Hi, Wayne, and group,

Wayne.B wrote:
On Tue, 29 Aug 2006 22:08:17 -0500, "KLC Lewis"
wrote:

Bring your boat to Marinette Wisconsin, and I'll let my spiders duke it out
with yours. ;-)

Or bring it to Florida and let them duke it out with my geckos.

While we don't seem to have an infestation, we've noted the occasional
state bird aboard (most likely blown in, as one of them was struggling,
inverted, on the saloon sole before I did a Schwarzenegger on him),
and, lately, more occasional tiny cousins (way less than 1/4", but very
cockroach-y looking in shape) most likely brought aboard in beer case
bottoms my misguided contractor's wife uses to "clean up" (she cleans
off the surfaces I've been using to stage stuff by piling it into said
box bottoms, making it impossible to find anything when I return) in
the times when I was gone, before Lydia moved aboard.

I'm not the least bit squeamish, but I'd rather be bug free, just as
I'd rather have a dry bilge.

So, to the question: Do your geckos keep the boat bug-free? I've often
thought, once we splash and actually depart, that it would be a good
thing to have a couple of geckos aboard. Much less intrusive than
iguanas, and don't get so big as to be troublesome later. Once they
run out of bugs to eat, I expect they'd look peckish and we could put
out food and water for them.

In our boatyard, there are legions of small lizards from 2" to perhaps
6" head to tail, and Lydia observed one of the larger (none aboard,
sadly) stalk, catch, and eat a palmetto bug (cockroach from hell to
transplanted northeasterners, state bird to Floridians), so the concept
is sound.

I'm just wondering if any of you have successfully utilized geckos in
an environmentally friendly insect control program?

L8R

Skip and Lydia, sweltering without even Ernesto to cool us down in the
St. Pete Hete

Morgan 461 #2
SV Flying Pig KI4MPC
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On 30 Aug 2006 04:58:17 -0700, "Skip Gundlach"
wrote:

I'm just wondering if any of you have successfully utilized geckos in
an environmentally friendly insect control program?

We have a few that have made their home inside our pool cage. They
are relentless bug hunters and interesting to watch. I haven't seen
any on the boat but who knows.

"Wayne.B" wrote in message
...
On 30 Aug 2006 04:58:17 -0700, "Skip Gundlach"
wrote:

I'm just wondering if any of you have successfully utilized geckos in
an environmentally friendly insect control program?

We have a few that have made their home inside our pool cage. They
are relentless bug hunters and interesting to watch. I haven't seen
any on the boat but who knows.


Our cats love to chase and eat spiders, but most of the spiders are up in
the rigging or in places where the cats would likely fall overboard, were we
to take them sailing. They would also make short work of a little green
insurance salesman.

KLC Lewis wrote:
"Wayne.B" wrote in message
...
On 30 Aug 2006 04:58:17 -0700, "Skip Gundlach"
wrote:

I'm just wondering if any of you have successfully utilized geckos in
an environmentally friendly insect control program?

We have a few that have made their home inside our pool cage. They
are relentless bug hunters and interesting to watch. I haven't seen
any on the boat but who knows.


Our cats love to chase and eat spiders, but most of the spiders are up in
the rigging or in places where the cats would likely fall overboard, were we
to take them sailing. They would also make short work of a little green
insurance salesman.

Most spidies are harmless, leave em alone. Use a whisk broom on em if
they are in your cockpit.
Now, for something really interesting for arachnophobes. At night, put
a flashlight atop your head so that it shines where your eyes look.
Look down into the grass about 6' away. All over the place you will
see tiny reflecting eyes. Go check em out and you will find spiders.
It is amazing the density of spiders. Around here in N. FL. there is
at least a spider every 4 square feet.