Tropical house gecko

There are four species of geckos that make up the tropical house gecko group, they are all very similar in appearance and habits.

The tropical house gecko is abundant in the Durban area, it is often possible to see more than 20 geckos around one light at night. They are able to change their colour, albeit slowly, but only to lighter or darker shades of brown or cream. I have found just as many people that love geckos, to those who fear or even hate them, but regardless of your feelings towards them they are not there to cause us any harm whatsoever. They actually do us a favour by helping to eradicate our home of unwanted pests, such as mosquitoes. However, I feel that their population boom is having a detrimental effect on our moth species.

Geckos are also known to be quite vocal at times, making clicking sounds in communicating with one another. Having said that they can also be quite territorial, defending their light from other geckos, first audibly making clicking sounds, then if that does not work, they will not hesitate to bite their oppo-nent.

About the only thing that one could get annoyed with the geckos for is their tendency to poop everywhere.

This can leave lasting stains on material and I have found that it can even leave long lasting marks on car paint if it is not washed off soon.

There are two things that fascinate people about geckos, their ability to shed their tail in self-defence and their amazing ability to stick to smooth surfaces such as glass. A gecko’s foot is an amazingly complex design, but to keep it simple, there are microscopic hairs that allow a gecko to keep a firm footing, even on glass.

The tropical house gecko is also the single biggest reason why the spotted bush snake is Durban’s most common snake. I am not aware of any effective gecko repellents other that keeping certain lights off at night.