I've been in love with these guys ever since I lived in New Orleans.
The Mediterranean House Gecko (Hemidactylus turcicus) is an incredible species that can now be found worldwide. Originally native to the Mediterranean region, these nocturnal geckos can now be found around the world in tropical and subtropical regions. @Papa-pepper first encountered them in New Orleans, but I have also found them in Florida and Texas.
They are a relatively small lizard, not growing longer than six inches. As the name "House Gecko" would suggest, they commonly make their homes in our homes, and do well living on, in, and around human buildings. They seem to really enjoy the insects that our light bulbs attract at night too. I am working on an educational, informational post for my "The Wild-Man's Wild Friends" series, but for now I wanted to share some photos with you. I hope that you enjoy them, as I really enjoyed taking them. I used three different individual geckos that we caught last night in Texas for this shoot.
As always, I'm @papa-pepper and here's the proof:
proof-of-mediterranean-house-gecko
Until next time…
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I love these little guys! One summer, in El Paso, one got in the house. They like to pretend to be scorpions to scare off predators, and Nova is a major scorpion killer. Once he realized it wasn't a scorpion (after breaking the tail off and bruising the little guy up a lot) he instead brought it to me as a present (like he did with the rare cricket, or other weird bugs that would come into the house). Despite having a fight with an 18lb Maine Coon mix, that gecko survived!
That summer our house had a small gecko infestation. And I loved every minute of it. Usually our house was overrun with fire ants, and they would seek me out, even in bed, and string the hell out of me. (I was able to determine that they were attracted to my heart medication for some weird reason, and it mad them angry.)
The geckos got the fire ants under control.
We only had a window AC unit in our bedroom, which is also where the ants liked to be, because it was cold in there. It was commonplace to look over at Nova or one of the other cats and to see geckos sleeping snuggled up to the warm kitties. I woke up with them snuggled up to me a few times, too! They also loved sleeping on and around the cable box, the gaming consoles, and my laptop, because they were all nice and warm.
Just about everyone else in our neighborhood seemed to dislike the house geckos. But they kept me (I was getting hundreds of fire ant stings a day) much safer, more comfortable, and also helped keep the ants off the cats, too.
It became normal to walk by Nova and see a gecko or two on top of his head or on his back. I started calling him the King of the Geckos.
I really miss all the lizards we had in S.C. Not that many lol, but I would see 20 a day most days. ours were green and some were a flat brown and we had 5 lined skinks that @papa-pepper just did a post about. those were my favorite.
What a cool story! I really like having them around, as i did in New Orleans. Some people actually spray insect killer on them, which I think is terrible.
It's definitely terrible!
In El Paso, kids would catch them in jars, shake the jars really hard to 'play' with them, and then leave the jars out in the hot sun for the poor little geckos to boil to death. (The sun in El Paso was intense even on cool days.
Some kids would fill the jars with water to see what the geckos to do. It was horrible. I rescued as many as I could, but I wasn't able to save many.
I hear kids and people in Florida are the same way with all the anoles.
perfect! I like your photos
Is that the GEICO gecko?
Those pictures are pretty incredible. What camera did you use?
CANON Vixia HF R800
https://steemit.com/photography/@papa-pepper/a-broken-camera-and-the-steem-powered-solution
Nice job!
The one with the bizarre tail has it's tail broken and is growing again i believe, right ?
There are a number of the little guys who play on the railing and walls of my patio and the bushes that grow nearby. I spend hours watching them.
They are super cool. I miss seeing them more often!
When we lived in Singapore we had a lot of geckos these were a lot paler than these ones and very good for eating mosquitoes if I remember correctly so we happily coexisted with them
Those were most likely a similar but different species call the "Common House Gecko" which originates in Asia. They are very similar, but are paler in color. I like coexisting with them, as I did in New Orleans.
You clearly know a lot more about them than I do it was 30 years ago I was in Singapore hadn't thought about the geckos for years till now curious to see your post and learn more about them
I will do one of my educational video posts on this species tomorrow.
Great will watch out for it
and we have evolved from these creatures
So some say... Personally, I'm not a believer in that story.
me neither...
Oh now. Did we? Can imagine. Hehe
What a lovely creature. One of my favorites!
best photo gecko
As a Texas native, I see these all over. They sure are badass. Sometimes you see them running around without tails. I wish I could grow back limbs, or grow them bigger, giggity.
That would be cool. One of the ones in my photo shoot was in the process of growing back its tail.
I could use a couple of these guys to eat all the mosquitos that I have around. I am getting eaten alive.
Want me to sneak a few up there next month?
Not sure how well they adapt up here. Plus I know little of how to take care of these fellows. Do you plan on catching some glowing scorpions? Those are cool but I am pretty sure I am not planning on touching those.
I'll be looking for Scorpions with a blacklight flashlight when I get back to Arkansas. I ordered some special flashlights, but they did not show up before we left for Texas.
nice
Just starting to turn up here in VA. I've been collecting them to create an "Invasive Species of Virginia Exhibit" at work!
Only one thing from Texas matter...
I drove through Cordelle, Texas the other day... Did you know that he sang his own theme song?
Haha no thats new to me
That baby gecko, adult gecko double the size of my thumb or you're. XD
I heard people said that gecko really poisonous is it true?
I've never eaten one, so I'm not sure. They are not Venomous, I know that much.
Cute lil fella! We don't have many of those in Fl. We have some similar ones that come out at night. The look like a dumber version of that Mediterranean species😂🌞 great post my son enjoyed💯
House Gecko's are not unusual in South-Africa. It brings back quite a few memories from my Grandparents place in Durban...
Yep, we got those in Florida for sure. Looks like one of those little guys just dropped and replaced his tail, too.
He sure did. I noticed that too.
Here is my Thai Gecko Peace to all of you
Yeah, much, much cooler looking.
The one you have look like a baby because you can see the white stripes on his tail. When they get older the white color disappear little like the baby king cobra. Regards
Remember what happens when you pull the tail? You should demonstrate.
Cute little reptile. My brother had a couple Gecko's growing up but not like those
Cute little fellow
They border on cuteness!
God's world is amazing!
ch @globocop
I was going to ask if any of them tried to sell you auto insurance, but someone beat me to the reference! Lol
Here at home there is 1 wide-angle, I see it every day and I leave this little animal because it eats the insects that are in the house.
They are great at pest control! I love that about them!
We have the common house gecko around here. Cute little things that like to eat bugs. It's a great thing here in Florida. When your state bird is the mosquito and the fire ants around here.
Those are so neat! Do they pigment or do they always have that yellow pattern? Awesome pictures @papa-pepper !
Great pics
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Love Gecko's. I've had a few when abroad, well living in my house. Spent house just watching them. Sure the novelty would ware off eventually, but I still fascinated by them :)