Earlier this summer we took the opportunity to replace the siding on our house. Around the time we were having work done I noticed the local lizard population seemed smaller. During the day they usually make their homes in our flowerbeds, our garage, and even our mailbox. (The few that like our mailbox occasionally need to be dislodged from the mail when I bring it in.)
The month after the exterior work was completed, I no longer saw any of the local geckos hanging around on the outside of the house. I still saw them if I was outside at night, but not around their previous haunts. At the same time, I noticed a slight increase in the number of luckless lizards that managed to find their way inside. So far we average about 4 geckos a year. They tend to slip inside every once in awhile after fall arrives. This year we’ve already had 4 and that was before summer officially ended. I’m sure we’ll see a few more by the end of fall.
For those of you concerned with how we deal with the lizards once they make their way inside, let me put you at ease. We catch the geckos in a glass, or jar, or even chase them onto cardboard and then take them outside and let them go. I prefer this because I like the little guys, and think their benefits outweigh their nuisance factor. They eat annoying bugs, which means less moths, less ants and fewer mosquito bites all around. Hooray! I will acknowledge that sometimes in our efforts to capture them, we inadvertantly cause their tails to come off. Don’t worry, they have the amazing evolutionary ability to regrow them.
I, on the other hand, was concerned that the small lizards were repelled by our new siding. Luckily, a few weeks ago I had my concerns put to rest. It was around then I noticed one gecko had returned to a previously favorite roost, the outside of one of our living room windows at the back of the house. I could see it walking around on the glass pane snapping up bugs. And then, much to my delight, the geckos returned en masse last week to the exterior front entry. We had two easily visible on the front window pane, two others that were only visible after I turned on an outside light, and then at least another two doing their best to blend in with our brickwork and siding.
I would just like to officially say: Our lizards are back!
A side note to anyone interested. The geckos in North Texas do not look much like the geico gecko from the commercials. Instead of green, they are usually a dusty pink or brown. The largest one I’ve seen (in our garage) is about 6 inches and brown. The majority of those on the outside of our house and in our mailbox are around 4 inches long and an almost translucent pink.