Suburban wildlife enjoying the results of a irk
8A while ago I got these smart light fixtures in an irk. I put one at the front porch and the other near the garage. Came home to several Mediterranean geckos enjoying dinner under the lights. A couple retreated before I could get a photo of all three. 
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Wow! I guess the lights attract their dinner? Nice bug control!
@Kyeh yes, between the geckos at night and the anoles in the daytime, I’ve got pretty good bug protection. I also have two sizable paper wasp nests in the backyard. I told my very confused exterminator to leave them be as they were not in a doorway and not a bother to anyone. I’m curious how big they will get by the end of the season.
@ironcheftoni
I have paper wasps around my place too and they’ve never stung me, they just fly around menacingly if I get too close. I guess they’re good pollinators.
Anoles!? I looked them up - they’re so pretty! I’ve seen an occasional lizard or snake here but not often. They’re welcome though to all the bugs and rodents they can catch.
My block of townhouses is home to a population of skinks, and every now and then, one will find its way into my unit. I’ve only been able to catch one; the rest must find their own way out because I’ve never found a dead one. I often see them scurry away when I go out my front door.
@lisagd22 This is a very random thought, but I wonder why lizardish creatures have the cutest names? Skinks, efts, newts. Mudpuppies.
@lisagd22 Certainly preferable to a population of skanks.
@macromeh That’s for sure!
I’ve been seeing things with tails scurrying around under the deck at night, including climbing a wall. They didn’t move like mice but when I looked up nocturnal lizards Mediterranean house lizards popped up. We also have an abundance of leopard slugs under there, so I think it was your guy. I hope so.
@sammydog01 I looked up “leopard slugs” and learned some incredibly unexpected things (like how they reproduce. Very strange …
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@Kyeh Yes it’s creepy and yes I watch.
@sammydog01 As @Cerridwyn said in a different thread, “There are more things in heaven and earth than are dreamt of in your philosophy.”
The best comment I saw on reddit was “limax climax”!
And I do love David Attenborough! May he live forever.
We have anoles and five lined skinks, as well a tree frogs etc, here in droves. We will often see them at night stuck on the windows eating things attracted to the house lights. Likewise we’ll see them on the siding around the porch lights.
I never saw a gecko here until I captured some years ago at the hospital and brought them home. There were a bunch of them when I worked overnight, crawling around the ceiling at our ER entrance bay. Must have captured at least one mating pair as I will routinely see some in the house or outside in the deck boxes. Super happy that they’ve survived.
Have a ton of carpenter bees, occasionally have wasps or yellow jackets. Generally leave them alone as long as they’re not in a position where they will be a threat. Did have to spray the ones (wasps) that were living under my diving board though! Also had to nuke the yellow jacket next I ran over in the yard recently.
@chienfou Yellowjackets are awful. A friend of mine had an underground nest in his front yard and kept getting stung. I looked around online and saw someone said they used a shop vac to vacuum them out - so he tried that, rigged up his shop vac with some soapy water in it and ran the vacuum for quite a while. It worked!
@chienfou @Kyeh Yes they are awful. I have been caught in swarms of them more than once. Incredibly painful. All I was doing was walking and didn’t realize there was was a nest until it was too late. They chase you when you disturb them too.
@Kidsandliz @Kyeh
Yep, “ground hornets” are capable of stinging you more than once as opposed to honey bees which are basically ‘one and done’. They do pack a wallop. I disturbed a nest one time while weed eating and they all flew up under the brim of my hat. The stings across my forehead felt like being pinged with a ball peen hammer. Right now I generally work outside in a surgery cap or bandana as a result.
@chienfou Yellowjackets and ground nests. I ran over one while mowing, and it was not a fun experience. I did what someone in an organic gardening forum suggested: wait until dark, then pour a bucket of water with an ounce of peppermint oil and a spritz of dish soap into the nest. The next morning, there were no vespid bodies because a skunk had eaten them and dug out the nest. I know it was a skunk because there was olfactory evidence. While the peppermint probably didn’t make a big difference to the skunk miasma, I figured it couldn’t hurt. I’ve also (carefully) used a spray of peppermint, soap, and water on hornet nests, with the same result.
@rockblossom
Good to know. I’ll file that for future use.
@chienfou @Kidsandliz Across your forehead!