MONSTERS OF THE GECKO WORLD

Living in the jungle I expect an abundance of creepy crawly things.  I’m fine with them as long as they keep their distance from me.  They have their space I have mine – or so I thought.  In the last few weeks it seems that my house has become a haven for a variety of free loaders.  One in particular is the huge Tokek gecko.  I have nothing against these giant geckos.  Their natural habitat is however, the rainforest, which I think they have forgotten as for some reason they have decided to evolve and become house Tokek.  They live goodness knows where during the day, building up the energy to taunt and scare I’m sure.  Once night has fallen they leave their hiding places and begin to roam the walls and ceilings of my house in search of prey. I know you are all laughing at me, thinking that after years in Australia I should be used to creepy little geckos, well I’m not.  Before you laugh too hard at my apparent irrational fear of friendly little geckos let me give you some details on these creatures that roam my house come nightfall.

  

These are not your average geckos – they are in fact the second largest gecko species in the world.   A full grown male can be as big as 51cm (hmmmmm who’s laughing now).  They have bluish bodies with red/orange spots on them – yeah real cute huh.  Big creepy gecko eyes with vertical slit pupils freak me out as they watch my every move.  The males are very territorial, and will attack pretty much anything that is in their territory, this is concerning for me as their territory has now expanded to include my house.  Insects and small vertebrates are their dish of choice but given the chance I am sure they would dine on a Kiwi.  I have made some enquiries on the likely hood of these beasts banding together and attacking me and have being told that they are solitary, so it is very unlikely they will ambush me as I wander back from the bathroom in the dark.  They bite though and rumour has it this can be pretty painful.  I knew I should be wary of anything that has sticky pads on its feet and a creepy smiley face. 

 

I am happy for these monsters of the gecko world to live outside my house, where they belong.  Despite their hostile takeover of my house I don’t want to harm them, wouldn’t even think of chasing them with a broom (they could scoot up the broom handle and attack). I can even see the benefits of them keeping other creepy crawlies at bay, but I am still not happy about their settlement in my house.   Having them in my house is something I won’t get used to in a hurry but as with many things here I will just have to grin and bear it.