Last night after I asked my son to get into his pajamas, he called out to let me know that there was a spider in his room. I was in the middle of washing a dish, so I finished up before going to investigate.

It’s been a long, hot, dry spell in Tucson and lots of bugs have been finding their ways into the house. In my mind I figured it was just another daddy long legs type spider:

We get lots of these type of spiders in the house. Generally, I let them be unless I am doing a deep cleaning or they are in a bad place like the bathtub. I don’t like killing spiders. I appreciate their role in eating smaller bugs. My exception are black widows. I kill them when I find them in my house, shed, or other outdoor area that my son and I use regularly. Luckily, I don’t find many black widows.

When I asked my son about the spider, he pointed to the floor in front of him. At first, I thought he was playing a joke on me. He has some fairly large fake spiders as toys and my mind thought surely this was a toy. And then it moved.

I could tell by the fact that he wasn’t moving and hadn’t made much progress in getting changed that he was freaked out. Deep breaths really do go a long way in suppressing panic. At least it helped me. As I tried to calmly talk to both him and the spider, I just kept thinking – don’t freak out.

It was big. Not as big as the wolf spider I encountered in my front yard a few years ago, but getting there. I met the one in the yard when I was moving a fallen palm frond. The one in my son’s room was about the size of a fifty cent piece (approx 4 cm or 1.5 in diameter). It didn’t move like a regular spider. It’s limbs seemed much more floppy. I imagined it as an awkward teenage wolf spider. I didn’t want to let my son know what I was thinking because I didn’t think that would help the situation.

I retrieved a plastic container from the kitchen. The spider hadn’t moved. It was still next to the picture books from the library on the floor. I had my son get the broom from the other room in case things went bad. Then I talked calmly to the spider as I put the stack of library books between us and dropped the clear container over it. It went so smoothly. And I was freaked out throughout the entire process. I’m sure the poor spider was freaked out the most.

I had Maka open the back doors for me and I brought it out to the way back part of the yard. I released it very ungracefully and didn’t retrieve the container until this morning.

When I came back in, I googled wolf spiders. I learned that don’t make webs, but hunt down their food. They don’t climb much. They like the dark and they are solitary creatures. I wondered how one made it to the middle of my son’s room. It may have crawled under the door.

I shared what I learned with my son and emphasized solitary creature. He’s definitely still a bit freaked out about it, but getting over it. I’m glad I was able to get it out safely. I hope it found a good meal.