What to do with a spider in your tent

My daughter Amy is 22 and she does not like spiders, she gets out the vacuum and gets rid of any she sees in the house. Anna is my granddaughter, Amy’s niece, she is very boisterous, they have a great time together.

Today, I went outside for a couple of minutes and came back in to find Amy telling her other niece, Cassy, about a spider in her tent last time She went camping with her brother and his family. It seems she was sharing a tent with Anna who is 12. I came into the room to hear: “the light turned on and there was this large black wolf spider on the floor of the tent. It was just like in the horror movies where the lightning flashes and there is a great big man eating monster coming right at you!” So I said “Anna find something for me to trap this spider in.” Wolf_Spider

(I was sure that my daughter had learned from me to catch and release spiders back into the wild.)

“We don’t have anything Captian.” Anna replies. “Oh wait here is a water container.”

By this time the spider has advanced and is on Amy’s pillow. She puts the container over the spider and then says “Anna, we need something to slide under this spider to trap it in the container.
“We have this study pamphlet for becoming a notary, captain.” Anna responds.

“No, I have to study that” Amy says.

“We have this drawing you made, captain.” Anna answers.

“No, I might want to use that later.” (At this point, I am laughing hysterically and wondering about the later use of the pillow the spider is currently trapped on.)

Suddenly Amy remembers a clip board she has, she takes everything off it and proceeds to slide it under the spider, pointing out that a pillow is soft and therefore is not easy to keep space from appearing under the container. During this process the spider loses a leg. Then somehow escapes and she says went back to collect his leg. She manages to capture him again then gets the clipboard safely under him and asks Anna to find something they can put the spider in for the night. (remember my hope that he would be released to the wild) “Why don’t you throw him outside?” I ask.

“We were not going to open the tent door and let more come in. I have very strict tent rules.”

“How did he get in?” I asked.

“He just,…. I don’t know the opposite of evaporated.” She said.

Anna searches around and finds a pencil case. However, it is not as long as the clipboard causing issues of the spider possibly escaping again. “Is there anything else?”

Anna all of a sudden says “We have a Walmart bag General.”

“Why wasn’t that mentioned before private?” Amy says, then comes the transfer of the spider to the bag after which Anna starts to tie bunny ears.

Amy grabs the bag and starts twisting the top so there is no way the spider can get out and looks at the bottom to see a bunch of tiny holes. “Quick get the pencil case,” she tells Anna. So they put the spider in the Walmart bag into the pencil case and zip it up and stash it in the corner for the night.”

So now you know what to do with a spider in your tent! Tune in next week for ??????