Many travelers to the Middle East, including military personnel assigned to Iraq and its vicinity, worry about the threat of exotic creepy crawlies including spiders.
While spiders are certainly not uncommon in the Middle East and bites do occur, most spiders are harmless and lack sufficient venom to cause serious harm. Desert scorpions may also represent a hazard but don’t often bite unless threatened.
Several varieties of the widow spider (Latrodectus genus) are found in various places in North Africa and the Middle East. Widows have long thin legs, and a dark body with a colored section. They are known to hide in trash and other objects left outside overnight.
You therefore need to take care when picking up trash bags and recepticles like cans and bottles. Widow bites are not immediately felt, but soon become very painful and swollen, with shock, fever, nausea, increased blood pressure, headache, and difficulty breathing sometimes occurring.
In most cases, symptons will subside within a couple of days, but it is still important to seek medical attention.
Also found in Africa and the Middle East is the Harpactirinae, commonly called the baboon spider. It has an appearance similar to a tarantula, with thick, hairy legs. They have strong venom and their bites can be painful, but they are not considered a life-threatening danger.
Perhaps the most well-known spider found in the Middle East in the notorious camel spider. Stories of these horrifying creatures spread amongst US soldiers during the Gulf War, and more recently US troops in Iraq have spread stories and photographs on the internet.
Camel spiders, however, are actually not spiders at all. They are a different kind of anthropod called solipugids. Contrary to the many exaggerated tales of camel spiders that have spread like wildfire, solipugids are not venomous. The tall tales also exaggerate the speed of the camel spiders to be around 25 miles per hour, but their real maximum speed is around 10 miles per hour. That is still pretty fast for such a small creatures, but not nearly fast enough to catch up with speeding Humvees as the stories would have you believe.
Their size has also been exaggerated widely, with some claiming them to have a 12 inch leg span, but their real size is less than 5 inches including leg span. There is an infamous picture circulating the internet showing a camel spider being held in front of a camera by a group of soldiers. In this photo the solipugid is held very near the camera lense to give the appearance of a gigantic beast.
Solipugids usually come out at night rather than the day, and they are attracted to light during the night time, so they occasionally encounter humans. Just like humans, they also seek shade if they come out during the day, so once again encounters are bound to occur. But stories of soldiers having limbs eaten alive while sleeping are ridiculous distortions. Solipugids do not bite unless provoked.
So there is no need to panic if you spot a camel spider in desert locations like Iraq or Kuwait. If you leave him alone, he’ll probably leave you alone too! Just like the desert scorpion.
Author: Paul Jorgensen
To learn more about Middle Eastern wildlife, culture, and geography, visit Paul Jorgensen’s website Middle East Museum at http://www.middle-east-museum.com
Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Paul_Jorgensen
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