Wouldn't dream of it. Even when it was INSIDE my house the first time, I handled it with kid gloves (and a paper towel tube, and tongs...lol) and put it outside. This second one was outside, so I skirted around it with my recycling bin and went on my way.
i kinda like 'em. though i will admit the more snakey one are a little gross to me. i would totally have a snake or a lizard for a pet. but the kittie would probably eat 'em.
DH says it looks like a skink. I've never seen one myself (and I spend my first 30 years living in CA.) I do understand your reaction completely.
I did happen upon my own "what the HECK is that thing" while we lived on the coast of CA though. I was sitting in a lounge chair outside and looked over at the arm rest of the chair, all that registered initially was 1. spider and 2. RED! I jumped out of the chair so fast! Upon closer inspection it was not a black widow, but a red backed jumping spider. I'd never seen anything that was so hideous and beautiful at the same time. Still, ick! Look for yourself: http://kaweahoaks.com/html/spi_phidippus_johnsoni.html
I'll never forget my sons (in kindergarten and 2nd grade at the time) carrying a bucket to the car when I picked them up from school one day. "Mom, can we have a lizard?" sure I say. They load up in the car, bucket and heavy leather gloves in hand. Now mind you, I always played with lizards, snakes, frogs and other "creepy" things when I was a kid, so I'm thinking "whats with the gloves?"
We get home, go into the house and I look at the lizard. WHOOLY CRAP! It's a HUGE SKINK, I mean, it's like 12+ inches long, a good 2+ inches wide and looks mean, now I know what the gloves are for!!!!!! Ok, this thing is NOT going to stay in MY house, uh uh, now way. So off to the pet store, well they don't want it, it's to big. So back home to figure out what to do with this thing. So while I'm trying to place this gela monster into a new home (rescue or?) I hear screaming coming from the kids room. I run in and my 5 year old is twirling in circles with the skink firmly chomped onto two of his fingers and I mean, all the way up to his hand. Of course he was wearing the glove, on the other hand (his brother was using the other one, at least they were sharing!). He was spinning and waving his hand so much it finally let go and flew right out the window. Appearantly the skink jumped up onto the side, trying to get out and jumped onto his hand ( guess little hands look like food!). So of course we had to take a trip to the ER, cause those suckers have BIG, SHARP teeth and they did a number on the little guy. Needless to say, now when my kids want to bring something home, I look at it first
Oh, I forgot to say, YES it's a skink and they bite!!!!!
I used to find these around my old house--often times in MY SHOES. Needless to say I ALWAYS bang my shoes empty before I put them on. This is called a sun spider (it took me months to figure it out after I found the first one).http://www.richard-seaman.com/Wallpa.../SunSpider.jpg
Interesting fact from a book I'm reading...apparently, people in areas that have no snakes, that have never seen a snake, and have never HEARD of a snake, will still recoil when they see one. An instinctual negative reaction to snakes is thought to be an evolved trait that is literally built into our brains.
Totally OT here - just made me think - I wonder if that innate instinct to fear and avoid snakes is what made the original writers of the old testiment use the serpent as the image for the evil temptation..... (geek in training )
These stories, almost make me happy that I live in a place where it is too cold for any of those creepy, crawly, scally, icky things! I ran into my far share of creepy crawlies when I was living in costa rica and I hated them.
I once got a gaint flying cockroach- it was just smaller than my fist- stuck in my hair. I got stung by a scorpian on the inside of my upper, upper thigh coz it was in my shorts.
As for me, things that crawl don't bother me so much (snakes, lizards, spiders). But those that move a bit faster are icky. Hopping (crickets, grasshoppers) and flying (giant cockroaches, butterflies--yes you read that right) scare the bejeebers out of me.
ugh if i saw either one of those spiders i think i'd pee my pants! lol. i used to live in american samoa - i was very young and i don't remember a whole lot but I do remember the giant flying cockroaches!
they have these nasty but entirely harmless spideys down there too- banana spiders... http://davidmichaelkennedy.com/blog/...ana-spider.jpg
I do have two good family creepy crawley stories from Samoa though. Once we were all sitting in the dark watching TV when my grandmother just started screaming and jumping up and down and freaking out. One of our little gecko friends had lost his suction to the ceiling and dropped right into her lap. lol
Also once my mom was out doing yard work and noticed a stick in her cleavage - she went to brush it away and SURPRISE! it was once of these guys: http://www.schools.ash.org.au/murrum...es/goliath.jpg
there was a lot of screaming that day too. hehehe.
alinnell, I'm not afraid of butterflies but I'm terrified of moths! I once paid a friend to walk 10 blocks at midnight in the middle to come kill a moth that was flying around my room.
Moths are very creepy. The worst ones are the huge ones. The biggest I ever saw was in Mexico--it had to be close to the size of a salad plate. Ewwww.
And that big green thing...double ewwww!
We get a lot of little lizards around our place. And sometimes they make their way inside. Imagine a little baby lizard--about an inch long or less. So cute! My husband doesn't like them, so either my kids or I catch them and put them back outside (to eat the creepy bugs!).
Bringing back bad memories of a 24 hour period a couple weeks ago where we discovered in our house
3 geckos (babies - about 3 inches) high up on the walls in the family room. Looked something like this http://www.fotosearch.com/PHC008/200522353-001/
1 tiny frog
1 skink (with legs) that my husband watched squeeze under the frame of the sliding glass door.
We occasionally see lizards (anoles) in the house, but we've never had such a festival of fauna before. I'd suspect someone left a door open except we know the one didn't wait for an open door.
Edited to add - Almost forgot, I stepped out the front door last weekend and felt what I thought were two large drops of water hit my head. I shook my head vigorously and a small frog landed at my feet. I must have felt his front and rear feet hitting my head. Ugh.
