Mediterranean house geckos follow their food supply, so getting rid of them means eliminating the insects that draw them in and sealing the gaps they use to enter. These small, nocturnal lizards are harmless to your home’s structure, but their droppings can carry Salmonella and they tend to multiply quickly once established. A combination of lighting changes, exclusion work, and insect control will push them out and keep them out.
Why They’re in Your Home
Mediterranean house geckos are voracious insect hunters. Their primary diet includes moths, cockroaches, crickets, beetles, spiders, ants, and grasshoppers. They’re drawn to outdoor lights at night because those lights concentrate their prey in one easy hunting ground. If your porch light attracts clouds of moths, you’ve essentially set up a buffet.
They enter through surprisingly small openings: gaps around door frames, cracks in exterior walls, spaces where utility lines pass through siding, and poorly sealed windows. Once inside, warmth and a steady supply of household insects (especially roaches and small spiders) give them every reason to stay. A single pair can produce multiple clutches of eggs per year, so a small problem can become a bigger one within a season.
Change Your Outdoor Lighting
This is the single highest-impact change you can make. Insects are biologically tuned to detect blue and ultraviolet wavelengths, which is why standard cool-white bulbs and older incandescent porch lights attract swarms after dark. Switching to warm-colored LED bulbs in the 2000K to 3000K range cuts insect activity dramatically. A 2016 study found warm LEDs attracted 50% fewer bugs than traditional incandescent bulbs.
For the best results, replace all exterior bulbs near doors, garages, and patios with warm white or amber LEDs. Yellow “bug lights” also work well. Sodium vapor bulbs, the kind used in older streetlights, emit a monochromatic yellow light that’s nearly invisible to most insects. Red wavelengths attract the fewest bugs of all, though the color isn’t practical for most outdoor spaces. Beyond bulb color, reducing brightness and turning off unnecessary exterior lights at night will further shrink the insect population that geckos depend on.
Seal Entry Points
Walk the exterior of your home and look for any gap wider than a pencil. Common entry points include cracks in stucco or brick mortar, gaps around window frames, spaces beneath doors, openings where plumbing or electrical lines enter the wall, and vents without proper screening. Geckos are flexible and flat-bodied, so they can squeeze through tighter spaces than you’d expect.
Use silicone caulk for stationary cracks and gaps in walls, foundations, and window frames. For larger or irregularly shaped openings where caulk won’t hold, stuff copper mesh into the gap first, then seal over it. Copper mesh is useful around pipe penetrations and where siding meets the foundation. Check weatherstripping on all exterior doors, especially garage doors, and replace any sections that are worn, compressed, or missing. If you have weep holes in brick construction, install weep hole covers that allow airflow but block lizards and insects.
Reduce the Insect Population
Geckos stay where the food is. If you remove their prey, they’ll move on to find it elsewhere. Start with basic sanitation: keep outdoor trash cans sealed, clear leaf litter and debris from the foundation perimeter, and fix any standing water issues that breed mosquitoes. Indoors, address any cockroach or ant problems directly, since these are reliable gecko food sources year-round.
A perimeter insecticide treatment around the foundation of your home reduces the number of crawling insects that both attract geckos and serve as their meals. Granular insecticides spread in a band around the base of your home, combined with a liquid spray on the lower portion of exterior walls, create a barrier that knocks down insect populations over several weeks. Reapply on the schedule listed on the product label, typically every 60 to 90 days during warm months. There are no EPA-registered chemical repellents specifically labeled for geckos, so controlling their food source is the most effective indirect deterrent available.
Remove Geckos Already Inside
For geckos that are already in your home, physical removal is the most straightforward approach. They’re nocturnal, so you’ll have the best luck spotting them at night, often near light fixtures or on walls and ceilings near windows. A simple method: place a clear glass or plastic container over the gecko, slide a stiff piece of cardboard underneath, and carry it outside to release at least 50 feet from your home.
Glue boards placed along walls and behind appliances will also catch geckos, but if you want to release them alive, you’ll need to free them carefully. Pouring vegetable oil over the adhesive loosens the glue enough to gently peel the gecko off without injuring it. Work slowly and apply oil generously. Check glue boards daily, because a gecko stuck for too long will dehydrate and die.
Avoid using any rodent poison or insecticide sprays directly on geckos. They’re not effective, and spraying a gecko with household pesticide is both inhumane and unnecessary.
Clean Up Droppings Carefully
Gecko droppings are small, dark pellets with a white tip (the white part is uric acid, their version of urine). You’ll find them along walls, on windowsills, behind furniture, and near light sources. Beyond being unsightly, these droppings are a real health concern. Reptiles, including geckos, frequently carry Salmonella bacteria on their bodies and in their waste, even when they appear perfectly healthy and clean.
Salmonella from gecko droppings can cause diarrhea, abdominal cramps, fever, and vomiting, with symptoms appearing one to three days after exposure. Young children, elderly adults, and people with weakened immune systems are at higher risk for severe illness. When cleaning droppings, wear disposable gloves, wipe the area with a disinfectant, and wash your hands thoroughly afterward. Don’t sweep dry droppings, which can become airborne. Dampen them first.
Make Your Yard Less Hospitable
Mediterranean house geckos shelter during the day in cracks, crevices, and cluttered areas close to buildings. Reducing hiding spots near your home’s exterior pushes them to establish territories farther away. Pull stored firewood, lumber, and debris at least 20 feet from the house. Trim shrubs and ground cover that touch the exterior walls, and clear ivy or other climbing plants from the siding, since these create highways directly to upper-story entry points.
Rock walls, stone borders, and stacked pavers near the foundation are prime daytime shelters. If gecko pressure is heavy, consider replacing these features with gravel or mulch that doesn’t create the kind of tight crevices geckos prefer. Keeping a clean, open perimeter of one to two feet around the foundation makes your home far less attractive as a nesting site.