Living with geckos

A slice of life in Cambodia by Cindy J. Lahar           

[April, 2004 - Phnom Penh Cambodia]

Since January, there really have been just three geckos cruising my walls and ceilings.  There is the one that likes to live under the sponges by the kitchen sink.  We frighten each other frequently when I quietly enter the kitchen.  He leaps out and scurries under the stove or up the wall, at times slowly retreating while keeping a careful eye on me – never apparent for more than a few seconds, and then not to be seen again until he fails to get out from under the sponges before I enter the kitchen again.

Then there is the pair living in the living room.  I only see them at night, the geckos are elsewhere during the day.  I don’t know where.  But in the evening, the large one and the small one vie for any insects in the room.  That is their feeding time, and it tends toward hunting season around the light sources.   Oh, that night the large beetle got in, they spent quite a time dancing near the ceiling light – as the beetle continued to singe its wing in the burning bulb and the geckos scuttled and fought for the better location to possibly catch the handicapped, the weak, the rather large meal.  As for the geckos, it is location, location, location -- fighting for territory just like in academic departments, on the best streets for the homeless and in the business world. 

But it is the little gecko in the living room that has become my evening companion.  He is always there, on the wall behind the desk.  And he is a small one, a baby for sure when I moved here in January.  And over the weeks I watched him grow, and one day last week I even left a cookie crumb on the floor to attract some ants for the little guy.  Yes, we have bonded.  I know he trusts me.  He has built that trust since I arrived here in January. I haven’t harmed him yet.  He has slowly ventured down the wall each evening to the cool floor and moved across one tile, two tiles, but never more.  His comfort with me has grown as his body has grown.  Last night I had a difficult time distinguishing him from the older gecko he has been dancing with all these months.  He has grown up. 

But then last week – new babies arrived!  My first sighting was not pretty.  One must have been scurrying to hide when I entered the house, because the unfortunate soul was massacred by my shoe.  Baby-gecko-death right there in my entrance.  I prayed for him, and I even prayed for myself-- for being a gecko murderer.  I took solace knowing that it was not pre-meditated murder…that accidents happen all the time.  I took solace knowing that he wouldn’t be competing for food with my friends here already.

But his twin has appeared in my living room.  And it was yesterday while I was eating lunch in front of the TV I spotted the little guy (and we are talking little  - not more than 2 inches long including the tail!) – he was peering at me from the corner of the coffee table my lunch was sitting on!  Right there, far less than an arm’s length away.  Completely vulnerable to the human he stared at. 

I learned recently that these twins are not the same beasts at all.  The twins I saw are babes of the bluish gecko variety that I had yet to see but had certainly heard. There are two types of geckos in this area – the frequently-seen, dancing-on-walls variety and the frequently-heard and more bluish in color variety.  Finding a quite large blue lizard dead in my staircase (and of course, upside down!) left me questioning my landlord:  “What is that?”  The answer presented was that this was your run-of-the-mill gecko of that type that make the loud TAY-KO noises.  Oh!  I thought they all did that.  I have so much to learn….

End note:  After about a week here I had one other significant gecko experience.  A gecko either died naturally or committed suicide in my kitchen.  All I know is that I woke up and found a gecko on my counter – his body upside down and dead.  At the time I took this as a bad omen.  I couldn’t understand how the gecko came to be dead on my counter.  The only explanations were that he 1) fell off the ceiling and died on impact  or 2) crawled on the counter and had some sort of pre-death attack that all insects have that result in their bodies being upside down when they are found deceased.  Which ever the reason, I didn’t like it.  I was so thankful that my cleaning lady was coming that day since I really didn’t want to have to dispose of the body myself. I thought she might know what this means.  The answer seems to be nothing.  The best answer I have received is that it was probably an old gecko.  The other geckos have given me no hints.

Photos by Cindy Lahar, April 2004

Photos above of the kitchen gecko, in the kitchen.

Photo immediately below of a baby “Tayko” gecko from April 25, 2004 (not actual size –true gecko length about 2 inches although they grow to a foot or so long!)

Cindy's Home Page

This page was created in June, 2004. 

One more photo of my kitchen gecko when s/he allowed me to come as close as ever to be in the picture as well...

This page was updated in August, 2004. 

Copyright 2004 - Cindy J. Lahar