There was a newt on my kitchen floor this morning

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I saw it when I came downstairs to make some tea at about 6 o'clock this morning. It was just sitting there, right in the middle of the floor; it was about two inches long, brown, with a yellow spotted tummy. I shoo'd it out of the back door, but I am confused about how it got there in the first place - I don't live near any ponds, and it hasn't exactly been raining that much recently. Plus all my doors and windows are shut this time of year since it's turned a bit chilly, so lord knows how it got in.

I was a bit spooked out by it, because I don't like creepy-crawlies very much and things weren't helped by my daughters squealing that it was probably a yellow-spotted lizard like the ones in that book "Holes" and if it bit me, I'd die.

What creatures or other weird things have found their way into your homes?

― C J (C J), Wednesday, 8 November 2006 14:48 (nineteen years ago)

I found a similar looking lizardy thing crawling about next to my washing machine once. Also, one time at about 5 AM I got woken up by strange thumpings and rustlings coming from my bedroom floor, then a frog jumped right onto my chest.

― chap who would dare to welcome our new stingray masters (chap), Wednesday, 8 November 2006 14:57 (nineteen years ago)

there was a snake on the grounds of my apartment building the day before yesterday.

― the 48 states competition (1939) (Jody Beth Rosen), Wednesday, 8 November 2006 14:59 (nineteen years ago)

Frogs are horrible! If one jumped on me in bed, I'd be severely traumatised by it, and possibly hysterical too.

I've often had those little pipistrelle bats fly into my bedroom on warm summer nights. And birds falling down the chimneys into the house too.

― C J (C J), Wednesday, 8 November 2006 15:18 (nineteen years ago)

I don't particularly mind frogs, but it was extremely startling, I don't think I've ever leapt out of bed so fast. I spent the next twenty minutes groggily trying to herd it outside.

― chap who would dare to welcome our new stingray masters (chap), Wednesday, 8 November 2006 15:21 (nineteen years ago)

used to hear birds in the chimney all the time. my cat brought home a bat once, and a frog. perhaps he used to be a witches cat.

― Ste (Fuzzy), Wednesday, 8 November 2006 15:23 (nineteen years ago)

do you know palmetto bugs?

― a name means a lot just by itself (lfam), Wednesday, 8 November 2006 16:16 (nineteen years ago)

I've just googled a picture of one, and it looks a bit like a cockroach. Do you have them where you live??

― C J (C J), Wednesday, 8 November 2006 16:27 (nineteen years ago)

was watching tv when something flew out from ground level under the pedestal and Whapped the wall above my head. A bat!
literally chased it around the room with a broom til we both got dizzy. Finally got it out the door. this was a few yrs back.

― autovac (autovac), Wednesday, 8 November 2006 16:28 (nineteen years ago)

u crazee! i'd be so happy if a frog came to visit. i'd feed it bugs and make it a little fishing pole out of popsicle sticks.

― rems (x Jeremy), Wednesday, 8 November 2006 16:44 (nineteen years ago)

unless http://www.newgenevacenter.org/portrait/gingrich.jpg

― rems (x Jeremy), Wednesday, 8 November 2006 16:46 (nineteen years ago)

I love frogs and lizards! I'd make them comfy and offer them a snack.

palmetto bugs, waterbugs, tree roachs. . .the fucking worse. they've been coming up our drains alot lately. blearugh.

― Sam rides the beat like a bicycle (Molly Jones), Wednesday, 8 November 2006 17:10 (nineteen years ago)

Starlings nested in my loft for a couple of summers. Sometimes they fell down the pipeshaft and found their way into my bathroom via the hole in the boxed-in bit under the sink.

It happened once when we were on holiday and we came back to a house covered in bird shit.

― ONIMO ph34rz teh NOIZE (GerryNemo), Wednesday, 8 November 2006 17:19 (nineteen years ago)

palmetto bugs are three-inch flying cockroaches. we have them in florida.

― a name means a lot just by itself (lfam), Wednesday, 8 November 2006 17:25 (nineteen years ago)

they also are too strong to be killed by a foot.

― a name means a lot just by itself (lfam), Wednesday, 8 November 2006 17:25 (nineteen years ago)

One time I heard a commotion in my chimney so I went down to the crawlspace, opened the clean-out door and groped around. Stupid, probably—could have been a sharp-toothed critter. But it wasn't—it was a duck! A female mallard! I carried her out and she flew off, uninjured.

― Beth Parker (Beth Parker), Wednesday, 8 November 2006 18:16 (nineteen years ago)

we never have any insects in here beyond the occaisional fruit flies, ever. but then we get ONE, in the bathroom and it's over an inch long with about a hundred striped legs. how did it get that big in a place with no other bugs? wtf!

― Kim (Kim), Wednesday, 8 November 2006 18:26 (nineteen years ago)

nobody calls me newt, ecept for my brother

― latebloomer (latebloomer), Wednesday, 8 November 2006 19:45 (nineteen years ago)

we get geckos all the time. but they eat cockroaches and other bugs, so they're tolerated and considered lucky.

this little guy was posted on how do you get rid of mice in your house?:

http://www.memorygongs.com/possum.jpg

― researching ur life (grady), Wednesday, 8 November 2006 19:52 (nineteen years ago)

Lots of bats, frogs, toads, random birds, at least 3 varieties of mouse, shrews, a couple of squirrels, the world's fastest hedgehog (couldn't catch the little sod), and a cheeky fox that came in through the catflap and swiped some catfood.

― Si.C@rter (SiC@rter), Wednesday, 8 November 2006 19:52 (nineteen years ago)

When I lived in Hong Kong, we used to get the occasional gecko in the flat. I woke up thirsty and partially hungover in the early hours of the morning one time, and sleepily took a drink from the glass of water I'd put on the bedside table. When I awoke properly in the morning, I saw that there was a dead gecko floating head-down in the glass, as though it had just fallen in there off the ceiling and drowned. I've never been able to get over the horror that it might have been in there when I drank the water.

― C J (C J), Thursday, 9 November 2006 09:22 (nineteen years ago)

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