Camel Spider: Characteristics, Identification, and Prevention

What are the Key Characteristics of Camel Spiders?

Here are the six key characteristics of camel spiders:

1. Hunting Style: These desert predators hunt and attack their prey with high speed and powerful jaws. They rely on vision and vibration in order to find movement. In contrast to spiders, they do not rely on silk or webs but attack in open sandy areas.
2. Diet: They consume scorpions, lizards and insects. They use sharp jaws to tear prey into pieces and digest the food outside of the body and then swallow. Their feeding enables the balancing of the desert ecosystems by decreasing insect and arthropod populations.
3. Vision: They possess two large eyes and more tiny eyes that sense light and movement. They rely on touch and body hairs more to detect vibrations in sand, to determine the presence of hidden prey or predators in the surrounding environment.
4. Behavior: They remain single and hunt violently. In the daytime, they sleep in burrows, rocks, or cracks in the shade. The fact that they are nocturnal helps them escape dehydration and high temperatures in the desert.
5. Speed: They travel very quickly on sand with speeds of approximately 16 km/h. Their lightness and long legs enable them to move fast. This speed assists them in hunting and avoiding danger with ease in large deserts.
6. Lifespan: Their lifespan in the wild is approximately 1- 2 years. Women tend to live longer than men, particularly during breeding. They spend the majority of their lives preying, mating and evading predators in dry areas.

Where Do Camel Spiders Live?

Here are the four steps in which camel spiders live:

1. Habitats: They inhabit well in deserts and dry plains, and scrublands with limited vegetation. These are places of open hunting and dry soil for digging. Their physical appearance is adapted to hot and harsh conditions in which very few other predators thrive.
2. Resting Spots: During the day, they conceal themselves in holes, beneath the rocks and in shady niches. These habitats help them to avoid heat and predators. At night, they come out and consume the insects and little animals in the sand.
3. Geographic Range: They are found in Africa, the Middle East, Asia and south southwest of the United States. They are found in more than 100 countries, mostly in arid regions where the daytime temperatures can reach up to 40 °C.
4. Preferred Conditions: They are growing in dry and sandy or rocky soils with sufficient insect prey. The terrain is favorable to the easy burrow formation and stable temperatures. They act in a manner that is natural to areas where the sun is very hot and the humidity is low.

How Can You Identify a Camel Spider?

Here are the five points to identify a camel spider:

1. Size:  Adults measure between 5 and 15 cm in length of the body. A few species have a length of leg span of 20 cm. Their size is large, which favors speed and enables easy access to prey in dry conditions.
2. Coloration: They are either tan, sandy, or light brown. This is a natural color that blends with the surface of the desert, enabling them to remain invisible to the predators and successfully ambush their prey.
3. Body Structure: The body consists of two parts, the cephalothorax and the abdomen. They do not have venom glands and rely on power and speed as a means of hunting and defense.
4. Chelicerae: Their jaws are huge and powerful and they shred and crunch the prey. Such jaws are used to cut through insects and small animals in case of feeding.
5. Legs: They have eight legs that are used in moving and two pedipalps that are used in sensing. The pedipalps are used to sense vibrations and direct prey towards their mouths.
6. Behavioral Traits: They remain active at night and sleep by day. They are able to move rapidly and hunt and avoid danger in desert conditions.

How Can You Prevent Camel Spiders Around Your Home?

Here are the five tips you can use to prevent camel spiders around your home:

1. Seal Entry Points: Tight spaces and cracks around the doors, windows and vents to prevent access points. Sealing narrow points limits the inside access and eliminates these desert hunters from nesting in the corners.
2. Remove Debris: Piles of wood, rocks, and rubbish around the house. These places provide camel spiders with shade and shelter, which increases the chances of remaining in the same area.
3. Control Insects: Limit the population of insects surrounding places of living via cleaning and pest control. Reduced number of insects reduces food supplies and leaves camel spiders unwilling to remain near households.
4. Outdoor Lighting: Do not use bright or uncovered lights at night. Camel spiders are attracted to bright lights, which bring insects. Lighting is managed to minimize insects and predators around houses.
5. Burrow Management: Stuff the holes of animals or watch them around your place of residence. Openings or uncontrollable holes provide camel spiders with security and an appropriate hiding place during the day.

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Are Camel Spiders Dangerous?

Camel spiders have no venom compared to real spiders. Their jaws are very strong and they give pain when biting and no toxins are introduced in the body. The pain disappears without long-term effects in hours.

Such arachnids only bite when disturbed or threatened. Their large chelicerae cut the skin, resulting in redness or slight swelling. These bites are infrequent and are caused by defense behavior.

There is no verified death of human beings by camel spiders. But in some instances, open wounds are infected with bacteria when untreated. Such complications are avoided through proper cleaning.

They are used to manage the population of insects and pests in the deserts. They feed on scorpions, beetles and small reptiles, thereby keeping the ecological balance. They have a predatory position that keeps the environment cleaner and minimizes the pest populations in nature.