Pix from Afghanistan

A friend of mine was bit by a full size tarantula (about 7" across) on the shoulder in Guatemala.

We rushed him to the "hospital" where they injected him with some crazy anti-venom. Apparently this kinda thing happens frequently enough they keep it stocked up!

Well, it had only taken us 10 minutes to get there and by the time we had arrived, his shoulder has a blister the size of an orange on it. :eek:

That wasn't even the craziest part of it. He had been washing his hands at the "pila" (outdoor sink) where we had our meals late one evening when he told me to check his back, because he thought he had been stung by a wasp.

So I checked it out...and there was this huge tarantula hanging on his shirt. I didn't want him to panic so I told him I was going to get a stick to brush "the bug" off - which, of course made him start to fidget. I grabbed a long wooden spatula and a towel and just as I was getting ready to knock the spider off his back, a couple of kids started screaming "Arana, Arana!" and he took off twisting and squirming and writhing around - which made it impossible for me to get it off. Plus, I think he finally felt it move across his back and that really scared him bad.

So he's basically waving his arms around trying to get the spider off and it's running around - still on his back, but down by his belt now. I finally knocked it off with a towel and smacked the rascal with the spatula. Sent the legs flying in every direction - pretty amusing actually.

All-in-all...not an experience to forget.


...come to think of it...I actually have a multitude of tarantula stories. I'll post more later. ;)
 
Rumor has it that the large So. American Spiders taste just like crab, makes me wonder if the same thing wouldn't be true of the Camel Spiders?
Could be a good food source for the Aghanistans.
People get all aghast about eating land bugs but think nothing at all of eating the water bugs like crab, shrimp and crawfish, ainnit?:D
 
Thanks for sharing the pics and thanks for your service Sarge. God bless and protect you and your men.
 
Rumor has it that the large So. American Spiders taste just like crab, makes me wonder if the same thing wouldn't be true of the Camel Spiders?
Could be a good food source for the Aghanistans.
People get all aghast about eating land bugs but think nothing at all of eating the water bugs like crab, shrimp and crawfish, ainnit?...Yvsa

You gotta be hungry... would the spider taste better or worse after filling up on Private John Smith the night before?

and if the spider had been eating chicken..well, would he taste like chicken?

the guy who was shot down over Bosnia ate bugs...and he made it back alive.

I think bugs will seem more attractive after all the cattle have been eaten.
munk
 
You gotta be hungry... would the spider taste better or worse after filling up on Private John Smith the night before?
Click to expand...

Blech!

Herbivores for me...like grasshoppers.
After the locusts strip your field, they should be fattened up like feedlot cattle.:)

Earthworms are supposed to be a good food source, almost all muscle. Maybe you can put them in corn-flour to work the dirt out like clams. Yeah, chop 'em up and market them as "land clams"...:rolleyes:
 
Seems a dayum shame that such beautiful country has to be torn by war. Makes me do some wondering about humanoids.:D
 
La Tinta, Guatemala = tons of tarantulas.

When you sleep at night, you have to use a mosquito net to keep from being eaten alive. One morning, I awoke to find a large tarantula (5.5"-6" span) about 2 feet up the wall next to my bed. The only thing between us was the mosquito net (too hot for bedcovers).

My first response was immediate fear. After a few minutes of him not moving (and me realizing that if he was going to get me he would have already) I started to relax. I took the mosquito net down and checked him out.

He started walking - you know how you see them walk on TV - reaaaallll slooooowwwwww...

I thought "This is great!" I get to study a tarantula up close - he's harmless! ;)

There is no fear like being 8-10 inches away, face-to-face with a tarantula and have it suddenly take off running.:eek: Doesn't matter what direction it goes - it's all the same. Anybody who's done this knows...your heart stops, your freeze up with fear, and later, you have to go check your shorts.:(

When I got back from the bathroom :rolleyes: he was still on the wall, so I decided to have a little fun. I doused him with rubbing alcohol and lit him on fire :eek: :eek:

Boy....that was stupid.

He took off running...with me behind him trying to keep everything else from catching on fire. Eventually he slowed down and stopped. But he burned for several minutes and it was such a nasty smell - similar to, but much worse than burnt hair.

After about 4 minutes of burning, his body exploded and his legs went flying (much like the story above).

There must be something about the anatomy of a spider that makes it's legs so loosely attached. :confused: (maybe Cliff Stamp knows...:D)
 
The tarantula's in the States are harmless and I knew a gal in the country who used to let wild ones crawl up and down her arms and shoulders.


A tarantula hawk wasp...now that is something I stay away from.

munk
 
For once I'll make a short post:

Hawaiian giant centipedes= up to 8 inches long, venomous. Won't kill you but you'll wish you were dead from the pain. My wife got bitten--in bed at 3 am (of course). Woke up with her standing in bed next to me screaming. Asked her what it felt like (during the 10+hrs that it hurt, while hand swelled 3x its size)she said it was like a red hot nail was being jabbed into the wound and rotated:eek:

Btw, I cut the first one I saw in half. Ass-end ran one way and the head another. Tip: catch and kill the head first, the ass-end can't hurt you:D Wish I could say I used a khuk, but the first one was bisected by a cold steel tanto:D
 
You mean one of these?

centipede.jpg
 
The tarantulas we came in contact with looked like this one:

tarantula.jpg


Except they were a more even brown color.

The main body has a hard shell on top - it's pretty tough and makes a tapping noise when you poke it with a stick...

The fangs are hidden by 2 "legs" in front and so, look bigger than they really are. However, don't be fooled. Them fangs are still very big and scary...:eek: :eek:

tarantula.jpg
 
You mean one of these?
Click to expand...

Kinda. I found that same photo when I searched on google:) You know I never saw one even close to that color. The ones we had around our place were a deep dark maroonish black color, and despite what the Hawaiian guidebooks say they often were longer than 6". Knowledge of the creatures that inhabit Hawaii is amazingly incomplete, and darn difficult to access if you're not an academic. used to frustrate the heck out of me when I worked at a nature center on Maui. We had exhibits of some of the native animals and I tried to design new ones occasionally, but the lack of info available was frustrating. I wanted to do a centipede exhibit, but for some reason members of the staff were'nt comfortable bringing those inside on purpose:D

I don't think I'd like to tangle with those spiders either!!:eek: :eek: Does that species fling its barbed body "hairs" into predators faces like the amazon species? I think those have red hairs IIRC.

EDIT: WHoops! The second photo wasn't visible to me when I wrote part of the above. That second photo is much more like them. ugghhhh, my skin is crawling. As they say on Maui "I got chicken skin, brah!"a
 
I about fell out of my chair laughing at that flaming tarantula story Pen, that's some funny stuff. You guys have creeped me out so much with the ugly bug critters that I did some in-depth research about our area of operation over there. Seems bugs ain't the only reason to shake out your boots and not poke your hand into dark places. They've got 270 varieties of snakes in Afghanistan, 52 of which are poisonous. Over here I avoid killing snakes if I can help it. Over there, I doubt I'll be as environmentally minded:eek:

Sarge
 
first thing I did after moving into snake-country was to fashion a long pole with a "Y" at one end (crotch of a small tree). That thing will become your best friend if you ever catch a snake in your tent, etc. :eek:
 
Good advice, I'm going to require one be posted in each tent right by the fire extinguisher.:)
 
Hi,
one of my stranger hobbies years ago was keeping Tarantulas, including red kneed, pink toed, Mexican browns and various others I can't remember. One thing I do remember though is that they are pretty harmless (if you consider bee and wasp stings harmless, they are pretty much the same). However, centipedes and scorpians are a different matter. If you're fit though none of these are fatal.
I'd feel pretty safe handling red knees and pink toed, but the others can be a bit much.....rearing up and exposing huge fangs at the slightest movement. Bowel loosening stuff.....and this was before I had my Khuks.....

jeff.
 
I feel about spiders the way Indiana Jones feels about snakes. Quit posting thos awful pix. Gives me the willies.
 
For what's it worth, back in the days when I exlusively wandered snake country ( mojave desert) I carried a light fishing pole with the eyelets removed. This balanced superbly and could be used to dance easily across all suspicious shrubs. It enabled me to travel faster when in dicey areas, like dry washes and in vegitation.


I have one in my garage now for prarrie walking. I've tried many things but like this best.

munk
 
In the Polochic valley in a little town named Chulac I was coming home late one evening and noticed a monster tarantula on the side of the wall (outside). It was just sitting there minding its own business (as most tarantulas do).

Knowing that rubbing alcohol paralyzes bugs real well (fodder for another thread) I grabbed a bottle and began to soak the spider. He was very slow moving (thank goodness) and I managed to slow him done enough to pick him up and put him in a box. I pinned down his legs and body to a piece of cardboard in continued soaking him for about 3-4 hours. I went through an entire bottle of the stuff before he finally gave up!

I woke up the next morning with a great idea...:D:D

I built a sturdy little cardboard box that was just barely bigger than the spider on its board. I made a flap on the side so that when you opened it, the spider board would start to come out.

Well, being the gracious and good humored person that I am, I sent this one home to Mom! :eek:

Later, she told me that they had no idea what was in the box and couldn't see inside it well enough, so she just yanked the board out of it. :eek: :eek:

Wish I could have been there to see that! :D:D

Apparently, when she pulled the board out, it made the tarantula wiggle...so she thought it was still alive! :p

We have a vaulted ceiling over the area where she opened it and it ended up getting stuck up on a wall (after she tossed it in the air). No one dared to touch it for a couple of days. It was pretty bad. I took some flack for that gag...

I also stopped sending bugs home...;)
 
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