Details
Hemidactylus frenatus
The common house gecko is a small nocturnal gecko that hunts insects around walls and lights. It is highly adapted to living near people.
Map: Ecoregions 2017 © RESOLVE (CC BY 4.0) · Natural Earth (PD)
It occurs in Indomalayan, Afrotropical, and Australasian urban and forest habitats. Buildings, stone walls, bark, and crevices provide vertical shelter.
Total length 7-15 cm; weight 3-7 g. The pale brown to grey body has fine mottling, and adhesive toe pads allow movement on walls and ceilings. The skin can look slightly translucent.
Nocturnal and solitary, it waits near lights for insects. Short chirping calls are often heard around buildings.
A carnivore, it eats moths, mosquitoes, small beetles, spiders, and similar prey. It approaches on vertical surfaces and snaps quickly.
Females lay hard-shelled eggs in crevices or hidden spaces. Hatchlings resemble tiny adults and begin hunting immediately.
It is listed as Least Concern. Spread by human transport, it may compete with native geckos in some regions.
