# Catching a Skink in the house
**URL:** https://boards.straightdope.com/t/catching-a-skink-in-the-house/968262
**Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share
**Created:** [July 20, 2022, 1:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/catching-a-skink-in-the-house/968262 "2022-07-20T13:06:27Z")
**Posts on this page:** 17
**Page:** 1
### Author:  [@GaryM](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GaryM)
#### Post date: [July 20, 2022, 1:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/catching-a-skink-in-the-house/968262/1 "2022-07-20T13:06:27Z")
Last evening my wife said “Eek” as in a cartoon and pointed to a skink running across the carpet. Dog, mini Aussie, was interested, but not attempting to catch.
Those guys are fast, close to the floor, and I’m old and overweight.
After chasing him/her around the room and under the furniture I finally tried using a pickup tool to catch him. But first I grabbed the tail which promptly detached.
Eventual success of capture and release outside.
Maybe I need a cat?
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### Author:  [@Chronos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chronos)
#### Post date: [July 20, 2022, 1:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/catching-a-skink-in-the-house/968262/2 "2022-07-20T13:14:04Z")
Eh, aren’t those pretty harmless? I’d probably just tolerate it.
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### Author:  [@Riemann](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Riemann)
#### Post date: [July 20, 2022, 1:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/catching-a-skink-in-the-house/968262/3 "2022-07-20T13:20:18Z")
Pin the severed tail to your door _pour encourager les autres_.
Then select a pet from this list:
> **[Skink | Predators](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Skink#Predators)**
>
> Raccoons, foxes, possums, snakes, coatis, crows, cats, dogs, herons, hawks, lizards, and other predators of small land vertebrates also prey on various skinks. This can be troublesome, given the long gestation period for some skinks, making them an easy target to predators such as the mongoose, which often threaten the species to at least near extinction, such as the Anguilla Bank skink. Invasive rodents are a major threat to skinks that have been overlooked, especially tropical skinks.
> Skinks a...
My choice would be a larger lizard.
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### Author:  [@CairoCarol](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CairoCarol)
#### Post date: [July 20, 2022, 1:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/catching-a-skink-in-the-house/968262/4 "2022-07-20T13:28:24Z")
I don’t know about skinks per se, but having lived for decades in places like Micronesia, Indonesia, and Hawai’i, I’m quite used to sharing living space with geckos. If your place is overrun with them, they can be an annoyance, as you’ll find droppings and eggs, neither of which are particularly pleasant to clean up.
The occasional critter is nothing to worry about however. And if you have cats, that’s the most you’ll ever see. I’ve got 3 and haven’t seen a lizard in the house in ages, despite living in the land of geckos, anoles, and of late even Jackson chameleons.
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### Author:  [@purplehorseshoe](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/purplehorseshoe)
#### Post date: [July 20, 2022, 1:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/catching-a-skink-in-the-house/968262/5 "2022-07-20T13:37:25Z")
> [@GaryM](#):
>
> finally tried using a pickup tool to catch him. But first I grabbed the tail which promptly detached.
Yeah, they’ll do that. For future reference (and for the benefit of other readers) the “cup and index card” (or similar thin, stiff object \*\*\*) is the easiest way to catch/release small wildlife like lizards, tarantulas, geckos etc.
\*\*\* HA! There’s a “that’s what she said” joke in there somewhere, but I’m far too classy of a lady to say it.
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### Author:  [@Johnny\_Bravo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Johnny_Bravo)
#### Post date: [July 20, 2022, 2:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/catching-a-skink-in-the-house/968262/6 "2022-07-20T14:10:56Z")
My house was overrun with the damn things. Caught the ones in the bedroom with the cup and release method. The one in the dining room was taken care of by my cat. I took a pressure washer to the one hiding in the drain in the bathroom. But at the end of the day, there was one I just couldn’t get rid of and I had to accept that it was impossible.
I’d gotten everything but the kitchen skink.
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### Author:  [@Kimstu](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kimstu)
#### Post date: [July 20, 2022, 2:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/catching-a-skink-in-the-house/968262/7 "2022-07-20T14:58:35Z")
(pressure washer turned on YOU)
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### Author:  [@ftg](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ftg)
#### Post date: [July 20, 2022, 3:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/catching-a-skink-in-the-house/968262/8 "2022-07-20T15:03:02Z")
Cats won’t help. We’d occasionally get a blue-tailed skink in our old house and no cat ever managed to catch one.
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### Author:  [@Rebo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rebo)
#### Post date: [July 20, 2022, 3:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/catching-a-skink-in-the-house/968262/9 "2022-07-20T15:15:56Z")
Just accept the fact you’ll find a desiccated skink corpse someday. I occasionally get [anoles](https://tpwd.texas.gov/huntwild/wild/species/anole/#:~:text=Anoles%20require%20greenery%2C%20occasional%20shade,common%20in%20the%20southeastern%20U.S.) in the house. I try to catch them to release them outside, but what can you do when they get under the furniture?
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### Author:  [@DavidNRockies](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DavidNRockies)
#### Post date: [July 20, 2022, 3:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/catching-a-skink-in-the-house/968262/10 "2022-07-20T15:21:14Z")
ShopVac ?
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### Author:  [@snowthx](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/snowthx)
#### Post date: [July 20, 2022, 3:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/catching-a-skink-in-the-house/968262/11 "2022-07-20T15:45:21Z")
> [@purplehorseshoe](#):
>
> For future reference (and for the benefit of other readers) the “cup and index card” (or similar thin, stiff object \*\*\*) is the easiest way to catch/release small wildlife like lizards, tarantulas, geckos etc.
My method as well for all small wildlife. Except for mosquitoes. But wait, do skinks eat mosquitoes?
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### Author:  [@GaryM](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GaryM)
#### Post date: [July 20, 2022, 3:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/catching-a-skink-in-the-house/968262/12 "2022-07-20T15:59:59Z")
I know they are not dangerous, but it’s quite startling to have one dart out from under the furniture when you’re not expecting it. Been here, mid Missouri, for 18 years and this is the first one in the house, that we’ve seen anyway.
I’ll have to find an appropriate container to use the next time if it occurs.
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### Author:  [@xtenkfarpl](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/xtenkfarpl)
#### Post date: [July 20, 2022, 5:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/catching-a-skink-in-the-house/968262/13 "2022-07-20T17:32:51Z")
They’re harmless, of course. The thing about cats and lizards is, they catch and eat them. And shortly afterwards they puke up the half-digested remains (possibly lizards are somewhat toxic to cats). This is messy for the house and probably bad for the cats.
Best to try to seal up possible entry points?
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### Author:  [@romansperson](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/romansperson)
#### Post date: [July 23, 2022, 4:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/catching-a-skink-in-the-house/968262/14 "2022-07-23T16:33:10Z")
I caught one by throwing a small blanket over it - that stopped it from running. I scooped the entire thing up into a ball and shook it out on the deck and it took off running.
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### Author:  [@Walken\_After\_Midnight](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Walken_After_Midnight)
#### Post date: [July 23, 2022, 11:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/catching-a-skink-in-the-house/968262/15 "2022-07-23T23:09:18Z")
> [@purplehorseshoe](#):
>
> For future reference (and for the benefit of other readers) the “cup and index card” (or similar thin, stiff object \*\*\*) is the easiest way to catch/release small wildlife like lizards, tarantulas, geckos etc.
Not anymore.
> **[This Spider-Catcher Is So Fucking Mesmerizing To Watch](https://www.buzzfeed.com/alisoncaporimo/this-spider-catcher-is-so-fucking-mesmerizing-to-watch)**
>
> Now you see it. Now you don't.
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### Author:  [@Aspenglow](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Aspenglow)
#### Post date: [July 23, 2022, 11:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/catching-a-skink-in-the-house/968262/16 "2022-07-23T23:30:31Z")
> [@Walken\_After\_Midnight](#):
>
> Not anymore.
That… is brilliant. Must have!!
I doubt it would work on a skink, though. Too much heft. I had the experience of escorting a skink out of my house recently and a food container with lid to gently move him where I wanted him into the container worked great.
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### Author:  [@Walken\_After\_Midnight](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Walken_After_Midnight)
#### Post date: [July 23, 2022, 11:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/catching-a-skink-in-the-house/968262/17 "2022-07-23T23:49:11Z")
> [@Aspenglow](#):
>
> That… is brilliant. Must have!!
Yeah, it is. Life would be a lot tougher without one.
It’s probably good enough to catch anything small enough to be caught by a cup, but probably not for critters requiring food containers to trap.