Mediterranean geckos have found their way to almost every Dallas neighborhood. Look for them on summer nights on window screens, behind mailboxes, near porch lights and around odd corners and crevices. During the day and in colder months, they retreat to spaces within the walls and attics. People often call pest-control companies to rid their house of geckos. But geckos move right back in, and such attempts are rarely successful.
Geckos eat insects and, aside from the occasional gecko dropping, they're good company.
In some countries, friends present a newlywed couple with a gecko for their new house as a token of good luck. The Indo-Pacific gecko, Hemidactylus garnoti , has established a small but thriving colony around the Dallas Zoo. A related species, the house gecko, Hemi dactylus frenatus , has been seen at the Dallas and Fort Worth zoos. Both presumably hitchhiked on exotic plants, says Dallas herpetologist Carl Franklin. Out in West Texas, look for the ground-dwelling Texas banded gecko, Coleonyx brevis , and reticulated gecko, Coleonyx reticulatus .