The Common House Gecko In Costa Rica
House Geckos are found throughout the tropical world, and they do a great job of decreasing the numbers of insects entering people’s homes in those tropical locales.
If you live in Guanacaste, or just about anywhere else in Costa Rica, you may be familiar with the following situation: You have already turned off the lights in your bedroom and sleep is about to consume you when suddenly you hear TCHAK-TCHAK-TCHAK, or a permutation thereof. That would be an adult male gecko invading your bedroom; a younger female will sound more like chip-chip-chip.
They’re behind your picture frames. They’re in your curtains. They’re laying eggs in your vases. They’re your constant housemates, so might as well learn more about the common house gecko.
Costa Rica is home to 13 different species of geckos. The most common one is house gecko (Hemidactylus frenatus), isn’t originally Tico.
They were able to successfully spread to every corner of Costa Rica because of the habitat that they prefer. They live in and around houses.
Using specialized scales on the bottoms of their toes called lamellae, common house geckos live in a vertical world. They hide in window frames and gutters on the outside of your house and behind the paintings, furniture, and mirrors on the inside of your house.
They are hidden during the daylight hours, their presence can be felt via the chirp, chirp, chirp noise that they make while defending their territories. They come from their hiding spots in the darkness but quickly run away when you flick the light on.
House geckos live in and around houses because we attract their food-bugs. Costa Rica’s insects are attracted to our houses because of our electric lights. House geckos take advantage by munching on all of those bugs. This can be easily seen by going outside literally every night. They are also an important part of the food web, being eaten by all sorts of reptiles, birds, and mammals.
Male house geckos are generally larger than females. Females produce clutches of two hard-shelled little white eggs that they’ll happily hide all over your house. Sometimes multiple females will lay their eggs together in one location.
Since they feed on insects, they help control the growth of their populations, thus balancing the number of species. Aside from being part of the higher food chain, they provide food for predators at higher trophic levels.
