pest control!!

[spence]

Don't need to smuggle, just go to the local herp store and pick up a dozen Tokay Geckos. They might hiss at you a lot, but you won't have any bugs

-spence

[BrianS]

I hate spiders with a passion too

We have a CRAPLOAD of them in my basement in the summer

I have two suggestions

1. Get a cat.. cats love spiders.. I have two of them.. they sometimes try to crawl on the ceiling to get bugs

2. GECKOS! I used to have over two dozen snakes and all kinds of lizards.. occasionally geckos would escape.. had two of them run all over the house.. I also had a trash can filled with crickets to feed my babies..

The gecko's lived for well over a year just running around.. they had to be eating something other than escapee crickets.

--------
addition: Tokay geckos are the DEVIL...
The ones I had contact with were more angry than the monitors I have owned

[FishermanTim]

On the flip side, spiders are our friends.
They will eat any other bugs, as well as each other.
Growing up, the theory was that if you had spiders in your house, it was good luck. Typical "house" spiders are harmless, and spend most of their life being unseen by humans. If you have house plants, then you would more than likly have spiders, because any bugs that might infest the plants are food for spiders.
As far as Black Widows, and possibly Brown Recluse spiders are concerned, they are poisonous and need to be dealt with.
(Keep in mind that they aren't there to attack you, but more likely they were brought in with something else, like firewood, or something that had been left outside for an extended period.)
If you want to get rid of some REAL pests, there are always the squirrels, pigeons, canadian geese, comorants, and soon the ticks and mosquitos.

[Raven]

i used to have what are called fence lizards in my 25 gallon aquarium...
they are native to the west coast......they did extremely well in captivity....
because i fed them quite well by walking the grassy fields at dawn on coyote patrol.....................
and had to shoot any rabbit munching on our young grape vines and by using a butterfly net , because it was still so cool in the early morning....

i could NET like 30 big ole grasshoppers into a peanut butter jar in about twenty minutes. when i 'd get back home and enter the house with all those grasshoppers
jumping like mad hitting the metal cover from the inside.....going plink plink

plinkity plink plink.... those fense lizards would go insane knowing they were just about to be fed....and you could hold a grasshopper by its tail sorta and offer it to an anxious lizard....but instead of just taking it...they'd just HAVE to hypnotize it first! by slowly swaying back and forth in a very rythmic manner....kinda like swinging the old timers watch back and forth... and then strike hard and eatem....so they are cool LIZARDS to have,,,

but one day they all escaped into the house and i just thought "so what"
and left the door open....so they could get out...but a big one stayed indoors and was about 13 inches long from nose to tail,,,, they have very long tails... that can break off to fool predators... anyways: this one big lizard got very dehydrated and was seeking out water,,,and travelled to the bathroom , climbed up on the toilet tank and found some leftover available water in my wifes shower cap hanging on the wall...next to the shower...see....and climbs inside it to bathe in it and to absorb the water.......

so later ...that afternoon, my wife goes into the shower with her hair in sort of a bun and she throws on the shower cap... ok and takes a complete shower
with the lizard sitting on top of her head....
afterwards: shes standing in the sink area now looking at herself in the mirror and having taken off the shower cap... she notices what appears to be a pheasant feather going acrosss her head and curious, she goes to grab it....
well i'll tell ya....i've never heard "anyone" SCREAM SO LOUD in my LIFE...
and not being even that close by ...i go running as fast as i can....thinking she just got bit by a rattlesnake....(we had tons of em ) or something similar... and shes practically on FIRE shes so MAD....

saying to me: G E T this friggan damn LIZZARD >>> OUT OF MY HAIR !!!!

by then it was extremely entangled... it took almost a half hour
and i ended up in the DOGHOUSE BIGTIME

[spence]

That's excellent

I remember when my mother opened the medicine cabinet and a Tokay Gecko was on the door, upside down, mouth wide open and hissing. As BJS will tell you, they are the

Another time she was teaching piano and my 4' eastern water snake slithered out of a nearby plant and went under the bench.

I got in trouble a lot when I was young

-spence

[BrianS]

ive had corn snakes sneak over to my grandmothers apartment (in my old apartment)

ive had a dumerils boa disappear for 7 months only to be found under a board in the basement after the winter.. died a few days later

ive had iguana's and 7' boas take over the xmas tree.

ive had 100lb 12' pythons bite my best man in the face.

ive had 3 tiny 11" baby redtails corner my wife in the floor because she smelt like cat

i loved owning reptiles.

[Notaro]

damn, y'all are crazy. i need friendly geckos or lizards and are expert at exterminating insects and spiders in the house. i want them to be gone. i once found a spider under my blanket while i was sleeping...