# My husband told me that we had a gecko in the bathtub **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [August 18, 2013, 4:49am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/my-husband-told-me-that-we-had-a-gecko-in-the-bathtub/666538 "2013-08-18T04:49:15Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Lynn\_Bodoni](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/e47c2d/32.png) [@Lynn\_Bodoni](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lynn_Bodoni)\ **Post date:** [August 18, 2013, 4:49am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/my-husband-told-me-that-we-had-a-gecko-in-the-bathtub/666538/1 "2013-08-18T04:49:15Z")
I wanted to know how he knew it was a gecko, rather than some other kind of lizard. Did it, I asked Bill, try to sell him insurance? He said yes, yes it did. It was a tiny one, he said. So I went into the bathroom, intending to coo over the itty bitty lizzy. One of the cats was on his way out. Apparently this cat has a VERY strict “No Soliciting” rule. When we asked the cat about the lizard, he just said that HE hadn’t seen any geckos, but he’ll take care of them if he does. ---
**Author:** ![Cat\_Whisperer](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cat_whisperer/32/4839_2.png) [@Cat\_Whisperer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cat_Whisperer)\ **Post date:** [August 18, 2013, 4:51am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/my-husband-told-me-that-we-had-a-gecko-in-the-bathtub/666538/2 "2013-08-18T04:51:39Z")
Bad kitty! Spit out the gecko! ETA: That reminds me of my bad kitty and her thing about eating moths and butterflies - she runs into the house with one in her mouth, making a very weird meowing sound (because meows sound funny when you have a butterfly in your mouth, apparently). ---
**Author:** ![aruvqan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/aruvqan/32/2891_2.png) [@aruvqan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/aruvqan)\ **Post date:** [August 18, 2013, 6:04am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/my-husband-told-me-that-we-had-a-gecko-in-the-bathtub/666538/3 "2013-08-18T06:04:54Z")
Our new juvenile overlord [5](http://i789.photobucket.com/albums/yy176/aruvqan/998610_523438147703675_305261154_n_zps9c3ed6fa.jpg) likes catching and eating any insect that gets into the house. It is rather hysterical to see him chasing crickets. It does make me wonder what the nutritional content of a moth is 😛 ---
**Author:** ![cochrane](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cochrane/32/10441_2.png) [@cochrane](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/cochrane)\ **Post date:** [August 18, 2013, 8:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/my-husband-told-me-that-we-had-a-gecko-in-the-bathtub/666538/4 "2013-08-18T08:14:25Z")
Nearly every night I see a gecko climbing the other side of my glass sliding door. It’s amazing how high he climbs, often as high as six feet. ---
**Author:** ![septimus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/septimus/32/410_2.png) [@septimus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/septimus)\ **Post date:** [August 18, 2013, 8:35am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/my-husband-told-me-that-we-had-a-gecko-in-the-bathtub/666538/5 "2013-08-18T08:35:11Z")
Gecko is a collective term denoting any of 1500 species in Infraorder Gekkota. The type species, Tokay (_Gekko gecko_) is large and formidable. On [this page, you can see one that’s just captured a poisonous giant centipede.](https://whyevolutionistrue.wordpress.com/2012/04/14/readers-photos-death-in-thailand/) We have tokays lving inside our house. :smack: Following “take what comes and choose it” I like to think they’re protecting us from centipedes and scorpions, which are also sometimes found inside our house. ---
**Author:** ![MacTech](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/c0e974/32.png) [@MacTech](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MacTech)\ **Post date:** [August 18, 2013, 9:45am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/my-husband-told-me-that-we-had-a-gecko-in-the-bathtub/666538/6 "2013-08-18T09:45:35Z")
Just don’t buy any auto insurance from it and you should be safe… ---
**Author:** ![freckafree](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/freckafree/32/3050_2.png) [@freckafree](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/freckafree)\ **Post date:** [August 18, 2013, 11:37am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/my-husband-told-me-that-we-had-a-gecko-in-the-bathtub/666538/7 "2013-08-18T11:37:51Z")
> [@septimus](#): > > Gecko is a collective term denoting any of 1500 species in Infraorder Gekkota. The type species, Tokay (_Gekko gecko_) is large and formidable. On [this page, you can see one that’s just captured a poisonous giant centipede.](https://whyevolutionistrue.wordpress.com/2012/04/14/readers-photos-death-in-thailand/) That is a very cool set of photos. ---
**Author:** ![Lynn\_Bodoni](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/e47c2d/32.png) [@Lynn\_Bodoni](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lynn_Bodoni)\ **Post date:** [August 18, 2013, 12:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/my-husband-told-me-that-we-had-a-gecko-in-the-bathtub/666538/8 "2013-08-18T12:06:21Z")
> [@](#): > > Gecko is a collective term denoting any of 1500 species in Infraorder Gekkota. I didn’t get to look at it. It was gone by the time I was there. Charlie’s a quick worker. Or maybe my husband is gaslighting me. A few weeks ago, he woke me up to tell me that we had ducklings in the front yard. By the time I got up, got the sleep out of my eyes, and looked outside, there were no ducklings. I was promised ducklings and I didn’t get any! > [@](#): > > Just don’t buy any auto insurance from it and you should be safe… One of our nieces works for an insurance company. Guess who can save us the most money? Does Geico have some sort of contest with the people who come up with their ads, where the worst ad wins or something? Yeah, the Geico gecko is cute, but the commercials are really, really bad. Now I want to play Fallout 2 again and look for a G.E.C.K. ---
**Author:** ![Morgenstern](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/f9ae1b/32.png) [@Morgenstern](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Morgenstern)\ **Post date:** [August 18, 2013, 2:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/my-husband-told-me-that-we-had-a-gecko-in-the-bathtub/666538/9 "2013-08-18T14:57:27Z")
I’ve got a cat trap you can borrow. It’s the Acme Mark 3 Cat Disposal model. It slits their little throats and skins them for you. It even has a marinate option. Let me know if you need it. -the gecko. ---
**Author:** ![Count\_Blucher](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/c5a1d2/32.png) [@Count\_Blucher](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Count_Blucher)\ **Post date:** [August 18, 2013, 2:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/my-husband-told-me-that-we-had-a-gecko-in-the-bathtub/666538/10 "2013-08-18T14:57:58Z")
> [@Cat\_Whisperer](#): > > Bad kitty! Spit out the gecko! Wise words: No One wants to be the one who sees a gecko’s tail sticking out of their cat’s ass. No One wants to be the one who has to pull the rest of an insurance salesman out of a cat’s ass. \*Please don’t use this post as a cite as to “Where Do Car Insurance Salesmen Come From?” ---
**Author:** ![Lynn\_Bodoni](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/e47c2d/32.png) [@Lynn\_Bodoni](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lynn_Bodoni)\ **Post date:** [August 18, 2013, 5:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/my-husband-told-me-that-we-had-a-gecko-in-the-bathtub/666538/11 "2013-08-18T17:43:19Z")
I never tell my kitties to spit out whatever it is. They only listen when they want to. If they have something that will actually harm them, like rubber bands, I just go over and extract it from their mouths. They WON’T spit on command. We used to have a medium hair black kitty who was quite the hunter. She was an inside/outside kitty, and quite frequently brought her prey home with her. Sometimes dead, sometimes alive. She liked to bring cicadas home, alive, and they would be shrilling and she would be announcing that she was a Big Fierce Hunter. ---
**Author:** ![Colibri](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/colibri/32/1841_2.png) [@Colibri](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Colibri)\ **Post date:** [August 18, 2013, 6:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/my-husband-told-me-that-we-had-a-gecko-in-the-bathtub/666538/12 "2013-08-18T18:38:10Z")
> [@cochrane](#): > > Nearly every night I see a gecko climbing the other side of my glass sliding door. It’s amazing how high he climbs, often as high as six feet. The best way to identify a gecko around here is if you see it running across the ceiling. The coolest thing about geckos is that they [use subatomic forces to cling to things](http://www.theguardian.com/science/blog/2009/aug/05/gecko-grip-adhesion-gravity), rather than suction. ---
**Author:** ![Little\_Nemo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/little_nemo/32/3120_2.png) [@Little\_Nemo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Little_Nemo)\ **Post date:** [August 18, 2013, 6:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/my-husband-told-me-that-we-had-a-gecko-in-the-bathtub/666538/13 "2013-08-18T18:41:39Z")
> [@cochrane](#): > > Nearly every night I see a gecko climbing the other side of my glass sliding door. It’s amazing how high he climbs, often as high as six feet. [Check this out.](http://www.cfnews13.com/content/news/articles/bn9/2012/11/17/determined_gator_tri/_jcr_content/contentpar/articleBody/image.img.jpg/1353159827514.jpg) ---
**Author:** ![Lynn\_Bodoni](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/e47c2d/32.png) [@Lynn\_Bodoni](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lynn_Bodoni)\ **Post date:** [August 18, 2013, 6:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/my-husband-told-me-that-we-had-a-gecko-in-the-bathtub/666538/14 "2013-08-18T18:44:21Z")
> [@Colibri](#): > > The best way to identify a gecko around here is if you see it running across the ceiling. > > The coolest thing about geckos is that they [use subatomic forces to cling to things](http://www.theguardian.com/science/blog/2009/aug/05/gecko-grip-adhesion-gravity), rather than suction. I guess this wasn’t a gecko, then. Or it didn’t get a chance to get up to the ceiling, or it was too dumb to get to the ceiling. Because Charlie the cat got to it first. ---
**Author:** ![Colibri](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/colibri/32/1841_2.png) [@Colibri](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Colibri)\ **Post date:** [August 18, 2013, 6:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/my-husband-told-me-that-we-had-a-gecko-in-the-bathtub/666538/15 "2013-08-18T18:47:52Z")
> [@Little\_Nemo](#): > > [Check this out.](http://www.cfnews13.com/content/news/articles/bn9/2012/11/17/determined_gator_tri/_jcr_content/contentpar/articleBody/image.img.jpg/1353159827514.jpg) Obviously using electrostatic forces. ---
**Author:** ![WhyNot](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/c77e96/32.png) [@WhyNot](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/WhyNot)\ **Post date:** [August 18, 2013, 6:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/my-husband-told-me-that-we-had-a-gecko-in-the-bathtub/666538/16 "2013-08-18T18:48:31Z")
> [@Colibri](#): > > The best way to identify a gecko around here is if you see it running across the ceiling. > > The coolest thing about geckos is that they [use subatomic forces to cling to things](http://www.theguardian.com/science/blog/2009/aug/05/gecko-grip-adhesion-gravity), rather than suction. How cool is that?! > [@](#): > > They have some pretty remarkable adaptations that enable them to do this. Each of their toes is covered with “setae” – tiny projections much thinner than a human hair. Each seta is tipped with hundreds of even finer projections called spatulae, which have a diameter smaller than the wavelength of visible light. [:eek: -WhyNot.] > > The spatulae stick to walls by van der Waals forces, the electrostatic attraction or repulsion between materials caused by the uneven distribution of charge on their molecules. The same interactions are responsible for the pages in your newspaper sticking together. > > These forces allow a gecko to cling to almost any surface, without secreting a sticky substance. Although a gecko only weighs around 90g, it can stick to a ceiling tightly enough to support a weight of around 40kg But what does that last part mean? Could I strap a 20 pound backpack on a gecko, and have it carry it on the ceiling?! Does that mean that I can’t easily pluck a gecko off the ceiling? Or rather, that it would take 20 pounds of force to do so? ---
**Author:** ![picunurse](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/7bcc69/32.png) [@picunurse](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/picunurse)\ **Post date:** [August 18, 2013, 7:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/my-husband-told-me-that-we-had-a-gecko-in-the-bathtub/666538/17 "2013-08-18T19:01:43Z")
> [@WhyNot](#): > > How cool is that?! > But what does that last part mean? Could I strap a 20 pound backpack on a gecko, and have it carry it on the ceiling?! > > Does that mean that I can’t easily pluck a gecko off the ceiling? Or rather, that it would take 20 pounds of force to do so? Sweety, you did the math backwards. Each Kg is 2.2 lbs. 40 Kg is 80.8 lbs! :eek: I’m guessing if we strapped 80 lbs to a gecko on the ceiling, we’d have gecko legs stuck to the ceiling and a mess on the floor. ---
**Author:** ![Colibri](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/colibri/32/1841_2.png) [@Colibri](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Colibri)\ **Post date:** [August 18, 2013, 7:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/my-husband-told-me-that-we-had-a-gecko-in-the-bathtub/666538/18 "2013-08-18T19:06:20Z")
> [@WhyNot](#): > > Does that mean that I can’t easily pluck a gecko off the ceiling? Or rather, that it would take 20 pounds of force to do so? Yes, it would take exerting 80 pounds of force to dislodge one. However, the force doesn’t work on wet surfaces. One way to catch a gecko on the ceiling is to squirt it with a water gun so it falls off. ---
**Author:** ![WhyNot](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/c77e96/32.png) [@WhyNot](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/WhyNot)\ **Post date:** [August 18, 2013, 7:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/my-husband-told-me-that-we-had-a-gecko-in-the-bathtub/666538/19 "2013-08-18T19:11:15Z")
> [@picunurse](#): > > Sweety, you did the math backwards. Each Kg is 2.2 lbs. 40 Kg is 80.8 lbs! :eek: :smack: And I really, really should know better. My scale’s been stuck on Kg for months, and I have to chart in pounds. BRAIN FART! :smack: ---
**Author:** ![septimus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/septimus/32/410_2.png) [@septimus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/septimus)\ **Post date:** [August 19, 2013, 3:34am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/my-husband-told-me-that-we-had-a-gecko-in-the-bathtub/666538/20 "2013-08-19T03:34:58Z")
> [@picunurse](#): > > Sweety, you did the math backwards. Each Kg is 2.2 lbs. 40 Kg is 80.8 lbs! :eek: 80.8 ?? (Sorry, I wasn’t trying to check your work, but my OCD manifests itself as involuntary arithmetic. 😛 ) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/my-husband-told-me-that-we-had-a-gecko-in-the-bathtub/666538.md?page=2)