On our recent vacation to Hawaii, we bought a box of papayas from Costco, which needed to ripen. They were green and hard. So I left them on the balcony for some extra sun and faster ripening. But there was a surprise in the box one night. Unknowingly, I brought in one papaya to wash and on top of it was a small gecko. I wasn’t wearing my glasses so I thought it was a small piece of dried leaf or rope.
Well, I started screaming when it jumped onto my hand and then onto my back. We were both hysterical. Kids joined in on the hysteria and we scooted it out to the balcony with a piece of folded paper limiting where it could dart to. It was cornered. So Elliot got it into a Starbucks cup and we then released it outside by the lobby. It was a three person job: Ellis with the flashlight, Elliot coaxing it into the cup, and me supervising. It left us frazzled afterwards.
Somehow, this little gecko split from its creep or cluster (I just looked it up and a group of geckos is called a creep or cluster). It was tiny tiny, so it was probably a baby. But we hope that it is living a good and full life there.
Thank you, Punam, for hosting this challenge!
30 responses to “RDP: Split. This baby gecko split from its creep”
Surprise! You can’t help but jump when you get startled! Wish you could have brought that little one home to meet your Dart! 🙂
It looks like the baby gecko survives. What a surprise, Esther!
It was a surprise for us and a fun adventure to have on vacation! Good memories.
I had a frog do this in Africa. It leapt out of my suitcase, and off and away, in Paris!
Oh that lucky frog! World traveler.
A stowaway! (At least it wasn’t a poisonous spider, or some such.)
Thank goodness! It was a fun adventure for us despite the surprise.
😀
I do the same when a spider jumps on me.
Oh yikes, I’d be jumping too!
I really enjoy our anoles, but the geckos aren’t my favorite. I’ll rescue one if it shows up where it shouldn’t be, but there’s something about the translucent sort that just seems — strange.
To be honest, I was a little spooked about the translucent one too. I could have just picked it up with my hand into the cup, but I hesitated, as well as the kids. I thought we would be better prepared since we have a gecko at home, but that was not the case. I wouldn’t have minded a green gecko. I see anoles at PetSmart and they are cute and green.
When I saw the gecko I keep in my hand. .
It was fast and so tiny. You’d have to be careful not to crush it.
😂 that’s such a funny story!
Thanks, friend!
this was fun feeling the drama and action – and thay would have been creepy to think it was leaf and then find a gecko –
side note – more than a decade ago, I was staying with family in florida and shut the balcony door and this animal flew up at me. It looked like a weird wormy like thing and kept moving and found its way under the bed. I had never seen anything like it – and then guess what? Soon I realized it was the tail of gecko – I must have shut the door so fast – it did not have time to fully get out of the way (and good thing they can regrow a bit of their tail)
Thank you! I’m glad you liked the story.
Wow, I would have felt so weird to see a gecko tail moving. It’s a strange defense mechanism for a gecko. That gecko probably got the scare of its life that day too. I wonder if he still talks about it.
hahah – I wonder if he tells the grandgeckos –
and for a minute there, I thought the flapping around thing was some weird-shaped Florida bug – lol
When you’re surprised, the mind will go everywhere! If Dart lost his tail, I don’t know what my first response will be: horror and then, maybe grossed out! But I know it’s part of nature, yet it would look so odd flopping around without the gecko attached to it.
🙂
Would have been fun to be a fly on the wall watching all the hysteria. 😁
My husband came out of the room asking what was all the commotion and thought someone got hurt!
I’d have been hysterical too – when I see a centipede in the house it is bad enough, but when that centipede begins to run on all those legs, I usually let out a scream, then plan my next move how to get rid of it. I’m always grateful if it is in the bathtub as I can be very brave and just run the water and it goes down the drain. I’m left with a year or so off my life.
Kudos to your bravery for running the water on the centipede! It gets to have a nice swim.
Your last sentence got me rolling.
I am scared to death of spiders and centipedes and if you could see me plotting how to kill a spider on a wall, all the while imagining my shoe sole doesn’t implement my attack method properly and the spider flies back in my face, alive and kicking, you would really be rolling. 🙂 I miss my machine, a little trap-door vacuum which would whoosh up creepy crawlies into a type of flypaper cyclinder – gone out of my hair, though they would remain inside this clear cylinder for a while before dying. I forget what it was called. It was made by Remington, the razor company and they discontinued it. Best invention ever!
I’m not afraid of spiders! Too bad I live so far. You could send an SOS and I could be right over to squash those spiders, centipedes, and what not…except for mice! I’d be clutching the ceiling.
I’d be sleeping in the car if there was a mouse in the house … well I wish you lived closer and could slay my “dragons” for me. I am still dealing with baby ants – they have resurfaced for the third time. I stopped seeing them two days ago – yay. Back, again, but not in full force like before. One side of the house, for two or three weeks every Spring – ugh.
Yes, I’d be the bug slayer!
I still have the baby ants, dwindling, but there … them I just deal with … manageable bugs unlike the bigger creepy crawlies. I try not to think what is out in the grass when I am out walking.