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Wind Scorpion

Wind Scorpion
Tucson, Arizona, USA
May 14, 2004
Every night many of these can be found racing around my porch, they are very fast and somewhat aggresive they range in size between 1/4" and about 3". The smaller ones have long arms carried above them and the lager adult have more of a set of pincers held close in. This is medium size one about 2" however it lacks the pincers the lagest ones have. This one was stuck in a glass left on the porch, I'm not willing to catch these as they seem to willing to chase you instead.

"Camel Spider"
The spider in this picture is what is known as a Solifugae. More commonly, it's called a wind spider, camel spider, or sun spider. Contrary to popular belief, it's not typically aggressive and out of over 1000 known species, only one is believed to be venomous and that is in the central asian region. These little guys are very fast indeed and sport very large and powerful jaws. Their bites can be very painful, but not venomous. In fact, most spider bites, while they may be venomous, do not produce necrosis, or more famously known as a condition where the tissue dies and falls off. When that occurs, it's typically attributed to a staph infection. Another common misconception is the size of a camel spider. The larger varieties can get up to 6 inches, including legs. It's easy for people to adopt frightening beliefs about spiders or even bugs in general because of the associated fear. I live in the Pacific Northwest and I hear people argue all the time that they saw or was bitten by a brown recluse here and that's just not true. They have never been in this area. As for me, I am a professional pest control technician and also studying pest management through Purdue University. I hope this helps and please, do not immediately believe others when discussing pests like spiders because it leads to very reactive thinking and it can be hard if not impossible to bring people back to a correct understanding of pests. Thanks.

Wind Scorpian
I live in Central Oregon. Last night I was watching the Olympics when I saw one of these creepy wind scorpions crawling across the Carpet. I caught the thing in a red plastic cup and stared at it trying to conceive what it could be. I started to rattle the cup a little to see what the thing would do. When it was first frightened, it pulled up its front most appendages as if to strike. When it realized that there was nothing to strike at aside from the solid white wall around him, the freaky thing vibrated. As the entire cup shook as a phone would when receiving a call, I screamed and jumped in surprise. Once the vibrating stopped I tried to provoke the thing again, but only got much smaller reactions. If anyone could explain to me why this might have happened it would be much appreciated.

Wind Scorpion/Sun Spider
Local exterminators here in western Colorado call these guys Sun Spiders. I don't know where all of the talk of a connection with Iraq, because we've been seeing a lot of them since 1998 when we first moved here from North Carolina. We thought they were scorpions initially as we had a lot of scorpions in the adobe hills where we lived and we saw them in the same environment as the scorpions, i.e. out at night apparently hunting for food. They seem to be able to get inside the house much easier than other bugs and are proving to be quite a nuisance. They run pretty fast and seem to be a little aggressive, but I've not seen any larger than 2" long. Lately there have been 6-8 of them in the house, in clothes, on the stove etc. They are only dangerous to me because if I can't stop them from getting in the house my wife will kill me.

Pueblo West, Colorado
We have found 5 around our house. They are fast and creepy!!! But now they are dead! My daughter says kill it, it may be a mommy!

Wind Scorpion/camel spider? Uvalde Texas
I had found one of these in the filter of my parents pool on may 4 2012. I am from wisconsin and had only seen these in pics from iraq. I had asked my mom if she has ever seen one in the 4 years she has been living here and she had not. So i brought up the pics from iraq of the camel spider or giant camel spider as they are sometimes called and they look identical. It is said over in iraq that these things can run up to speeds of 10mph and can be found charging at people out in the desert only to stop as they get in your shadow as they are seeking shelter from the sun in your shadow. Google iraq camel spider and you will see the resemblence between what is called a wind scorpion here in the states and the camel spider in iraq it is said not to be venomus but when you see the pics of the bites it makes you wunder. Ive watched videos of these things killing scorpions and the scorpion never had a chance to sting it not saying it always wins againts a scorpion but it goes to show these little bastards mean buisness. over in iraq they claim to get has big as a human hand and im sure there are some freaks of nature that might get a bit bigger. My only question was have these always been a native species to texas or the hotter climates of the united states. Regardless of what you want to call it or where they might come from they can be intimadating. I did how ever pin it and dry it at the time not knowing just exactly what it was.

Don't believe everything you read on the internets....
The "Giant Camel Spiders in Iraq" are a HOAX

Mid-size in Oregon...
We live in Redmond, Oregon fairly central in the state and we live in a particular remote high desert area. My wife and I have found three Camel Spiders, .5" to 1" in length. They are usually trampled on by one of our dogs by the time we find them, but tonight my wife found and very large specimen in the laundry room and I was able to catch him. They are fast on a non-carpeted surfaces or short carpet. They are, according to most credible sources I have read, to be of little threat to beings larger than itself unless threatened. However, I have also read posts declaring that IF bitten, you deal with swelling and infection. Not fun. I have had much curiosity into the theory that these little guys are being brought back from Iraq by our soldiers, in large equipment crates, duffel bags, etc. I was unable to find any conclusive findings of the Camel Spider in our area of Oregon and wonder if the Army training area and National Guard armory near by have anything to do with their sudden appearance. Something to battle our Scorpions we find every year. Overall, avoid these critters, and remember, if their in your home, most likely their just lost, so be decent.

HI! I live in Reno, NV and i found one of these in my sunroom. I couldnt identify it at first, but i realized it was covered in little sensory hairs. After doing some reaserch I found some information that people should know.1) The set of "legs" that make the spider look like it has ten legs are actually pedipalps and are used as hands. They have little sticky organs at the end that allow them to climb glass so putting it in the bottom of a glass jar or cup with no lid simply wont do. 2) the jaws take up at least 1/3 of the insects body so be carful when catching one. and 3) These spiders eat alot!! Be extra carefull if you own, tarantulas, small lizards or frogs because those are part of the insects daily diet.

I live in southern utah and w
I live in southern utah and work in the early hours of the morning next to 20 acres of raw desert land besides the occassional vagrant, and saw one of these ugly things. I was on my hands and knees cleaning when it poked its haed out of a deep crack in the sement, I screamed. it then continued to follow me, at least it felt like it until finaly the sun came up and it went back in hiding waiting for its next unsuspecting victum..:) seeing a spider or whatever it is like that you feel like it is big news and continue to tell the story about it for the rest of the day, but no one really is that impressed with what you are telling them, but you know if they had saw it they would have been all about it.

wind scorpion
My husband just got bit by one of these, it's deffinately no joke. It's been 5 days now he's on a antibiotic and something for pain. the bite (or should I say bites..he seems to have been bitten multiple times in the same spot), now is the size of a softball about a 3/4 inch high and a deep red purple, the bite has gotten infected and we are doing what the Doc told him, soaking in hot tub n such but it doesn't want to heal. The bite has excreted large amounts of puss and bad tissue. beyond useing a hot compress keeping the wound clean, I don't know what more we can do. Does anyone have advice on what more we could do to help it heal?

(and we are about to bomb my house in case anymore are roaming about)

Golden Valley Arizona
i just found one of these in my daughters clothes hamper

wind scorpion
i just found one of is aproximately 2n a half inches ran infront of my flip flop and i have never seen anything like this and i have lived in kingman going on 21 -22 yrs.this was huge and scared the hell out of my whole was very aggressive when we caught it in a huge am pm big gulp attacked the sides of the cup with serious force.i don't know anything about these but i have been watching the videos on youtube and this is so dangerous around small animals and not very good around human beings either.just found out they can reach up to 12 inches long....i think i wanna move now....

In Parker Colorado
We are not anywhere near the desert and found one in the living room wall a few years back... had no idea what it was until we went to a pet shop and a guy working there showed us some images another lady had brought in of the same little guy asking, as we did, "What on earth is this thing?" The fact that this guy looks as if he has 10 legs is what threw us off. He, however did not seem to be agressive or fast. He was almost 2 inches in length and stayed patiently in one place as we stared at him for about half an hour trying to figure out what he was. And yes, my mom killed him, with a broom, and she is not apologizing...

In Parker Colorado
I have found at least 5 some dead some alive.they were all in my basement in the summer.i also found one today in my sisters room and she claims she smashed it but it was still alive. we take all of them to the Museum of Nature and Science in Denver Colorado where a lady who studies them proudly collects them.nobody else we know has ever heard of them.

In my living roon in Africa!!
I was on a posting in Namibia, southern Africa and there was one in my living room. I was able to catch it with a transparent bowl. I didn't know if it was poisonous or not so I made a little pool of RAID next to the bowl and moved it to kill it (sorry for those who like them, understand the context here) and it went completely nuts, super aggresive and even cut its own front legs with its jaw. Very scary. When the mouth is open it looks like that thing in the movie Predator. I didn't know their jaw was so powerful though... Some other time I found a baby in the bathtub but it was already dead then.

Solifugid so far, please...
I had a huge female as a pet when I lived in Southern California. Caught her in her burrow when I lifted a large piece of metal plate up to look under...there she was looking horrifyingly ferocious. These creatures have no poison, but they do have the dubvious distinction of having the most powerful jaws (in relation to their size) of any animal on earth. A large one can easily bite your finger right down to the bone! Mine was no speed demon though, she moved slowly and she would eat anything I put into her enclosure, including both large and small scorpions. I have seen them dining on lizards and even large centipedes(!!) These are cool creatures!

wind scorpion
I found one of these in Medicine Hat, Alberta, Canada. He was sure defensive when I caught him. I had never seen one before in our area.

wind scorpion
i found one in our pool in lake havasu and one later in the night there fast little guys but are they posionous? ive never seen one before pretty odd

Found one in my garage tonight. It's very small, but have scorpions been introduced to the alpine lake enviornment that is Lake Tahoe, California?

Found one Lubbock
Found one Lubbock Texas

Wheeler texas
Found one last night on our porch. It was on its back so I guess it was already dying

Aggressive? I should hope to shout......
I've probably seen around 50 of these little critters in the Phoenix Az area over the past 15 yrs or so. I will confirm the 3-5" eventual size as reported previously and will also confirm the aggressive behavior. We came across one in a munitions storage building at Luke AFB some years ago. When the ammo troop couldn't ID the thing after studying it for a couple minutes, he decided to approach it more intently to get to an an ammo can I needed. Well, it seemed intent on guarding it (or not moving at the very least), it backed up a little like it was setting a stance, raised up it's front half and those weird dark colored arms/feelers even higher as the ammo troops boot came down on it. Defiant to the end.....I will never forget that to their venom/hazards, I cannot speak, I have heard they're harmless to humans but that's only the rumors I've heard. I spend a lot of time on the floor of my garage working and when you spot one those little suckers scurrying around on the floor with you, only one of two things can happen, stop working or go after the bug. Unless of course they don't both you......

Hey, I'm in California and I
Hey, I'm in California and I have found 3 so far at my house. They are really creepy looking lol.

Moved from Wind Scorpions.


Wind Scorpion
We've had a run on these lately. Although we aren't in the desert. They do behave aggressively! We've found specimens that are as small as 1cm up to 3cm. Don't want to find the 3 inch guys! Thanks for your website, it was the most helpful in our investigation!!

This is what we call a camel
This is what we call a camel spider not venomus but it will give a nasty bite if it gets a chance they get bigger to about 5 inch

Solpug, Sun spider
This looks very much like a Camel spider, but are found in the southwest desert areas of the USA. Camel spiders are found in the middle east. There was a photo on the net a year or two back that showed two Camel spiders latched by their jaws and held in the air by a sodlier's hand on one of the hind legs. They are HUGE! However, the Solpug is venomus. It's bite is simular to a scorpion sting. I speak from experience, not pride. Activated charcoal and/or Benadryl usually work well to counter the effects of either.

the image of the camel spider is fake
I looked up the image of the camel spider and its fake!!

Camel Spiders
I've seen the photo you mentioned. The Camel Spiders (really just another common name for the Sun Spider/Wind Scorpion) in the photo aren't as big as they appear. The photo is a hoax. Pretty convincing though.

not a hoax
that photo is not a buddy is the one that took it. ive seen camel spiders in excess of 6 in over here in iraq and yes they are aggressive. theyre not aggressive in the im gonna eat you aggressive more the your not gonna get passed me cause iwanna stand in your shadow cause its cool there then in the sun. i had one fallow me accross a desert parking lot(about 300 yds) it stayed about 2 ft behind me the whole time.

Fast and Fierce
We live adjacent to the desert and found a good-sized Wind Scorpion under a street light. It was pretty exhilirating trying to catch one and fit him into a Gatorade bottle.....HUGE Pinchers on this guy, watch out!

I found a few of these in my
I found a few of these in my basement, and I live in North Dakota!!!!!!!!

You guessed it
That's a solifugid, AKA windscorpion.
Info from Texas Cooperative Extension

Hi, I just posted a new image (called "mystery bug") of what may be a windscorpion, but I've not found its exact replica on this site. Would you mind taking a look?

AKA sun spider
which is always the danger of common names ;) (sun spider == wind scorpion == wind spider)

Sun Spider at "Spiders on the Web"

I'm a 5 year old from the Sie
I'm a 5 year old from the Sierra Nevada foothills in California and my grandma found one of wind spiders under all the clothes in the dryer. It was dead. I am still studying it though.

I have a four inch wind scorpion/camel spider/ solifugae picture
from last week on my account - enjoy!

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