Geckos on my house

[jdog1027]

It's finally warming up here in the deep south, and tonight I went around outside my house with my headlamp and racked up on some Hemidactylus turcicus geckos. I moved into this house in 2007 and let loose about 8-9 large adults, and now I can go out and catch them in numbers like this. This is 33. Their tails 'fall off' if you look at them hard enough! I've never seen something drop their tails so easily. They start growing back within about 9-10 days.

 

[PrettyInInk87]

Wow, so cute! I want one...

 

[jdog1027]

I'm not sure the exact areas, but they are definitely in California now. They have taken over here in the deep south.

 

[PrettyInInk87]

Really? They look a lot like my Tokays just a different color... They are adorable.

 

[fluxlizard]

They are farther north too than most people would believe. I'm in Virginia. We have night temps in the teens commonly in January and february, day temps often below freezing. We had snow on the ground from late december till mid february last year.

Yet these geckos live indoors in our local high school and in various businesses in a city about 30 minutes from here. My son's biology teacher did a study on them.

 

[PrettyInInk87]

They are farther north too than most people would believe. I'm in Virginia. We have night temps in the teens commonly in January and february, day temps often below freezing. We had snow on the ground from late december till mid february last year.

Yet these geckos live indoors in our local high school and in various businesses in a city about 30 minutes from here. My son's biology teacher did a study on them.

Gosh, I wish I could find these guys in San Diego! I'd love to take a couple in as pets... Lol!

 

[jdog1027]

They are farther north too than most people would believe. I'm in Virginia. We have night temps in the teens commonly in January and february, day temps often below freezing. We had snow on the ground from late december till mid february last year.

Yet these geckos live indoors in our local high school and in various businesses in a city about 30 minutes from here. My son's biology teacher did a study on them.

That's cool. Yeah I'm originally from Missouri and a friend there said he found them in northern Arkansas. They are hardy.

 

[jdog1027]

Gosh, I wish I could find these guys in San Diego! I'd love to take a couple in as pets... Lol!

They are totaly nocturnal. They cover the sides of buildings at night feeding on insects near lights. If you don't know they are there, you'd never see one. They are very fast and inconspicuous.

 

[eeekroar]

I bet your insect population has drop in huge numbers.

 

[jdog1027]

I bet your insect population has drop in huge numbers.

Actualy, I don't think it has dropped too significantly. I have a friend that is a complete slob and has had a German cockroach problem for like, forever- I gave him some of them and he just turned 'em loose in his house and he said they have reduced them alot. I guess he didn't mind trading 1000s of cockroaches for in return having gecko turds in his cabinets!!!

 

[james L]

Was this non-native species already in AL before you let some go? Also couldnt you find a much more humane way to store them? That container with a bunch of beat up geckos with broken tails is pretty F-ing gross in my opinion. Whats do you plan on doing with all of these geckos? Its a very pretty Hemidactylus though!

 

[jdog1027]

Was this non-native species already in AL before you let some go? Also couldnt you find a much more humane way to store them? That container with a bunch of beat up geckos with broken tails is pretty F-ing gross in my opinion. Whats do you plan on doing with all of these geckos? Its a very pretty Hemidactylus though!

The first one I ever caught was in Montgomery Al. in 1993. They were not brought here by me. I don't 'keep' or 'store' these geckos at all nowadays. Back when I was young, I would try to keep them, but they are kind of a pain in the ass to maintain. I just catch and release them on my house. There is really no need to keep any, as I can go out and make a single lap around my house on warm evenings and probablly see about 5-6 of them. Catch them, then repeat about 20 minutes later with the same results. I can go downtown where I live and catch 20-50 in a single 3 hour session. I just caught all of these and put them into this big 20 gallon tub to photograph a large number together. I wouldn't keep them long term in this set-up. Yeah, when you catch them, the more you put into your field collecting container (in my case, a small critter carrier) they start to cling to one another, and in the process they start to drop tails. I'd say 1 out of every 3 you catch have obviously already had their tails lost in the past and have already regenerated. I let all of these you see here go back on my house again a few hours after I got them.

 

[Syn]

I've always liked the H. turcicus. Pink is their color.

 

[melric]

That's pretty darn cool.

 

[ChaoticNightsReptile]

H Turcicus can be found from CA to FL, they have colonized most of the lower 1/2 of the USA. Who knows how long they have been here.

I love my house geckos, they are fairly common in Phoenix AZ.

 

[james L]

Interesting. Ive never seen this species. There are about 2 or 3 different house gecko species I see from my area of FL down through out the FL Keys. Im not a huge fan of these geckos though as they eat anything that can fit in there mouths and reproduce like crazy all year around. They can be a nuisance!
Also, Jdog-sorry if I seemed a little krabby in my post.

 

[ferretinmyshoes]

They are everywhere in Texas and we saw them in Belize when we were there too!

 

[Texas Panther Man]

We had em in my last home. So far I havent seen any in my condo Im in now. They are really cool, we had a few large ones that would sit on my kitchen window all night and eat all the moths and small flying insects drawn in by the lights. I know I never saw any roaches at that home either. We had a blue & gold macaw and my salt water tanks so we couldnt spray and we never had a roach ever. I was actually thinking about releasing a few at my next house to catch any stray crickets or even the very rare escaped dubia.

 

[jdog1027]

We had em in my last home. So far I havent seen any in my condo Im in now. They are really cool, we had a few large ones that would sit on my kitchen window all night and eat all the moths and small flying insects drawn in by the lights. I know I never saw any roaches at that home either. We had a blue & gold macaw and my salt water tanks so we couldnt spray and we never had a roach ever. I was actually thinking about releasing a few at my next house to catch any stray crickets or even the very rare escaped dubia.

Yeah- I have 'em on my window at night. They would be a good clean-up crew for loose crickets if the crickets aren't too big. That's the only problem I had with trying to keep some in a cage. They had to have like 1/2" crickets and wouldn't really mess with anything bigger than that. But your right, they will tear up some moths and 'Window Plankton' as I like to call it.

 

[Texas Panther Man]

Well you answered a question I had. If they could handle a full grown crick. I may have to find another gecko for clean up duty. My aunt and uncle had leopard gecko I think. It lived under their fridge and it ate all the critters that enetered their home. They lived out in the sticks and used to complain about the bugs. I think a neighbor told them about getting a gecko. After they got him they said he kept the bug problem under control.

I'd love to have some Maddy Day geckos. But they need uvb and humidity so free ranging them is out of the question.