Friday, May 08, 2009

Unsticking Lizards

My wife had me out of bed early this morning with a terrifying emergency.

There was a large gecko stuck to some duct tape in the kitchen. As I approached, it struggled to get free, but all four feet were firmly stuck and it's tail already broken off.

I carefully cut the duct tape around each foot, and went to look up on the internet, the answer to how to unstick it's tiny little feet. I knew if I pulled the duct tape away, it's tiny feet would be pulled off.

All the answers talked about WD-40. that was a bit strong for a gecko I thought. So I tried what I had on hand.

I dabbed a few drops of olive oil on it's feet, and a few minutes later, the duct tape fell away. I took the little fellow out into the back yard and dropped it in a pile of leaves. A moment later it was gone.

One good deed for the day.

19 Comments:

At 8:44 AM, Blogger admin said...

Well done! I'll have to remember that one next time I have to free a bumblebee from a sticky spider's web ;-)

 
At 2:52 PM, Anonymous edgar said...

That is some serious good karma my friend.

 
At 9:29 PM, Blogger Unknown said...

Mayonaise also works well.

 
At 2:28 PM, Blogger Dave Dubya said...

Now the question is, how do we unstick OUR feet from the sinking economy? Where's the oil of freedom and justice??

Glub, glub, gurgle, gurgle...

 
At 8:44 PM, Blogger ExRanger said...

Well done Weaseldog!

 
At 10:53 AM, Blogger Samuel Thayer said...

Thank you so much one of our many lizards complete body and tail was stuck to some duct tape I used to temporarily use to fix a screen and my wife read me what you did and it worked!! I poured olive oil over the tape area and within seconds its entire body started un peeling from the tape! I am so grateful you posted this! Thanks for helping me to save this beautiful creature!

 
At 7:22 PM, Anonymous Anonymous said...

Thank you so much for this! You just saved my chameleons life. She is so tiny and got stuck to some duct tape. I was running around, crying, and had no idea what to do. Worked like a charm.

 
At 6:37 PM, Blogger Lilli Blackmore said...

Thank you for posting this. You seriously just saved my unlucky little pet katydid.

 
At 12:11 AM, Anonymous Anonymous said...

Thank you soooo much for posting this information about olive oil.. there was a little lizard outside my door often, I forgot and put a pest control sticky tape the exterminator left me to kill scorpions and the lizard got stuck, I felt really bad, I thought he was dead... I didnt know how long he was stuck, I soon realized he was still alive but I didn't know how to set him or her free ...I asked the Lord to show me and He did through you...I did what you said and I also used a plastic knife( the dull side) to lift up his tail and body, he was stuck except for his head..I am happy to say he scurried off, thanks again God bless

 
At 12:57 PM, Anonymous Anonymous said...

Wow, thanks! Had a lizard stuck to tape in my house! "Infadel" is free now...sans tail. =)

 
At 9:34 AM, Anonymous Anonymous said...

Thank you so much for this post!! I felt so bad seeing this cute Lizard minding it's own business then sadly stuck on the duck tape I was about to grab when I took something down. I tried the Olive Oil and oh my! The little fellow went running off I felt so much joy! Thank you very much for this helpful post! :D

 
At 1:39 PM, Blogger Suzanne said...

We found a tiny lizard outside entire body and tail stuck. We used olive oil on qtips to gently loosen it. Freed him with tail intact. Afterwards I was worried if the oil would be a problem so I looked online and found this :)
This little guy seems in shock. He's breathing and open and closing his eyes. I have him in a container with some drops of water hoping he will recover. I'm afraid if I put him outside how he is birds or ants will get him :(

 
At 9:46 AM, Anonymous Anonymous said...

Thank you for posting this I found a baby gecko that was stuck and this really helped with setting it free

 
At 5:30 AM, Blogger Unknown said...

Thank you so much! The oil worked to free his tail and feet, but We couldn't get the little guy's belly unstuck, so I cut a straw in half to shield his feet and body and then cut away all the tape I could.

 
At 2:50 PM, Blogger Unknown said...

Thank you thank you thank you!!!!!! I had painters tape on my sliding glass door to seal the cracks from hurricane Irma. we survived the storm and were removing the tape from the windows today. There was a tiny lizard stuck to the tape! We tried water first and some did unstick but his tiny feet & tail were still stuck. I checked the internet and found your suggestion for using oil.....I tried olive oil. within 5 min it was free!!!!! Thank you again so much!

 
At 8:28 PM, Blogger Unknown said...

We are having the same problem of a lizard but is on gorilla tape.my son found it at the neighbors. We cut the tape off as much as possible.It was 90 degrees today. We have its feet and tail soaking in a terariem. There were two but one was dead. I will try the mayo then olive oil if that doesn't work.

 
At 11:43 AM, Blogger Unknown said...

Thank you SOOO much for this site. We had a tiny anole lizard ride to church with us today on my car window. We captured it to return it back to my parents yard. In the process, it got stuck on some packaging tape that was on the terrarium we trapped it in. I saw this information regarding olive oil. In less than 3 minutes the little fellow was free and released back into its proper habitat. Hopefully, it won't go joy riding anymore

 
At 4:17 PM, Blogger Monique Barlow said...

Does butter work the same

 
At 6:54 AM, Blogger Unknown said...

I just woke up to my anole (named Rose) stuck to some tape I had used to temporarily keep her thermometer up in her terrarium, and we tried using warm water but the tape was too strong. I quickly searched google and this was the first thing I saw and clicked on, we tried the oil and, even though she was gaping and ready to bite, we got her free and back to her terrarium in probably 5 minutes of dabbing oil on the tape and where she was stuck. Thank you so much for this, Rose has been through so much, she is a freaking warrior. I had to help transport a vehicle from Florida to my home state of Maine, and when we got back here in late october when we turned the vehicle on to bring it to the mechanic she jumped out and I noticed and quickly asked the mechanic for a cardboard box. Got her home and into a nice terrarium, now it's been a full year and she's doing great (besides this mishap with tape). She's a real trooper, and I think this saved her life. Thank you again for the olive oil trick, really works 100% and it's safe for the lizards. Appreciate ya!

 

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