Anurae, Scincidae, Theridiidae, Oh my!

Skinks, cane toads, frogs and geckos are everywhere! Not used to such creatures on my doorstep. Anyway, I welcome the skinks and geckos as they eat huntsmen ('what???') and the redback, a deadly spider which I'm shit scared of to be honest, I've never liked little noises when I'm on my own as a general rule, but when it can actually crawl inside your clothes in the washing basket if you don't hang em outside straight away... little things like that are unnerving... but it keeps me on my toes.

I've not seen a huntsman or any other spider yet, thanks to our gecko friends :-) so small, fits in the palm of your hand, little sticky pads on its hands, these Brisbane house geckos are beige coloured with black eyes and they often scale the walls or windows and actually approach you and peep round the corners, you see a little head pop out from a partially opened window and you know the gecko is catching moths and spiders and such :) it was disconcerting at first for me cause I don't like small rustling sounds and things moving suspiciously in the corner, but these are seen as good creatures, not pests- they eat flies moths and ants etc, redbacks too which is a damn good thing.

I like geckos, they're cute, they make peeping sounds whilst fixing you with their little black eyes :) they often come into the house, I was worried at first cause I didn't want to accidentally squish one, but they move very fast and are cautious, so its ok. Unfortunately they and the skinks (great band :-p) get eaten by the ibis but I still love the ibis even so.

Skinks are the lizards that come out when its really hot, like 35degrees, you see them dart across pavements... I think they're the ones that can detach their tails if grabbed? They move even faster than geckos do.

Cane toads love the tropical weather, I hear them burping and croaking when it rains heavily which isn't often but when its really super hot for a few days then eventually we'll get a storm and the frogs and toads all come out on the lawn and make their noises... It's like the British expression, 'nice weather for ducks' only here it's amphibians :)

Insects here range from tiny ants -the bane of my life at the moment due to hot weather, though they don't fly, thankfully, and hygienic vigilance and special surface spray keeps them at bay- to huge mudwasps that hover outside the window, scary they are, they sometimes nest in peoples ovens in summer apparently.

Mmm... baked wasp!

And we also get huge bloody crickets here, crazy things that jump about on the hot pavements, and when pissed off they make their presence known!!