My son is in Iraq and found a camel spider

[rgramjet]

"What has no humps, no hooves and drinks no water?"  sorry, just showing my geeky gaming side...

A little old bay seasoning, a little steam and youve got an appetizer!

[duqette]

that make the beast with two backsin' sucks for the snake...  I'm sure all he wanted was a cool damp (if smelly) place to chill out for a while

Dude. I'm talkin' about Africa. They have zillions of snakes, and they are all poisonous ('cept for maybe one). People there are not even the tiniest bit tolerant of snakes, and for excellent reason. The snakes there eat small children. Not to mention livestock.
If there was a six foot mamba or whatever wrapped around the only shit-hole in your town, what would you do?
Nope, not feeling sorry for the snake.

Or the spider. <shudder>

[jswledhed]

The python you mentioned isn't venomous.  Saying that all but one snake in Africa is venomous is just ignorant.

Why risk getting bitten while trying to hack the mamba in your example to bits when you could poke it with a stick from a distance to motivate to find a less crowded hang-out.

And before you respond, I've done that very thing with several cottonmouths and rattlesnakes I've encountered near my home, to say nothing of the far more common and less dangerous corn snakes, garter snakes and black racers.

[NuTTs]

I prefer camel-toe

[Triple J]

I prefer camel-toe

+1

[trenner]

I prefer camel-toe

<waits for inevitable picture response, and corresponding smack of the ban-hammer>

[Monsterlover]

[PizzaMonster]

<waits for inevitable picture response, and corresponding smack of the ban-hammer>

Was that what you were waiting for trenner?   

[CromoMann]

On topic...
Gods Speed to your son - if he needs the info - I hope you pass along the snopes info Someguy provided a link for - that would let me sleep a little easier if I'd been recounted the story of the "poor sap" that fell asleep on duty...

on the African-jack

that make the beast with two backsin' sucks for the snake...  I'm sure all he wanted was a cool damp (if smelly) place to chill out for a while

... People there are not even the tiniest bit tolerant of snakes...

Why risk getting bitten while trying to hack the mamba in your example to bits when you could poke it with a stick from a distance to motivate to find a less crowded hang-out.

Some FHE - when we got together with relatives at Qolora, Transkei, RSA (google earth it  )- and the shriek "snake" was yelled from the SA cousins.  They were all darting out fo the bushes and the NA boys were running to go check it out.

While duqette may be exaggurating some of the facts - the general tolerance level is very different than here.  This could be for many reasons, but the obvious one is that in the US typical encounter with snakes are going to be with non-venomous variety and it sure seems the complete opposite when you see the offerings that other continents have to offer. 

By the way, I haven't run into a rancher yet here in the US that wouldn't take a shovel to a rattler without a thought.  Fear of snakes??  I don't think so. Lot's of risk??  I don't think so. Not to the one swinging the blade anyway - but a poisonous (or dangerous) snake on a ranch with livestock is not going to be poked and prodded on it's way by too many people.

The only other experience that's worth sharing was in the US - we had caught a garter snake and had brought it inside - put it in a shoe box for 'safe' keeping.  No surprise the snake got out and was loose in the house for two weeks while a geriatric relative was visiting from SA.  We probably avoided a funeral by not having our guest come upon the snake, but the scream that my mother let out when she found it coiled under the bed when changing sheets would've made Kramer's stone passing event envious.
end-jack

[rgramjet]

I prefer my camel toes with a little less hair on them...

[DRKWNG]

I spent many months deployed to equatorial and sub-saharan Africa when I was stationed in Germany and had many a run-in with camel spiders down in Niger.  As said before, they are technically not spiders, but more closely related to scorpions.  Also, stories of them eating away at people's flesh are greatly exaggerated.  They are however quite fearless and I have seen them make chase to a person when trying to slip out of the tent late at night to use the "toilet".

Now as far as the idea of poking a stick at any sort of mamba (black or green) goes: hope you have your running shoes on.  Black mambas are the ones you would be most likely to have an encounter with (green mambas are more arboreal) and can be quite aggressive.  It is not uncommon for one to actually chase a person, and these things can move faster than most people can across broken terrain.  They also have the ability to raise over one third of their body length above ground level, so expect a bite at about waist height.

[lauramonster]

Holy Crap!!!  I sure am glad to live in america. 

[jswledhed]

To get any anaimal to chase you for any distance, you have to corner it.  Give that nasty mamba few options on how to leave the area and 999 times out of a 1000, its going to do so.  Limit its options with a crowd of bloodthirsty fools and something bad is going to happen.

People make the same claims about being chased by cottonmouths, another snake known for its foul temper.

And the ranchers out west can kiss my ass.  The western diamondback is practicaly endangered because people can't keep a ounce of self-control or common sense about them when stomping around in the scrub.

You won't convice me that its better to kill something just because its in your path and could, under certain circumstances, be a problem.

[ADG]

Holy Crap!!!  I sure am glad to live in america. 

Statements like these make me envision rich little daddies girls.

[trenner]

Was that what you were waiting for trenner?   

Hehe.  Not exactly!