Snakes, scorpions await US troops in Iraqi sands

Reuters | March 15, 2003

[HAL9000]

CAMP IWO JIMA: US forces poised to invade Iraq will face snakes and scorpions that might prove just as deadly for some as bullets, bombs or gas.

Desert horned vipers, fat-tailed scorpions and hairy spiders the size of an outstretched hand are lurking in the sand, ready to spring a nasty surprise on troops unlucky or foolish enough to disturb them.

Navy specialists tasked with warning marines of the dangers say the biggest risk comes from bored soldiers turning to serpents for entertainment -- the cause of 85 per cent of snakebites in the 1991 Gulf War.

"They just like to play with anything that crawls, runs or bites," said Lieutenant Pete Obenauer, 29, an insect specialist nicknamed the bug man by troops.

"Most snakes are always going to try to get away from humans, but when they're cornered or threatened, that's when they'll snap back," he told Reuters on Saturday in a camouflaged tent in northern Kuwait.

Reaching onto a shelf, he produced a vial with a severed snake's head preserved in alcohol -- the remains of a rat snake smashed to death at his camp by a marine wielding a shovel.

Obenauer, who has pursued a fascination with insects since childhood, is tasked with protecting troops from bug-borne diseases like plague and typhus as well as teaching them about the creatures lurking under rocks and floorboards.

His tent, bearing a wooden sign with a drawing of a mosquito, houses a fridge, phials and tweezers he uses to identify types of fleas.

Opening a small cardboard box, he revealed an array of beetles impaled on pins with neatly handwritten labels -- painstakingly collected for display back at base in the United States.

One to particularly watch out for will be the deadly saw-scaled viper, a mottled snake with a triangular head and white throat that can grow up to 70 cm (30 inches) long.

Its venom can kill a human within 24 hours and accounts for over four fifths of snakebite deaths in Iraq, while its camouflage pattern makes it hard to spot in the sand, Obenauer said.

Its cousins, the black snake, the Levantine viper and the Persian desert viper can all prove menacing, though the marines said they were unaware of any US deaths caused by bites in the 1991 Gulf War.

Troops would do well to shake out their boots every morning. Scorpions can deliver a painful sting if they crawl into clothes or a sleeping bag at night -- especially if it is one of the five of Iraq's 19 species with a sting dangerous to humans.

The black scorpion can kill.

Marines who insist on playing with creepy crawlies might do better to confine themselves to camel spiders -- brownish arachnids with a leg-span the size of a dinner plate.

They may look frightening, but the worst they can do is deliver a nasty bite with their powerful jaws.

Soldiers carry Atropine injectors to serve as a nerve gas antidote, but troops on the front line may not have such quick access to the potentially live-saving anti-venom agents kept at Camp Doha , a large US base in Kuwait.

It's all relative, however, and for most troopers, creepy crawlies are the least of their worries.

"It doesn't scare me, it's just part of normal life," said US Marine Captain Robert Bueno, 32, from Loredo, Texas.

"The main thing is not to get shot."

[UB355]

Along with DUmpers, Reuters should be banned from this site.

[genefromjersey]

I read somewhere, that during the Crusades, the Hashemites , ( a Muslim equivalent of "special forces" )used catapaults to throw baskets of vipers into the areas where the Crusaders were encamped.

[Kay Soze]

Same as nearby 29 palms training center.

[dwilli]

Be a heartstopper for someone who has trained at Parris Island, Camp Pendleton, Texas, and Fort Benning to run up on a snake.

[gulfcoast6]

We train our troops in the swamps of FL, in the sands of CA and snakes in Iraq? Don't think this is much of a problem with our troops.