Reptile & Amphibian Forums

I live in southern Ohio and am watching the local news on TV. It had a story about a local woman who died from the bite of a camel cricket. This was not immediate. They said she had several surgeries to deal with the effects. But I am certain they said a camel cricket.
The news said that the public should not worry as camel crickets are not known to carry diseases. Are camel crickets similar to gray crickets? I did not know they were capable of biting a human. Do they carry a venom?

Thanks,
Dan

I belive they are a type of cave cricket.Not venomous mabie a bactiera infected the wound,that would be my guess.

A lady at work showed me a picture of her son(in Iraq) with 2 huge spiders that she called camel spiders-never heard of them before that-picture was the typical "hold it close to make it look big" so I'm guessing tarantula size?(looked over a foot across in the picture). Anyone know about these things, and what the "proper" name is for them?

Here's what Snopes has to say about those pix of the Iraqi "spiders": http://www.snopes.com/photos/bugs/camelspider.asp

~~Greg~~

Thanks for the link-I think that's the same picture she was showing around-I didn't notice anything for a photo credit, wonder if her son's actually the one who took the picture or if one or the other printed it off.

I knew as soon as you asked that it would be that picture. It's been floating around the internet for several years. Apparentty it was taken by EVERYONE's son/husband/nephew...
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What goes up must come down...unless it exceeds escape velocity.

They are a type of solphugid and related to tailless whip scorpions. They also go by the name of sun spider and wind spider. Pretty neat critters.

Billy

>>A lady at work showed me a picture of her son(in Iraq) with 2 huge spiders that she called camel spiders-never heard of them before that-picture was the typical "hold it close to make it look big" so I'm guessing tarantula size?(looked over a foot across in the picture). Anyone know about these things, and what the "proper" name is for them?

Yes, they are a species of Solpugid. They are not poisonous but can bite. I live in the high desert and often have them come into the house. I had one run on the couch and onto my leg just a week ago. They are very fast but really harmless. I have never seen one over 2.5 inches.