Our Green Geckos

We have a small tea house near our pool, which Tom is currently renovating, including a new deck, and new shoji screens. Just outside the teahouse is a patch of giant bird of paradise. We have discovered that the bird of paradise are home to at least a half-dozen brilliant green geckos. So if we can see a half dozen, there must be at least twice that number. We have dozens of the sand-colored geckos all over the house, including inside, and we often see small ones inside, and even their tiny eggs that have hatched. We are told that the green ones come from Big Island, and arrived here on nursery plants.

They are interesting for a variety of reasons. For those unfamiliar with geckos, they eat bugs and are welcome in any house. They bark at night, making a noise quite loud for such a tiny critter. They crawl around, particularly upside down, hanging onto ceilings and eaves. Although it appears they have suction cups on their toes, they actually hold on with millions of tiny hairs that they release as they move, and they move fast. The green ones appear to be out in the daytime, while the sand-colored ones usually appear late in the day and we can hear them bark into the night. Notice these charmers drinking from the blossom of the bird of paradise....