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Fun Facts
Did You Know?
The gecko on your wall at night is not a hallucination, not a particularly large insect, and not something that requires a phone call. It's a Mediterranean House Gecko, Hemidactylus turcicus, and it has been on that wall for years. It arrived in North Louisiana the same way it arrived everywhere else in the southern United States — in the soil of imported plants, as eggs nobody noticed, hatching into a new country with no predators who knew what it was and plenty of moths circling porch lights. Researchers documented it in Ruston in 2008. Monroe followed in 2012. A 2014 study sampled 21…
If This Animal Could Talk...
"Watch closely, respect my space, and let my habitat explain the rest of the story."
The Nocturnal Lizard Already Living on Your House, Eating Bugs Under Your Porch Light, and Occasionally Squeaking at You The gecko on your wall at night is not a hallucination, not a particularly large insect, and not something that requires a phone call. It's a Mediterranean House Gecko, Hemidactylus turcicus, and it has been on that wall for years.
A Few More Facts
How they hunt and forage: The gecko on your wall at night is not a hallucination, not a particularly large insect, and not something that requires a phone call. Give it a warm climate, a building with lights, and an insect supply, and it establishes. The Mediterranean House Gecko is nocturnal, insectivorous, and operates almost entirely in the zone between your porch light and the wall behind it.
Live birth or eggs? no
When young are born: See the detailed species sections below.
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Accessibility
Accessibility
The Mediterranean House Gecko is arguably the most accessible wildlife encounter in North Louisiana because you don't go to it. It comes to your light. Stand on any porch in Ruston or Monroe on a warm night from April through October, leave a light on, and wait. If geckos have established on that building — and in most North Louisiana neighborhoods, they have — one will appear within the hour. Usually less.
No trail, no vehicle, no binoculars. A chair and a porch light and patience measured in minutes. For visitors with limited mobility, the gecko's preference for walls at human eye level and above means no bending, no looking down, no uneven terrain. The gecko comes to the lit wall. You come to a chair near the lit wall.
For visitors who are blind or have low vision: the male's clicking vocalization is audible from a few feet on a still night and locatable by sound. Movement across stucco or brick produces a faint scratching sound at close range. The squeak when threatened is audible and unexpected enough that it functions as a locating cue. The Mediterranean House Gecko is not silent — it just doesn't vocalize in a way people expect from a lizard, so the sounds get attributed to other sources until someone explains the source.
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Frequently Asked Questions
Does Mediterranean House Geckos live in North Louisiana?
Yes. It arrived in North Louisiana the same way it arrived everywhere else in the southern United States — in the soil of imported plants, as eggs nobody noticed, hatching into a new country with no predators who knew what it was and plenty of moths circling porch lights. A 2014 study sampled 21 North Louisiana parishes and found geckos in 17 of them. The Mediterranean House Gecko arrived in nursery soil, found walls with lights, and colonized 17 North Louisiana parishes before most people in those parishes knew it had arrived.
How do you identify Mediterranean House Geckos?
Mediterranean House Geckos run small — three to five inches total, about half of that tail — with a flat body, a wide triangular head, and large round eyes that don't close. The eyes are the thing that registers first at night: enormous relative to the face, pale iris with a vertical slit pupil that reads as alien under porch light. These are not the eyes of a lizard that does things during the day. These are eyes built for reading movement in near-darkness, and they work. The skin runs pale pink to yellowish-white with darker gray or brown blotches in a pattern that shifts depending on temperature and light level. Warm gecko under a bright light reads lighter, almost translucent enough to see the shadow of organs through the body wall. Cooler gecko in shadow reads darker and more mottled. Both are the same animal. The color change is modest compared to what a green anole does, but it's enough that a gecko on pale stucco looks different from the same gecko on darker brick, and people occasionally think they've seen two different species when they've seen one gecko in two different situations.
What does Mediterranean House Geckos eat?
The gecko on your wall at night is not a hallucination, not a particularly large insect, and not something that requires a phone call. Give it a warm climate, a building with lights, and an insect supply, and it establishes. The Mediterranean House Gecko is nocturnal, insectivorous, and operates almost entirely in the zone between your porch light and the wall behind it
Is Mediterranean House Geckos dangerous to people?
No. This species is not dangerous to people when it is observed without handling or disturbance
