Saturday, April 13, 2013

How to Evict a Gecko from the Toilet

Today was a pretty normal Saturday, except for the gecko in the toilet. When I woke up this morning, there he was in the ensuite. Not a teensy little gecko either.


BTW, many bathrooms in Mexico don't use toilet seats. My guest bath has one, if you come to visit! And yes, I have another bathroom, so was able to leave the little guy in peace until help arrived.

Marissa came early to help set up the Dog Agility Club equipment. Ha ha. Little did she know there was a gecko to evict. Luckily she's a vet student, and I was hopeful she could help. She did help, sort of, eventually. She also said that if it had been a frog, she'd have run screaming. Evidently, Marissa is not going to be a frog vet.

We had a large empty yogurt container ready, but the little guy took one look at us and high tailed it up into the air pocket in the turn in the tubing.



Yup.



Now, if you grab a gecko by the tail, it breaks off. No harm, no foul; he grows a new one. But you aren't going to get him out of a toilet by grabbing his tail. Flushing would be cruel, and he was big enough to block the pipes even if I was a mean gecko-flushing person. And by the way, geckos bite.

We decided to turn out the light, close the door, and hope he was gone by the time the Agility Club was over. Avoid and conquer!

The Club was totally fun, as always. One little amiguita even brought me flowers. 


She's a sweetheart, and did more than her share of putting away the equipment when we were done.


Two hours later, back to the gecko. Luckily, when we returned to the bathroom (tiptoeing) he had had enough of the pipes and was again basking in the toilet bowl.


Whew! Marissa donned gloves and made a preemptive strike!


Success!


You can't squeeze a gecko too tightly, but at the same time he's a wiggly little sucker. We raced to the front yard, battling three very interested leaping dogs. No way would the gecko have survived in the backyard.


The little guy was happier outside, and we were able to get a better look. Our own little reptile! Then Marissa put him down.


We weren't sure at this point how well he had survived the ordeal. My house is fumigated every three months  (I'm not a bug person), and we didn't know if the residual poison would have harmed him. Luckily, he was fine.


He immediately took off and ran a few meters to the edge of the grass. Whew! Mission accomplished.

I wish I could come up with some lovely Law of Attraction moral to this story. If there is one, it hasn't occurred to me. It was just a fun morning adventure that I thought you might enjoy sharing.

We're getting pretty good at this photo essay thing, eh? (I lived for 27 years in Canada, y'all!). First, how to make a practically free dog agility jump, and now how to rescue a gecko from your toilet bowl. We're the how-to gals of blogdom. And such practical stuff too!

Wishing you all a fun and gecko-free rest of the weekend! If you'd like to chat, I'm here. Any gecko adventures to share?




7 comments:

  1. He's so cute! I would love to have a gecko in my house. We get spiders... lots of them. I haven't figured out where they're coming in, but I wish they would stop (I feel the same way about spiders that Marissa feels about frogs)! A gecko would be a welcome change.

    I had no idea geckos bite, though. Do they even have teeth???

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    1. Hi Nathalie,

      We have tons of geckos too. The ones that run around the house all the time are tiny, maybe 2 inches max, and they don't fall in the toilet! My guess is this gecko went exploring and couldn't climb the sides of the bowl.

      Spiders eat other bugs, so I don't mind them unless they're big. My can't-stand-but-really-harmless-bug is cockroaches. I had thought they might be prevalent here in Mexico, but I hardly ever see them.

      Like I said in the article, I have the house the fumigated regularly, but that's mainly for scorpions. Since I moved next to an open area (for the gorgeous trees), I've seen some scorpions, and I have a healthy fear merging on phobia, mostly for my dog. Hence, frequent fumigations!

      Gecko anatomy isn't my specialty, but yes, they have tiny little teeth and they bite (thank you Google). There's a photo of a guy with a bit of blood on his finger, so I'm guessing a gecko bite might hurt but probably wouldn't do permanent damage.

      Long answer! Must be the leisurely Sunday morning coffee. Ahhh...

      Hugs,

      Carole

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  2. Ha ha! What an adventure! I should have been there - no lizard phobias as we have four bearded dragons living in our middle room which we call The Dragons' Den! Our beardies don't bite and I didn't realise that geckos did. Learn something every day.
    I love the photo stories too! Marissa should be getting paid for her starring role. Hollywood here she comes;-)
    As for the scorpions though... I'd be pretty scared of them! They do have a real sting in the tail! Lol!
    LOA link - there has to be one! Your house is a cool, positive sanctuary? Maybe it's because of your links with me and he came along as your pet lizard? Who knows?!
    Xxx

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    1. Hi Molly,

      I had forgotten about your bearded dragons! Yes! One of them kept showing up on my Pinterest boards. Hee hee. A vet friend said from the photo that she thinks our gecko is a dragon lizard. It may be he came for the dragon connection. I have many dragons in my house, and feel very connected to them!

      Hugs, Happy Sunday!

      Carole

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  3. There you go, MC, the little guy was attracted to your reality! Pretty neat!

    Nice story and pictures. House centipedes are icky as well but once you swat them, they disintegrate. They are made of very delicate material and are all over the place.

    Enjoy!

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    1. Hi A!

      Nice to see you! Thanks for dropping by. House centipedes sound way worse than geckos. Yuk! I actually like the geckos, just not trapped in the toilet. Thank goodness Marissa came over. I did NOT see myself sticking my hand in and grabbing him!

      Animals have such high energy themselves, they are no doubt attracted to other high energy sources. It's probably true that happy people attract more animal life, including reptiles like geckos and even insects. I wonder if anyone has ever studied that? Hmmm...

      Hug! Thanks again for coming by and commenting,

      Carole

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    ReplyDelete