Don’t kill them! They eat flies, mosquitoes, and even spiders

Mérida, Yucatán, (August 05, 2021) .- The biologist Julián Escalante pointed out that the lizards “geckos” or also known as “chocanes” should not be killed since they contribute to the balance because they consume insects such as flies, mosquitoes, and spiders.

The director of the Group for the Knowledge and Protection of Amphibians and Reptiles “Yuumil Kaan” said that geckos, ‘qüijas‘ or ‘besuconas‘ or ‘chocan‘ (in Maya) are lizards or ‘iguanitos‘ (as they are commonly known in Yucatan), that can be located by a characteristic sound they make when they are moving or when they are fighting each other.

“It is a species that is not dangerous, it is not poisonous and it does not represent a health hazard. They mainly feed on insects such as mosquitoes, flies, and cockroaches, and in this rainy season we can see them much more inside our houses than in other months ”, he indicated.

He said that the lizards can measure between 10 to 15 centimeters so they can eat larger cockroaches, thus contributing to an important cleaning of the houses.

In the months that are not the rainy season, the ‘geckos’ live outside the houses, specifically in the gardens where they also become easy prey for birds, which also balances these species by preventing overpopulation.