ARIZONA REPUBLIC (Phoenix) 04 June 05 Don't bug out: Gecko lizards pose no threat (Kate Nolan)
Abigail Dinsmore got a call recently from a woman being menaced by a lizard.
An Arizona Game and Fish wildlife specialist, Dinsmore helps wild animals and people keep their proper distance.
From the description - 4 to 5 inches long and eating bugs on a wall near a porch light - this was no Godzilla.
It was a Mediterranean house gecko, an insect eater that emerges in spring from its Valley hiding places, typically wall cracks and crevices in tree bark.
Seen lurking around lights that attract insects, the lizard poses no threat to anybody but bugs, and it's putty in the paws of a housecat.
Dinsmore told the woman to pick up the gecko by hand and move it away from the house, but the fear factor was too high. The woman settled for keeping the porch light off until the gecko moved on.
Despite the reptile's diminutive size and lack of menacing stingers, spikes or fangs, such anxiety typifies human encounters with Mediterranean house geckos.
In some circles they are regarded as poisonous "devil lizards" that have a nasty bite like a Gila monster (which they resemble when they hatch). Some fear that geckos have toadlike glands on their backs that emit toxins. But none of that is true.
"They are non-venomous," said Brian Sullivan, a professor of life sciences who specializes in desert invertebrates at Arizona State University West.
Sullivan, who has done groundbreaking research on Gila monsters, hasn't studied the geckos. But few experts have because the lizards are fairly ordinary, Sullivan said. In spring they breed, following an inactive period from November through February; they feed on insects, from mosquitoes to cockroaches, and scorpions and spiders.
Part of a worldwide population of various house geckos, the type that scrambles up Valley walls originates on islands off the southern shore of the Mediterranean Sea. The vagabond reptiles arrived in the United States about 50 years ago aboard ships carrying agricultural crops and trees.
"They were introduced deliberately and accidentally throughout the Southwest," Sullivan said. Although most stowed away on freight, the lizards also were sold in pet stores, which provided opportunities for escape to new locales.
"Once in a city, they are transported by individuals," Sullivan said. Some people collect them and give them to friends to battle insect infestations. Sullivan used them to eliminate a cricket population at his house.
What distinguishes Mediterraneans from the Valley's native geckos - banded and tree geckos - are the clinging feet that let them walk on walls and ceilings and help them hunt insects and avoid hungry cats, snakes and birds.
Sullivan predicts the adaptable geckos are in Arizona to stay.
That's probably a good thing: A single gecko can wipe out as many bugs as a pesticide treatment in a single season, wildlife specialist Dinsmore said.
Still creeped out by geckos? Try lighting your porch with sodium vapor lights. Since bugs don't like them, geckos won't be attracted either.
Don't bug out: Gecko lizards pose no threat