Geckos are small to average sized lizards belonging to the family Gekkonidae which are found in warm climates throughout the world. Geckos are unique among lizards in their vocalizations, making chirping sounds in social interactions with other geckos. Geckos are unusual in other respects as well. Most geckos have no eyelids and instead have a transparent membrane which they lick to clean. Many species will, in defense, expel a foul-smelling material and feces onto their molester.

Many species have specialized toe pads that enable them to climb smooth vertical surfaces and even cross indoor ceilings with ease. These antics are well-known to people who live in warm regions of the world where several species of geckos make their home inside human habitations. These species (for example the house gecko) become part of the indoor menagerie and are seldom really discouraged because they feed on insect pests.

House Geckos

The House Gecko, scientific name Hemidactylus frenatus, is a native of southeastern Asia and the northern parts of Africa. Known as the Pacific house gecko or Asian house gecko, it is the most recently discovered member of a quartet of small, prolific and aggressive little lizards that become active at twilight. They can be seen climbing walls of houses and other buildings in search of insects attracted to porch lights, hence their name. Spread around the world by ships, these geckos are now common around Florida and other southern areas of the United States as well as large parts of Australia. They grow to a length of between three to six inches, and live for about five years.

A tropical gecko, Hemidactylus frenatus thrives in warm, humid areas where it can crawl around on rotting wood in search of the insects it eats. The animal is very adaptable and may prey on insects and spiders, displacing other reptiles. Scientists of Columbia University have found that these geckos can also survive on feline feces.

Distribution of population

What house geckos look like

Snout longer than the distance between the eye and the ear-opening, 1.3 to 1.5 the diameter of the orbit; forehead concave; ear-opening small, roundish. Body and limbs moderate. Digits moderately dilated, free, inner with sessile claw; 4 or 5 lamelle under the inner digits, 7 or 8 (seldom 9) under the fourth finger, and 9 or 10 under the fourth toe. Upper surfaces covered with small granules, largest on the snout; on the back these granules are intermixed with more or less numerous irregularly scattered round convex tubercles always much smaller than the ear-opening, sometimes almost entirely absent. Rostral four-sided, nearly twice as broad as deep, with median cleft above; nostril pierced between the rostral, the first labial, and three nasals; 10 to 12 upper and 8 to 10 lower labials; mental large, triangular or pentagonal ; two or three pairs of chin-shields, the median in contact behind the point of the mental. Abdominal scales moderate, cycloid, imbricate. Male with a series of 30 or 36 femoral pores, not interrupted on the preanal region. Tail rounded, feebly depressed, covered above with very small smooth scales and six longitudinal series of keeled tubercles, below with a median series of transversely dilated plates. Greyish or pinkish brown above, uniform or more or less distinctly marbled with darker; head generally variegated with brown; a more or less defined brown streak, light-edged above, on the side of the head, passing through the eye, extending sometimes along the side of the body ; lower surfaces whitish.