You know you live in FL when...

....you have to chase a lizard out of the shower in the morning before you can use it

(Anolis sagrei: They're always getting into the house. It normally doesn't bother me, but this one sort of surprised me)

Nice. So is that what those things are called? Every time I go to Florida, I see them everywhere. I was just in Winter Garden last week, and went to one of the nearby parks...Wekiwa Springs (sp?). They were everywhere. Never knew exactly what they were.

Ah.... Thought this would be about crime. Breaking and entering?

There's a slightly less colorful version up here, cute little guys. When we were kids we'd catch them and stick them close to the earlobe, they'd grab a mouthful and just hang there for a few minutes. They don't have teeth and are not exactly strong so it doesn't hurt.

When I lived in the Dominican Republic, I found tarantulas in the shower with me.

He was just looking for a drink of water.

You need a kitteh.

Their big brothers, iguanas, aren't quite so cute.

I live in Connecticut. Every once in a while I find an accountant in my basement.

poopshovel wrote: You need a kitteh.

My dog thinks so.....she's already pulled the stuffing out of her toys, and would gladly look for something new to dismember.

Sadly, she's too slow to catch the lizards.....quite a bit of the day is spent chasing them, but she seldom gets one.....there are a few on the patio that are regrowing tails, though.

Woody wrote: I live in Connecticut. Every once in a while I find an accountant in my basement.

most people with cockroaches call exterminators

Trust me, thats waaaaaaaay better than what you find in the shower in Texas.

Scorpions.

We get these guys all of the time, sometimes they wander in on their own and sometimes they are given an escorted tour by the cat, who ultimately bites their tails off.

The tails continue to wiggle, long after being separated from the skink.

SyntheticBlinkerFluid wrote: Trust me, thats waaaaaaaay better than what you find in the shower in Texas. Scorpions.

???

I agree. I definitely would NOT want to find those guys in MY shower!

Wow, you Texans must keep fabulous hair products in your showers.

Margie

The funny thing about the tarantulas in the shower was that I didn't care.

Showers were so rare there and such a luxury that I just turned the wastebasket over on them and left them there, so I could finish my shower in peace.

It was a little creepy listening to them scurry around in the wastebasket while I was naked in the same tiny little room with them.

1988RedT2 wrote:

SyntheticBlinkerFluid wrote: Trust me, thats waaaaaaaay better than what you find in the shower in Texas. Scorpions.

??? I agree. I definitely would NOT want to find those guys in MY shower!

I think I would rather have the trantulas

^^

mad_machine wrote: I think I would rather have the trantulas

In reply to mad_machine:

especially if they're the twistin' kind:

Yeah, my GF is scared to go visit my parents' place in Texas because of my (all to true) story about encountering a scorpion in the room I was staying in at their house on my first night there. Freaked me the %$*&# out, my mom just came in and stepped on it.

I love skinks. I lived in a busted apartment while I was going to school where you could see around the door, windows leaked, and I had a roommate who was generally apathetic towards cleaning. So we'd catch a few of the skinks then let them loose in the apartment. They ate all the roaches (sorry GRM crew Palmetto bugs) that would get in everything. Just had to set some caps of water out for them or they'd dry up.

Don't forget the giant grasshoppers. These things are downright freaky:

I think I saw the Scorpions at Chicago Fest in the early 1980's. Or was it Iron Maiden? Or was it Crocus? Maybe it was Iron Maiden.

Woody wrote: I live in Connecticut. Every once in a while I find an accountant in my basement.

That or washed up insurance exec.

Every once in a while, Environmental Services that shares the property where I work, brings one of these non-native species of lizard...

in a cage, cause they're nasty mean, and have made a nice home in Florida when people release them into the wild.