Sunday, June 19, 2005
Creepy Crawly Critters
by jima
In response to one of our earlier posts, my brother-in-law, Vern, did what any guy would: he asked about what sorts of creepy crawly critters we had seen here. Venitha decided that this was a job best left for me, as I have FAR more interest in creepy crawly critters than she does.
The main form of small animal that we've seen (barring children and pets) has been the house gecko. These little lizards are not quite as common as I had originally imagined, but we've seen a few of them. They seem to range in size between 2 to 6 inches long and are greenish/brownish in color. We've most often seen them in the evening or the morning on walls or other vertical surfaces, and thankfully always, so far, outside the house. They move FAST and often pop up in unexpected places. While reading a sign in the botanical gardens yesterday, I almost put my hand on one as it scampered away. Probably scared me more than it scared the gecko.
Now, when Vern asked this question, the geckos were the only creatures along this line that we had seen. But, as fate would have it, immediately after reading his e-mail, we stepped off the elevator and WEAHHH! almost stepped onto a snail! (What we were doing reading e-mail in the elevator, I'll never know!)
He (she - who knows?) was about 3 inches long, and was well out on the marble floor in the lobby we cross on our way to breakfast. Not surprisingly, it was still in the lobby when we came back (snails not being known for their celerity).
That's the extent of what we've seen so far. There are rumors of monkeys in the park across the street, but we haven't actually seen any. And of course, there are surely also lots of other creepy crawly critters lurking out there, but lots of concrete, lots of traffic, and better living through chemistry have kept most of them at bay.
The main form of small animal that we've seen (barring children and pets) has been the house gecko. These little lizards are not quite as common as I had originally imagined, but we've seen a few of them. They seem to range in size between 2 to 6 inches long and are greenish/brownish in color. We've most often seen them in the evening or the morning on walls or other vertical surfaces, and thankfully always, so far, outside the house. They move FAST and often pop up in unexpected places. While reading a sign in the botanical gardens yesterday, I almost put my hand on one as it scampered away. Probably scared me more than it scared the gecko.
Now, when Vern asked this question, the geckos were the only creatures along this line that we had seen. But, as fate would have it, immediately after reading his e-mail, we stepped off the elevator and WEAHHH! almost stepped onto a snail! (What we were doing reading e-mail in the elevator, I'll never know!) He (she - who knows?) was about 3 inches long, and was well out on the marble floor in the lobby we cross on our way to breakfast. Not surprisingly, it was still in the lobby when we came back (snails not being known for their celerity).
That's the extent of what we've seen so far. There are rumors of monkeys in the park across the street, but we haven't actually seen any. And of course, there are surely also lots of other creepy crawly critters lurking out there, but lots of concrete, lots of traffic, and better living through chemistry have kept most of them at bay.
