GECKOS

[finchbreeder]

Maybe I should move my house and garage geckos (who are both too small to eat eggs or fledglings - I think) into the avairy to help control the roach invasion that has just occurred. The roaches move into the avairys every summer to keep cool.
LML

[Danny]

Thats interesting Danny cause I blame geckos when I peek into a nestbox one day full of eggs and next day no eggs to be found, even when no sign of mice in the area, have been known to spot the odd gecko lurking around on the wire. If what your saying is true damned if I know what takes the eggs now and again, ideas?

Firstly, we are talking primarily about asian house geckos here just for clarification. In common with only a couple of native species, these geckos lay hard shelled round white eggs, not dissimilar to a finch egg. It is hard wired into their tiny little brain NOT to eat things that look just like their own eggs - otherwise they would fail to exist.

[Trilobite]

G'day Danny, is the Coopex toxic to geckos or is it as you say, clean out the insect populus and you reduce the gecko load. Be interested to know?

[arthur]

I'm a gecko 'blamer'

Don't think they eat eggs, but pretty sure they eat what hatches from the eggs

[arthur]

When your gecko reaches adult size you can introduce a pinkie mouse into their diet to keep them at their healthiest.

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/2534904" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

[spanna]

That's true enough in captive geckos, yes, but as our friend Danny has a collection of (from memory) a mere few hundred geckoes, I would think he had taken this into account. I'm a gecko (and huntsman) lover. They are often in my aviaries, and are welcome to stay. As with many things bird keeping, I think this is just another matter of personal preference.

[VR1Ton]

When your gecko reaches adult size you can introduce a pinkie mouse into their diet to keep them at their healthiest.

As this is a American site, I would sugest they are talking about Leopard Geckos, they are about 3 times the size of even our larger natives.

[arthur]

they are about 3 times the size of even our larger natives.

Without wishing to labour the point . .

Finch babies are also much smaller than pinkies . . and it does prove that geckoes WILL eat more than just insects


Anyway regarding trapping . .

I have tried those sticky cards with no success

Used to get enough with a fly-swat to keep Magpie Robins supplied, without making any inroads into the local population

And just by the way, they will fuse electric motors, air conditioner units, roller-door units . . can be deterred by using Dettol and/ or naphthalene flakes

Geckoes ain't welcome in my house or my aviaries . . but it's pretty hard to get that across to them

[Gouldian]

Geckos do NOT eat eggs or chicks, I've been breeding zebra finches for about 3 years now and the only problem I have had is parents abandoning eggs (then handed over to societies who where infertile but eager to be parents) and excited males throwing chicks from the nest. Also I have just had a pair of gouldian finches go down and nest, so far 2 have survived and I know that the other three that hatched were not killed as I have seen the bodies. Also there is loads of geckos, so, no, geckos don't bother the parents or the chicks.

[Danny]

When your gecko reaches adult size you can introduce a pinkie mouse into their diet to keep them at their healthiest.

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/2534904" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

The geckos in the articles will be exotic geckos. There are very few geckos in Australia that could consume a pinky mouse and fewer that would attempt it. Those that will eat mice are terrestrial species such as the massive Nephrurus amyae. These geckos would not fit through a standard nest box entrance their heads are that fat. Geckos have virtually no flexibility in their jaws (unlike snakes) so the standard preferred food item is usually 1/3 to 1/2 the width of the head.