Question
I am tired of having tons of dying cockroaches around my house from poison so I am thinking of letting a gecko loose in my house to help get rid of the infestation. I would stop using the poison and just let the gecko eat the roaches and am wondering what I should do to help it to live, like how will it get water (how much water do geckos need)? They feed the gecko cockroaches at the pet store, so I figured it would work. We have a LOT of cockroaches, so he will have plenty of food.
So, I was wondering what precautions I should take or if anyone has ever done this before or has heard of this being done or can give any helpful advice to help me avoid ending up with a dead gecko.
Any help will be appreciated as I know about nothing about keeping geckos.
Answer
If I read your question right, you want to use the gecko to clean up the poisoned roaches? You'll just end up with a poisoned gecko that way. But either way, a free-roaming gecko isn't going to make a dent in your roach problem, because roaches go out of their way to live and breed in places that predators can't reach, and to be honest the population is probably more than large enough to sustain itself even with minor losses from poison or predation. Plus, roaches tend to live within a few meters of their food supply, and letting reptiles run around your kitchen increases your risk of catching salmonella from them.
It sounds like you have a pretty bad infestation, which unfortunately is not going to be easy or quick to get rid of. There's never a silver bullet for any kind of infestation, and you need to look at everything that's encouraging the roaches to settle in your kitchen: how new ones come in, where they're getting their food and water, where they're hiding and breeding, and so on. This approach is called integrated pest management (IPM), and it's the most effective response to any vermin problem. It's perfectly reasonable to hire a professional exterminator who understands IPM in a case like this (and I'd personally be skeptical of any exterminator who doesn't).
Answered By - toxotes