Wednesday, April 3, 2013

My Mother's House Geckos

My mother's house in Kiryat Tivon, Israel, was built by my grandfather's hands (he was a construction worker and contractor in his earlier years before he became a teacher and a principal of the local school) in 1971. My parents lived there until 1975, when they moved to Chicago, USA to study (I was born in Chicago in 1982). We went back to Israel and this house in 1986, and I spent most of my childhood there. The house was renovated and expanded in 1996. When my parents divorced in 2001, my father got most of the savings and my mother got the house.

Why am I telling you all this? Because in this (relatively) old house, with its ample cracks, crooks and crannies, lives a sizeable population of at least eleven Mediterranean House Geckos. They are wild animals who have colonized the house and are very welcome guests, as they prey on various bothersome insects, from mosquitoes to flies to moths.

Oh, and in the Middle East the common folk belief is that geckos bring a lot of luck...

They come out from their hidey-holes around 8PM and go back into hiding and sleep around 6AM. So they spend the entire night on the walls and ceilings hunting insects (especially their favourite dish, moths), chirping to each other in their faint voices, sometimes fighting each other over territory and mates, having relationships and laying eggs and, generally, enjoying their lives. Here you can see some of them, at least the ones brave enough not to run away while I was taking their pictures.










6 comments:

  1. Great post. I would LOVE to live somewhere warm with some lizards. Seeing these creatures in Scotland is an impossibility; we must make do with Wild Haggis instead.

    GBS

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  2. Thanks! And if you like reptiles, you might want to come visit the Holy Land sometime in the future. Very hot and perfect for reptiles.

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  3. I would love to visit the Holy Land - the geckos would be a bonus. We saw some geckos when holidaying in Queensland, and the hot summer in Auckland seems to have boosted our local skink population (had to escort one from the bathroom last night, pretty bronze chappy).

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    1. I love skinks, too. Haven't seen one in quite a long time, though. They are far less common than the House Geckos, Lebanon Lizards and Starred Agamas that are extremely common here.

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  4. that his very cool.
    i have a few 'house spiders' here in iowa. small buggers. they don't bother me and i let them keep webs near the doors, drains, and windows. they kill everything that comes in, even bigger spiders.

    always good to have little useful friends. and those geckos are just damn cool.

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    1. Thanks!

      My mother has spiders too - small ones with extremely long legs. Apparently the geckos do not touch them, and they feast on mosquitos as well.

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