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.
