Roel spent the night from Thursday to Friday in a hostel in Santa Marta, in the north of Colombia. He slept in the middle of the jungle. “That was probably the moment that the spider got into my backpack,” Roel tells EditieNL.
Between the dirty laundry
When the 28-year-old man from Grave in Brabant unpacked his bag after returning home on Sunday, he discovered his fellow traveler. “I wanted to throw my clothes in the wash. When I grabbed a shirt, the tarantula suddenly crawled over my fingers.”
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Roel was shocked. “I saw several tarantulas in Colombia, but there I had a guide with me. In my own home in the Netherlands it is really a different story. I had no idea how poisonous this specimen was, and how fast it could run. ”
He quickly called his roommate over. “The spider was still in my backpack, but we couldn’t see it anymore. With barbecue tongs I took the clothes out of the suitcase one by one until we found it again.”
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Then the next question arose: what do you do with it? “Do you let it go? Are you crushing it? We finally decided to leave the animal to the specialists and called the animal ambulance.” Roel managed to catch him in a Tupperware container. In it, he handed over the spider.
Reception Center
The animal ambulance came to get the spider and brought him to a shelter in Schaijk. It turns out to be a pumpkin patch tarantula. “Fortunately, that is a harmless species,” Sharon van Offeren of the shelter tells EditieNL. “It is very fast and can bite. You can get an ugly wound from it, but it is not poisonous. So happy accident.”
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He was not well on arrival. “He is missing two legs on the left side and he was not completely fit. That is not surprising: it is very cold in the luggage compartment of the plane, while he is used to subtropical temperatures.”
It’s getting better now. “He is now in a loft with the right temperature and humidity. He had his first meal last night. It was nice to see that he still wanted to eat despite everything.”
Return trip
She hopes the spider can be returned to Colombia, but suspects that it will be difficult. “Not only does this have to be arranged with customs, but we also have to find someone – with knowledge of reptiles – who is crazy enough to take the spider as hand luggage. He can’t go back in the hold.” If it doesn’t work out, the animal will soon travel to a specialized reptile shelter.
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Own safety first
Do you have to be on your guard when you fly back to the Netherlands after a long journey? “Fortunately, this has never happened before,” says Van Offeren. “But should it happen, make sure you put your own safety first. And make sure he is in a closed room from which he cannot escape. Then call the animal ambulance or a shelter and do not investigate yourself, because some species to look alike.”
And, she likes to emphasize: “Don’t stomp him to death.”
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