We want to thank everyone for their input on our Gecko question.
We received a lot of great information from several people.
Thank you,
Katrina Lindahl
Woodland Park Zoo
Seattle, WA
From:
AZH@... [mailto:AZH@...] On Behalf Of Thomas
Hecker
Sent: Tuesday, April 14, 2009 7:09 AM
To: AZH@...
Subject: Re: [AZH] Geckos for Interior Exhibits
Katrina,
I have used geckos for several occasions. I never used the Asian house geckos
due to their small size. I figured the adult roaches might eat them. I guess
they could eat the immature roaches. I prefer Vietnamese gold geckos or leaf
tailed gecko(expensive), marine toads, and Cuban tree frogs. We did use Tokay
geckos but they had a habit of attacking staff and sending them to the
hospital. All are nocturnal and frogs and toads are distasteful to birds.
You can usually get good press out of it. It is hard to say the roach
population declined, but they were eating something. I do not think they
multiplied, even nocturnal lizards need UV light and most conservatory glass
blocks the beneficial rays for both plants and animals. Hope this
helps, Tom
--
Thomas Hecker
EcoBotanic Designs, Inc.
239-692-9237 studio
239-682-0674 mobile
3525 21st Avenue Sw
Naples, Florida 34117
www.ecobotanicdesigns.com
thecker@...
On Tue, Apr 14, 2009 at 9:28 AM, Katrina Lindahl <katrina.lindahl@...> wrote:
We are wondering if anyone has experience
using geckos in interior exhibits, primarily for cockroach control.
We want to release 25 or so Asian House Geckos (Hemidactylus frenatus)
into
our Tropical Rain Forest Exhibit which has birds only. If so, was
your experience good or bad? What were the opinions of the keeper and animal
health staff? Did the exhibit animals eat them? Did they
multiply of decline in numbers? Did they move to other exhibits in your
building? How did visitors respond? Are there any special
conditions we need to provide to get them established? Did you use a different
species?
We look forward to hearing from you.
Thank you,
Katrina Lindahl
Woodland Park Zoo
Seattle, WA
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