.
Id love to know who starts these rediculous rumors though.
 
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. However, since we don't know the source of the picture, we can't yet rule out the possibility that some other misdirection was involved (e.g., digital manipulation, a misdescription of what the photograph depicts, some soldiers goofing around with plastic figures or something else spider-shaped, etc.).
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that is the undertemined part
 
That's it! They've finally found the Weapons of Mass Destruction! Saddam, you wily devil, you! The reason the Bush administration couldn't find the WMD was because they kept crawling away at the first sign of weapons inspectors! How could we have been so foolish as to doubt the sincerity of the 'president'? Well, that settles it - I'm overlooking the thousands of war dead, the non-existent foreign policy, the export of jobs overseas, the biggest deficit in history, the massive tax cuts for the wealthy and the fact that he isn't actually the president at all ( owing to the voting/ballot shenanigans in Florida, where his brother Jeb is governor ) - I'm going right out and vote BUSH! ( in a pig's arse, I am )...
 
Actually, Snopes, and the care site linked from the Snopes article are claiming that they grow to 5 inches leg span, which can be quite frightening.
 
*sits cross-legged on her chair in the middle of the room, a sledgehammer across her knees going...*


AAAAAAAARRRRRRRGGGGGGGHHHHHH!!!!!!!!
 
i received an email from a friend today and here is the what is being said in it (note that the picture that is featured on snopes was included)
Subject: FW: Spiders in Iraq - WITH BIG NASTY TEETH!

If these are real they are horrific.......
Read this before looking at the picture......................
They run 10 mph, jump three feet, are a nocturnal spider, so only come
out at night unless they are in shade. When they bite you, you are
injected with Novocain so you go numb instantly. You don't even know you
are bitten when you are sleeping, so you wake up with part of your leg
or arm missing because it has been gnawing on it all night long. If you
are walking around and you bump something that is casting a shadow over
it, and the sun makes contact with it, you better run. It will instantly
run for your shadow, and scream the whole time it is chasing you.

PS. The one on the bottom is eating the one on the top. These are
Spiders found daily in IRAQ by troops. Imagine waking up and seeing one
of these in your tent!!
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Caroline said:
*sits cross-legged on her chair in the middle of the room, a sledgehammer across her knees going...*


AAAAAAAARRRRRRRGGGGGGGHHHHHH!!!!!!!!
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Have to say I'm with you there. I really can't stand spiders, which made growing up in Queensland rather traumatic.

Fleeble: You should be able to correct them on some of the mistakes in that e-mail. Although, I've usually found people don't like it when you point out that sort of thing.
 
fleeble said:
i received an email from a friend today and here is the what is being said in it (note that the picture that is featured on snopes was included) [/B]
It will instantly run for your shadow, and scream the whole time it is chasing you.
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Do any spiders, outside of Hollywood, actually "scream"!
 
hey there,

My boss came in today and was telling us about her husband to be who used to be in the Army and served some time in Iraq.

She told us of his run in with these lovely little beasties called Camel Spiders. And it goes something like this....

There are these huge feck off siders called Camel Spiders that bite animals and humans and inject an anasthetic to numb the area its attacking.

Said little bugger then proceeds to eat around the area its bitten, resulting in nasty wounds and necrosis of the surrounding areas.

Put it in Google and purely from the results page, there seems to be a bit of info or UL type stuff. but I didnt look as it also seems that there may be some grizzly pics too.

I'm such a coward
 
Here's a good site about the deadliness of "deadly" spiders, especially Aussie spiders.
http://www.washington.edu/burkemuseum/s ... under.html

I have lived in Australia for 10 years. In that time, I have encountered dozens of redbacks in my backyard (in Perth), black "window" spiders all over the house (again in Perth and, as you might guess, hovering near windows), several huntsmen in my home, wandering all over the ceiling (in Melbourne) and a white tail spider on the living room rug while I was lying on it (yes, I was lying both on the rug, and, as it turns out, on the spider). I have never been bitten.

My partner was bitten by a white-tail in the garden, and his knee blew up like a balloon. I had thought that white-tails' bites were of the necrotizing variety, but nothing really horrible happened.

I still don't like the little creatures. They really creep me out.

And I have heard horror stories about the aggressiveness of the Sydney Funnelweb.
 
Poozler said:

My partner was bitten by a white-tail in the garden, and his knee blew up like a balloon. I had thought that white-tails' bites were of the necrotizing variety, but nothing really horrible happened.
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Apparently the myth about the flesh eating venom of the White Tail Spider only began after effective anti-venoms were developed for the Funnel Web and the Red Back. Once the danger from those species was solved we needed a new species to fear irrationally.

PS I currently have a four legged huntsman living in my unit. Somehow he lost all the legs on one side and uses the little feeler at the front to help himself along. Can't bring myself to thump him with a shoe.
 
Apparently (& this comes from a good friend whose ex-girlfriend works at the venom research facility in Adelaide or something like that!), redbacks are now no longer classified as lethal (to an adult, I think small kids & the infirm are still at risk from them). It appears their venom has become less toxic in recent generations & no-one has died from a redback bite for many years now.
This does come from a foaf but I do know the guy personally & it would appear to verify what the ww in the post above says.

With ref white tips, I was told (cannot remember exactly where now) that the venom is not the cause of the necrotism, more the bacteria they sometimes carry in their mouthparts can cause this reaction in some people.
I have seen some very nasty white tip bites with necrotosis so this is not a myth.

PS keep the Huntsman around the house as they eat cockraoches & other spiders (including white tips I believe)
 
davidYowie said:
With ref white tips, I was told (cannot remember exactly where now) that the venom is not the cause of the necrotism, more the bacteria they sometimes carry in their mouthparts can cause this reaction in some people.
I have seen some very nasty white tip bites with necrotosis so this is not a myth.
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It's not a myth, but chances are any bacteria that happen to be hanging out in the wound are merely opportunists and not in any way related to the spider. Brown Recluse spiders (here in the states) are known for their extremely cytotoxic venom which causes localized necrosis, which can result anywhere from a sunken boil to a nasty, oozing lession. It is completely a result of the venom. Bacteria causing necrosis requires immediate medical attention and fun things like vancomycin and silver ion laced gauze to kill the invading bacteria before it spreads. It doesn't just go away.
 
Debunking White Tailed Spider Myths

Editorial in the Medical Journal of Australia:
Debunking spider bite myths

Julian White
MJA 2003; 179 (4): 180-181
Necrotising arachnidism should be a diagnosis of last resort


The article by Isbister and Gray (page 199),1 documenting 130 confirmed cases of bites by white-tail spiders, will, we hope, become one of the last acts in a prolonged and sad medical fable in Australia, regrettably now exported beyond our shores.2 In 1982, a paper on possible spider bite necrosis in Australia was presented at the International Society on Toxinology World Congress in Brisbane,3 and followed by an editorial in the MJA in 1983.4 In 1987, Spring reported a case of severe skin damage following a presumed spider bite;5 the article and the associated editorial6 mentioned the white-tail spider. Speculation about the causative spider continued, with two “likely” candidates charged with the crime by the non-medical media,7 supported by a few in the medical community. These spiders were the wolf spider and the white-tail spider. The former was suspected partly because of evidence from Brazil, subsequently debunked, implicating these spiders in causing skin necrosis. The actual cause in Brazil has since been shown to be recluse spiders (loxoscelism).8 However, it was the white-tail spider, Lampona cylindrata, that was the principal focus of attention. Within a short time, at least a few doctors were diagnosing necrotising arachnidism caused by these spiders, and within about five years the popular association of these spiders with skin necrosis was well established. The lack of strong evidence to support this association seemed to be a triviality to be ignored. Research projects were proposed and funded to examine white-tail spider venom to understand its necrotic potential. Calls were made for governments to fund development of an antivenom. General practitioners regularly and confidently diagnosed skin lesions as “white-tail spider bite”.

A few voices called “foul”. Where was the evidence to support the veracity of this new venomous scourge of urban Australia? Some confirmed bites by white-tail spiders were published, with no evidence of skin damage.9 Early research on the venom found no necrotic activity.10 The spider is native to Australia, yet most people ignored questions about the absence of cases of necrotising arachnidism in the 200 years before Spring’s article. Arachnologists questioning the validity of white-tail spider bite necrosis were also dismissed. In both the general and the medical community, the era of “white-tail spider bite necrosis” had arrived.

But the evidence cast ever stronger doubt about the veracity of white-tail spider bite necrosis, despite occasional published “cases”. What was needed was a large number of cases of confirmed white-tail spider bite to clearly show the true range of its effects. Isbister and Gray’s article defines a clear and consistent pattern of clinical effects, based on a large series, with no evidence of necrosis. As the authors point out, the inappropriate diagnosis of spider bite in cases of skin damage is not isolated to Australia or the white-tail spider, but our episode is particularly disturbing, because there was never any strong evidence to link this spider with necrosis. Publication of Isbister and Gray’s article should herald the demise of the spurious diagnosis of white-tail spider bite necrosis. This will, we hope, bring an end to conditions such as basal cell carcinoma being misdiagnosed as spider bite, and to cases of feigned white-tail spider bite necrosis (where the patient inflicts skin damage with chemicals, then claims a spider bite).

This does not mean spider bite never causes necrosis. Recluse spiders have clearly been shown to cause necrosis in some parts of the world, including two cases in Australia,11 where the spiders have been introduced. However, there is no evidence recluse spiders are widespread in Australia, and it would be erroneous to now label skin damage of uncertain origin as “loxoscelism” instead of “white-tail spider bite”. When presented with skin damage of initially uncertain origin, medical practitioners must look for all the many and varied non-spider-bite causes for such damage, leaving necrotising arachnidism as a diagnosis of last resort and uncertain validity after all other possibilities are excluded. Any future research into necrotising arachnidism in Australia should focus on accurately determining the cause.

Isbister GK, Gray MR. White-tail spider bite: a prospective study of 130 definite bites by Lampona species. Med J Aust 2003; 179: 199-202.<eMJA full text>
St George I. Skin necrosis after white tailed spider bite? N Z Med J 1991; 104: 207-208. <PubMed>
Sutherland SK. Necrotising arachnidism: a possible new Australian syndrome [abstract]. Toxicon 1982; 20(Suppl 1): 59.
Sutherland SK. Spider bites in Australia: there are still some mysteries. Med J Aust 1983; 2: 597. <PubMed>
Spring WJ. A probable case of necrotizing arachnidism. Med J Aust 1987; 147: 605-607. <PubMed>
Sutherland SK. Watch out, Miss Muffet [editorial]. Med J Aust 1987; 147: 531. <PubMed>
Underhill D. Australia’s dangerous creatures. Sydney: Readers Digest, 1987; 176-179.
Ribeiro LA, Jorge MT, Piesco RV, Nishioka SdeA. Wolf spider bites in Sao Paulo, Brazil: a clinical and epidemiological study of 515 cases. Toxicon 1990; 28: 715-717. <PubMed>
White J, Hirst D, Hender E. 36 cases of bites by spiders, including the white tailed spider, Lampona cylindrata. Med J Aust 1989; 150: 401-403. <PubMed>
Atkinson RK, Wright LG. Studies of the necrotic actions of the venoms of several Australian spiders. Comp Biochem Physiol 1991; 98: 441-444.
White J, Williamson J, Rieger N, et al. Necrotic arachnidism and its management: possible role for hyperbaric oxygen therapy [abstract]. Toxicon 1996; 34: 170.
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Full article is found here:
http://www.mja.com.au/public/issues/179_04_180803/isb10785_fm.html

These are from 2003. I will look for more recent stuff.
 
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