House Gecko Help Required!

My wife is not happy with all the poo around the house and the pressure is on me to stop it. But how? I welcome suggestions that do not involve harming the culprits.

When I first arrived in Thailand I thought there were mice in the room, then when I saw that the droppings were also clinging to the curtains I thought it must be bats. That was me trying to force the explanation to fit what I knew. It didn't take long to learn about house geckoes.

Twenty-five years' of Thai living later and a room without these little lizards seems incomplete. I will never get to used to one landing on my head or arm when I open a door but hearing their "clucking" calls within our home feels natural and I no longer react with surprise to their sudden movements.

I estimate that we have about 20 geckoes sharing the interior of our home despite every door and window being protected by mosquito screens. I did start a careful survey but they are too quick and too well hidden so I gave up. About 20 is accurate enough. Somehow they get in.

We have both the flat-tailed house gecko (Hemidactylus platyurus) and the spiny-tailed house gecko (Hemidactylus frenatus). And they do earn their keep through hunting the insects that also find their way inside but they never clean up after themselves and that's the problem.

A daily sweep gets rid of most of it but in those hidden corners under the curtains and behind the fridge it accumulates into what would become house-soil if we let it. Then there are the little pellets that land on furnishings and tables that get accidentally smeared into paste or dust depending how fresh they are. That gets trying. And the higher your cleanliness standards then the more trying it is. Hence the difference between me and my wife.

There are also those poor inevitable accidental squashings, which in the wet season produce an unpleasant smell that needs to be tracked down or in the dry season leave a flattened and dried up corpse in the door frame. Stepping on one during a night-time toilet visit is also an unpleasant wake-up for both of us. More so for the gecko, of course.

Gecko eggs in your shoes/sock drawer/sofa is another minor nuisance.

One consequence of their presence is the increased chance of a snake getting in. A few months ago a very small golden tree snake (Chrysopelea ornata) did sneak into the house somehow. They are harmless to us and defintely hunt geckoes but are a step too close to nature for some house-holders. It took me two hours to chase it down and finally remove it, and involved taking a bed apart and lifting a wardrobe. All because of the taste of gecko in the air.

So what to do? Accept that they live here is the easy part. I would just like to keep their numbers down to, say, under ten. And I do not want to harm them. There are deterrent sprays but that means spraying everywhere which seems impractical and unpleasant given we live here as well. They are possible to catch by hand if you are very quick and have a lot of time to spend trying. I haven't been successful with this as they are too wary and always head upwards out of reach. I would also prefer to find a method where they do not drop their wriggling tail on the ground. I know it grows back but I still feel guilty.

I tried a long brush with a large bag to catch them in. Fail. I tried a large plastic bottle with inverted mouth like a crab-pot and even added some insects as bait. The insects refused to flutter as I hoped they would so the geckoes were not interested. Fail. My latest attempt is to provide an apparently safe hiding place where I can catch them. It's a big cardboard box that a flat-pack table came in. It's only about an inch wide and I leave it with one edge open on the floor or against a wall in the hope that a gecko or two will go inside for their daytime rest and I can simply close the edge and take them outside somewhere. No luck so far. I guess they already have their favourite places.

For now it seems we are stuck with them unless anybody out there has a bright idea that works. I will try to just enjoy the amazing grip they have on our walls and ceiling but if their numbers keep growing the last resort might be to try catching them with the vacuum cleaner...