Herps in the Home

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Noah M
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Herps in the Home

Post by Noah M »

I'm sure many of us have found things around our yard, but how many of you have seen herps from within your house? The herps may not have been inside at the time, just seen from inside. Here are a couple from me to give you an idea of what I'm talking about.

One night sitting at my computer in my old apartment last year I noticed this little Med. House Gecko on the wall.

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Just tonight, after a night of road cruising while putting entries in the HERP DB I saw this Squirrel Tree Frog stuck to the 2nd story window of my apartment.

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Mark Brown
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Re: Herps in the Home

Post by Mark Brown »

I get baby Med Geckos in the house several times a week - drives the cat nuts. This spring something sorta unusual happened - I found four tiny Blind Snakes in various places in the house over a two week span. I've lived in the house for 16 years and had never seen one before.
Tamara D. McConnell
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Re: Herps in the Home

Post by Tamara D. McConnell »

My husband (Raymond) called to me from the back bedroom and said that Optimus (adult gray ratsnake) had escaped. I disagreed. He insisted. I informed him that Optimus wasn't even home...I had taken him to school and left him in his enclosure in my classroom. Raymond called me back to the bedroom and showed me Optimus' doppelganger, coiled in my bedroom closet. We are guessing he came in from a temporarily loose screen on the bedroom window.
That was the coolest herp we've found inside. We see anoles, skinks, and med geckos regularly. And the basement is always good for 3-lined salamanders.
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NewYorkHerper16
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Re: Herps in the Home

Post by NewYorkHerper16 »

Ive never found anything in my house, but i have found baby milk snakes in my grandparents' basement. Also plenty of gray treefrog and peeper youngsters on the siding of the house, but i guess that doesnt count since they were outside.
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Curtis Hart
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Re: Herps in the Home

Post by Curtis Hart »

Used to have Tiger Salamanders in the basement years ago. Occasionally we'll find a small Eastern Garter Snake in the house, typically in the winter. I assume they are under the bark in the firewood pile and wake up when the wood is stored inside.
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klawnskale
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Re: Herps in the Home

Post by klawnskale »

I live in a guest house situated in someone's backyard and I have gotten visitations from Southern Alligator Lizards. I frequently get field crickets in my house and the lizards sometimes end up chasing them indoors. One alligator lizard got stuck in a glue trap which I managed to free it from with olive oil. It must have been going after the insects stuck in the glue trap.
Eimon
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Re: Herps in the Home

Post by Eimon »

The old house I lived at for many years was a local herp haven. Almost anything that should be in the area was found on property over the years. A lot cruising right next to the house foundation and in planters. So of course a few ended up inside! Fine by me, not so much to the others who lived there. Especially the rubber and helleri that ended up on steps and walkways a lot.

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A SD Gophersnake and a gravid scorpion (both not pictured) on my living room floor.

This Lyre behind the refrig in the main part of the house.
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I’m sure this helleri would have strolled in had I left the door open. It pretty much stayed there for an hour or two.
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This little Cal King in another place. Funny I too got blamed at first for this one, but we didn’t have any like that.
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This little Aligator lizard at our 95 year old downstairs neighbor where we live at now. Actually a couple have been in her place! Our daughter loves to “rescue” her from them.
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beemaster
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Re: Herps in the Home

Post by beemaster »

Sit down, this one is going to be lengthy and nerve-wracking. The weak of heart or stomach might be well cautioned to scroll right down to the next post, lest you be kept awake with the images of my experience dancing around in your brain, taunting, traumatizing you every night you lay down to sleep.

My aunt used to live on the 2nd floor of this cute little two family house. I *loved* that place; I used to catch garters, wood frogs, grey trees, peepers, and American toads in her backyard on the reg, plus the farm adjacent to the property attracted all sorts of raptors. I used to get great pics of a pair of resident red-shouldered hawks, plus regularly visiting Cooper's hawks, occasional red-tailed hawks, even a sharp-shinned hawk every once in a while. Osprey never stopped there, but regularly flew by overhead.

A few months before she moved out, the landlord renovated part of the basement into a small apartment for a relative of his. I remember in May that year, I was at my aunt's watching a baseball game when one of the neighborhood kids came to get me in a panic... the lady who had moved into the basement beside herself with hysterics. How could she sleep? How could she eat? How could she trust again? How could she live her life knowing that a huge, potentially life-threatening snake was now loose in her apartment? What if it stung her with poison or consumed her in her sleep? What if it shed all over her linen? What if it knocked over her favorite knick-knack, or those coins she just sorted out last Wednesday? Putting community safety ahead of my own needs, I selflessly abandoned my desire to laze around and watch the Red Sox lose. I immediately threw on my shoes and jumped to the rescue, braving danger from this undoubtedly terrifying reptile in order to save this poor lady from impending doom.

As the gravity of the situation set in, I tentatively penetrated the back door of her apartment. I moved around every appliance and piece of furniture in her apartment, tension rising with each move, but my quarry was not to be found. I finally thought to check to communal laundry space, which adjoined her apartment. Just as I entered, a glimpse of movement flashed in a tight hole near a corner in the wall. With lives potentially at risk, I knew what had to be done. Choking back the fear, I slowly, nervously posited my hand into the abyss, fumbling around in the unknown, just hoping, praying, that some sort of higher power would protect me from the danger that lurked within. The say there are no atheists in foxholes, and never before in my life have I understood the sentiment behind that phrase as I did in those tense moments.

As my hand explored the crevice, I was at first surprised that I didn't quickly feel the animal that I knew to be skulking inside. Grappling with the entire surface, I finally reach the back corner and felt my adversary... careful! I slowly pulled my hand out to identify the beast that had been terrorizing this innocent young woman. Gadzooks! Call the press! Send the news trucks! Northern ringneck in a suburban basement!

It happened once again a couple of weeks later and I helped her out again. Soon after, two other ladies in the neighborhood approached me bemusedly to tell me that not only had my efforts been in vain (apparently another one had turned up while I was gone), but that the basement dweller had confided in them that she was sure I had actually planted the reptiles there in order to get her attention. Of course, the year previous, these same two ladies had witnessed my aunt catch a yearling Eastern milk along the foundation of the house close to the basement door (why didn't milks ever turn up while I was in town?), so it was no surprise to them that a couple of snakes might end up inside. Either that, or the tale of the aspiring suitor who scattered wild animals into the abode of his hopeful darling didn't make any sense, particularly when weighed against his obvious disinterest and the maiden's propensity for histrionics, as her hysterical fits over minor issues would soon evolve into a low-rent form of entertainment for all who lived within earshot.

Also, when I was a kid, my dad's boss used to have water snakes overwinter in his basement; his house was adjacent to a pond where they are uncharacteristically abundant for the area. No word yet on whether or not I planted those there.
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The Real Snake Man
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Re: Herps in the Home

Post by The Real Snake Man »

I've seen several Coniophanes around my South Texas home, but the only one seen from inside was spotted by my sister through her window. I love those things.
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soulsurvivor
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Re: Herps in the Home

Post by soulsurvivor »

I get those geckos in the house all the time. Have also had green tree frogs in the toilet and dog water bowls. Strangest one was an adult yellow rat snake my parents found in their house a few years ago. They had no idea how it got in, but it was pretty emaciated, leading me to speculate that it had been in the house quite a while.....my mom didn't want to hear that.

~Bree
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justinm
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Re: Herps in the Home

Post by justinm »

I don't have them in the house, but in the yard to be sure. Bull Snakes are common in my yard, along with American Toads, Fowler's toads, Plains Leopard Frogs, and my house in the evenings has had up to 12 Gray Treefrogs.
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Hunter-MX
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Re: Herps in the Home

Post by Hunter-MX »

Here is a thread I can definitely contribute to. I live in Southern Mexico in a semi-jungle habitat. Our house has a certain "open air quality" to it, though it is screened. Somehow a pretty wide menagerie of animals manages to get inside. Often the amusement or dismay of my two indoor only cats. Here is a partial list of interlopers over the last two years...

Taylor's Anole
Imagea by Hunter-MX, on Flickr

Mexican Leaf Frog
Imageb by Hunter-MX, on Flickr

Our most recent, a couple weeks ago, cantil.
Imagec by Hunter-MX, on Flickr

Fire-headed spiny lizard (male)
Imaged by Hunter-MX, on Flickr

Amorous house geckos (there are dozens of these)
Imagee by Hunter-MX, on Flickr

Red-knee tarantula (male)
Imagef by Hunter-MX, on Flickr

Blind snake
Imageg by Hunter-MX, on Flickr

Amblypygi
Imageh by Hunter-MX, on Flickr

Coral snake
Imagei by Hunter-MX, on Flickr

Night lizard
Imagej by Hunter-MX, on Flickr

Unknown Tarantula species
Imagek by Hunter-MX, on Flickr

There have been a few others, clouded anoles, skinks and some other large bugs, like scolopendra, but I didn't shoot most of them. Ah, and add to that LOTS of jungle crabs of various sizes and colors.

The Cantil and Coral snake are the only two snakes (other than the blind snake that hardly counts). The coral crawled over my foot while I was on the computer and the Cantil was in the dining area when we came home on rainy night. Both times the cats were the alarms that brought them to our attention.
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Mark Brown
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Re: Herps in the Home

Post by Mark Brown »

Hunter-MX wrote:Here is a thread I can definitely contribute to. I live in Southern Mexico in a semi-jungle habitat. Our house has a certain "open air quality" to it, though it is screened. Somehow a pretty wide menagerie of animals manages to get inside. Often the amusement or dismay of my two indoor only cats. Here is a partial list of interlopers over the last two years...

There have been a few others, clouded anoles, skinks and some other large bugs, like scolopendra, but I didn't shoot most of them. Ah, and add to that LOTS of jungle crabs of various sizes and colors.

The Cantil and Coral snake are the only two snakes (other than the blind snake that hardly counts). The coral crawled over my foot while I was on the computer and the Cantil was in the dining area when we came home on rainy night. Both times the cats were the alarms that brought them to our attention.
Wow! Color me speechless! Are you a native Mexican or an ex-pat, and if you don't mind me asking, what do you do for a living? It sounds to me like you're living in paradise, though I would spend an inordinate amount of time worrying about the cats. My cats have been good at finding herps in the house but bad about staying clear of them.
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Hunter-MX
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Re: Herps in the Home

Post by Hunter-MX »

I am an American ex-pat with a Mexican wife. I do photography (mostly weddings and surf, some commercial) and website design. My wife is the GM of a boutique hotel. We do worry about the cats but they seem to have a handle on things, though they get pinched by the crabs sometimes. I actually forgot to add innumerable scorpions of various species and a juvenile opossum. If I added what I have seen just in my little 20 meter by 20 meter yard the list would shoot way up. There was a little Boa on the porch just yesterday in the rafters.

It is an interesting life here. like everything everywhere, it has its good and its bad...
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Noah M
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Re: Herps in the Home

Post by Noah M »

Here is a thread I can definitely contribute to...
HOLY CRAP! I never expected anything like this.

Thanks for sharing, and keep 'em coming. I like reading about what people have found. :thumb:
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