Rat poop on the wall . . . not at all

What would you rather have in your house, rats or lizards? We were warned that in case a schiera—houses attached to each other—rats could easily find a way to move from one attic to the next. Before we remodeled our attic in 2017 and 2018, we saw ample evidence that rodents had made themselves at home there, but each year I added more barriers. I sprayed foam insulation or stuffed steel wool in every possible gap, but I still found rat droppings each time we returned, even though I’ve never in my nine years actually witnessed an offender.

Found on our wall . . .

I had hoped that this fall would be the exception, because in the spring I had plugged even the tiniest of holes—or so I thought. But once more, around the walls of the attic, I saw the characteristic pellets. But wait, why were two of them stuck to the smooth sheetrock wall? A close-up examination and a quick web search revealed the answer: We don’t have rats in the attic; we have wall geckos! They are the source of the droppings, not rats, as the images clearly show.

According to pest control experts and lizard specialists, geckos are much preferrable to rats. Though there are some internet posts about the dangers of geckos, the scientific information I found says these claims are false, and the truth is that geckos pose no threat to people.

Dr. Jeanne Tarrant of the Endangered Wildlife Trust in South Africa, said in an email to a French news agency that geckos are not harmful to humans and “actually provide a service by eating insects and spiders around your house.”

“Humans and house geckos have been living alongside each other for hundreds if not thousands of years, with no detriment to humans,” she wrote. “It really would not be recommended to try to eliminate them from your home.”

Professor Aaron M. Bauer, a biodiversity specialist at Villanova University in Pennsylvania and a world authority on geckos—he even has a species named after him—echoed Tarrant’s comments.

Biting, he said, is highly unusual in geckos and, in any event, you’d receive nothing more than an unpainful nip on the off chance you try to handle one. 

Salmonella transmission is similarly unlikely, he explained: “Geckos, like many reptiles, can carry salmonella although such transmission is not common, and it is easily avoided. Geckos are probably less likely to transmit salmonella than other reptiles that have larger, wetter fecal material.”

On the other hand, rat poop is much more dangerous. Web MD says: “Because contact with rat poop and pee can lead to dangerous and life-threatening infections, use extreme caution when cleaning. Inhaling particles from rat droppings can cause diseases like hantavirus, so be very careful not to clean up the droppings in a way that kicks up dust, like sweeping or vacuuming.”

How the geckos get in the attic and why they are always gone when we arrive is still a mystery, but an obvious part of the answer is their small size and streamlined shape. I’ll probably never be able to keep them out, but their presence probably explains why we have so few spiders and other bugs. Since they live primarily on the walls, cleaning up after them just means running the vacuum cleaner hose around the baseboard each time we return, not a bad trade-off for the organic pest control services they provide. And incomparably better than rats.

 

We're happy to be in a mostly unchanged alternate reality

We’re back living in our alternate reality, experiencing la dolce vita in our Tuscany home in the lively and lovely hilltop village of Montecarlo. What’s new is always the first question on our minds when we arrive.

Lucy relaxes in the cool of the morning.

We’ve never been here before in August, so one question concerns the heat. How bad is it, really, to endure day after day of temperatures in the 90s (or 30s, as 95f = 35c), without air conditioning? It turns out that it’s not terrible, so long as we have nothing to do and can stay inside. Since our home is made of stone, is joined to other buildings and doesn’t have an overabundance of windows, there aren’t many places that the outside heat can get inside. Also, we are at a slightly higher elevation than the surrounding cities, and we catch some breezes. Right now, it is 96 in Montecarlo and 98 in nearby Altopascio, which is on the plain below. We don’t have an inside thermometer here, but it’s definitely bearable in our living room, especially with a couple of fans going. I can’t imagine how miserable I’d be if I was standing in a line waiting to enter a museum in Rome right now.

Construction on the Torre degli Spadoni has actually commenced! It was first announced to be done in 2023, and then re-scheduled to begin early in 2024, but as of May the only thing we’d seen done was temporary fencing installed to keep the public out of the work zone. Now about one third of the outer walls have been patched and repainted. The one window at the bottom has been boarded over, so we can’t see if anything has been done inside, but I suspect not. Plans call for the installation of a spiral staircase that will take visitors to the top, and also for the addition of lights to illuminate it from below, and more lights at the top. Our beautiful sign is still on the door.

How about our elusive kitchen drain, that seven years ago we paid to have connected to the sewer system? In the last conversation I had with our contractor/downstairs neighbor, he indicated that the drain would be connected this summer when he did some remodeling in his part of the building. Nope, the sink still drains into the field. Why am I not surprised? But like Charlie Brown when Lucy holds the football for him, I’m still optimistic. Stupid, maybe, but I’d rather live with stupid and optimistic than angry, upset and combative.

Opening my mailbox when we arrive is always slightly daunting. In 2018, I received notifications from the Agenzia delle Entrate (Italian IRS) that I owned about 800 euros in taxes for purchases and sales I had allegedly made in 2014 and 2015. I tried to explain that I had not even been in Italy during the times these transactions took place, but nobody at the agency seemed interested in listening to me. Was my case ever dismissed? It’s doubtful. I keep expecting that some eager new agent at the AE will come across my file and send out a new threatening letter, but once again, there was nothing new in my mailbox. In this situation, I can be thankful for the inefficiency of Italian bureaucracy.

Overall, then, little has changed here, which is fine with us. Our house is in good shape, we’re on good terms with our neighbors, our city is still lively and lovely, and we’re free to relax and enjoy the sweetness of doing nothing for the next six weeks.