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lizard inside the condo

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naanwar
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lizard inside the condo

Post by naanwar » Wed, 31 Jul 2013 8:41 am

We saw a lizard inside our condo this morning. My wife is freaking out.
Is this normal here in Singapore?

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the lynx
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Re: lizard inside the condo

Post by the lynx » Wed, 31 Jul 2013 9:02 am

naanwar wrote:We saw a lizard inside our condo this morning. My wife is freaking out.
Is this normal here in Singapore?
Very normal. Don't worry. The insects should be more freaked out because their predator is in the house...

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Post by katbh » Wed, 31 Jul 2013 9:07 am

I assume it was just a small gecko. If so, it is very normal - you will find them in dark cupboards in the kitchen, behind pictures on the wall and in the bathroom. You will here them by the clicking noise they may - especially at night.
On the other hand, if it was a monitor lizard...I would be a little bit more concerned!

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Post by naanwar » Wed, 31 Jul 2013 9:18 am

katbh wrote:I assume it was just a small gecko. If so, it is very normal - you will find them in dark cupboards in the kitchen, behind pictures on the wall and in the bathroom. You will here them by the clicking noise they may - especially at night.
On the other hand, if it was a monitor lizard...I would be a little bit more concerned!
Thanks for all your replies.
I do not know if it was a lizard or a gecko.
But It was a tiny - size of a pinky finger.

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Post by katbh » Wed, 31 Jul 2013 9:22 am

gecko

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sundaymorningstaple
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Post by sundaymorningstaple » Wed, 31 Jul 2013 9:49 am

Yeah, the occasional monitor lizard will give you a fright, especially at 3 am in the morning!

I've had to catch two of the buggers when I lived in Seletar Camp (one 4.5' the other 6' nose to tip of tail) They were living in the monsoon drain in from of my house in the culvert under the drive. They would come out at night and through the fence under using the small concrete drain and then come up and eat my dogs food! She started barking up a fit and when I finally when down to see why all the ruckus, there was the 6' lizard happily munching away but the dog couldn't get near due to the lashing tail. Chased it away and the next night started again. But I was ready for it that time and managed to get in in the concrete drains around the house (narrow & deep) and with help from my BiL we stood on it until I could get it's head in a noose around the jaws and we managed to get it into a large wire cage. Kept it a couple of days and then called the zoo who came and picked it up.

The second one we just caught it and released it in the pond at the Seletar Golf Course (probably ate everything in the pond eventually except maybe the snakehead we'd put in there).

We had lots of lizards out there, the common fence lizards (6~10 inches long) looking like little dinosaurs, chit-chats and Tokays (geckos), Black spitting cobras, Pythons and the occasional tree snake (beautiful and fast).

I loved it out there. Now too damned expensive to live there (I only paid $400/mo for the first 12 years I lived there).

Oh, we never had any mozzies or rats out there. The geckos and cobras took care of them. The only time I caught the cobras is if they were in the concrete drains around the perimeter of the house, but then would only catch them a release them in the field next door. (kids were still young then).
SOME PEOPLE TRY TO TURN BACK THEIR ODOMETERS. NOT ME. I WANT PEOPLE TO KNOW WHY I LOOK THIS WAY. I'VE TRAVELED A LONG WAY, AND SOME OF THE ROADS WEREN'T PAVED. ~ Will Rogers

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Post by x9200 » Wed, 31 Jul 2013 11:38 am

To cause even more damage to the OP's wife mental health there should be also mentioned that the standard size of the geckos you typically see at homes roughly corresponds to the size of the roaches that can be found in Singapore (up to 10 cm I believe). These roaches can fly and you surely have in your place even if you don't see them.

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Post by the lynx » Wed, 31 Jul 2013 11:41 am

x9200 wrote:To cause even more damage to the OP's wife mental health there should be also mentioned that the standard size of the geckos you typically see at homes roughly corresponds to the size of the roaches that can be found in Singapore (up to 10 cm I believe). These roaches can fly and you surely have in your place even if you don't see them.
Man, I love this discussion... :cool:

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Post by PNGMK » Wed, 31 Jul 2013 11:52 am

OP - the lizards eat insects such as roaches, ants etc.... We always allow a few to live in our place and put up with the clicking and poop as a penalty.

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Post by iloverice » Wed, 31 Jul 2013 11:52 am

I bet you do :D

The gecko is not dangerous, but if it land on you, well....it will stick on your skin (not easy to shake it off :lol:

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Post by the lynx » Wed, 31 Jul 2013 11:57 am

Having said that, if you have a lot of lizards in your home, it does say a lot about the state of hygiene there.

More food crumbs/stains > more insects (roaches, houseflies, ants) > more house geckos

Like what PNGMK said, I wouldn't mind one or two but if I see more, I'd start checking my house for any hidden roach infestation...

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Post by Strong Eagle » Wed, 31 Jul 2013 12:17 pm

The only real problem with the geckos is the occasionally inconvenient encounters... for example, in our house, they liked to hide in the toaster... fried gecko tends to be rather aromatic. It is also amazing how fast they run when you light up the BBQ pit.

Our house was always open to nature... except for night time sleeping. Geckos don't seem to have any sense of "indoors" versus "outdoors"... but then again, neither do the bugs they eat.

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Post by sundaymorningstaple » Wed, 31 Jul 2013 12:54 pm

the lynx wrote:
x9200 wrote:To cause even more damage to the OP's wife mental health there should be also mentioned that the standard size of the geckos you typically see at homes roughly corresponds to the size of the roaches that can be found in Singapore (up to 10 cm I believe). These roaches can fly and you surely have in your place even if you don't see them.
Man, I love this discussion... :cool:
You & me both! :lol: :wink:
SOME PEOPLE TRY TO TURN BACK THEIR ODOMETERS. NOT ME. I WANT PEOPLE TO KNOW WHY I LOOK THIS WAY. I'VE TRAVELED A LONG WAY, AND SOME OF THE ROADS WEREN'T PAVED. ~ Will Rogers

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Re: lizard inside the condo

Post by zzm9980 » Wed, 31 Jul 2013 2:23 pm

naanwar wrote: My wife is freaking out.
She'll freak out a lot more when she starts seeing roaches.

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Post by Steve1960 » Wed, 31 Jul 2013 2:29 pm

We have a couple of resident Gecko's at least and have no problems with roaches, ants or anything else. Love em :-)

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