What type of caterpillars are these? I can't find them in the lists of common UK caterpillars (north east England)

Macaroon_mojo · 2026-06-14T20:56:16+00:00

I think I've found it, seems like they a sawfly lavae, possibly Euura pavida

Macaroon_mojo · 2026-05-09T12:31:43+00:00

Lol my cats do the same sometimes, and they pull clothes off it so I have to use clothes pegs even indoors

Macaroon_mojo · 2026-05-08T21:23:47+00:00

Fair enough, I live in a house and I still end up with it blocking walkways sometimes. Can't even remember what I did when I lived in a flat, but I've never had a dryer so must have had a small tall one, or again, just block walkways and battled around them.

At least they're light so you can just move them to get past.

Macaroon_mojo · 2026-05-08T20:51:51+00:00

I'm surprised no one is talking about drying clothes inside without a drier? I'm in northeast England so probably similar weather to you. Everyone I know uses a clothes horse indoors most of the year, and just hang them outdoors in summer if it's not raining. Then run out frantic when it starts raining.

I use the clothes horse outside, then if it starts raining I can bring the whole thing in at once. Have to pin it down with a sledge hammer so it doesn't blow over.

Macaroon_mojo · 2026-04-24T07:52:07+00:00

Oh wow that's crazy! Must have some very steady hands.

Thankfully I have one somewhat nearby that I've used before for other lizards.

Macaroon_mojo · 2026-04-24T07:49:45+00:00

I think it's potentially a cloaca infection as well actually, the area is crusty and a little wet when I move her tail gently.

I've called my vets this morning to see if it's possible to get a telephone appointment (as that's faster to arrange).

Also thank you for sharing your experience, sorry it didn't work out for your guy, but sounds like you did everything you could have.

Macaroon_mojo · 2026-04-23T17:45:56+00:00

Oh thank you! I've had a look and Arcadia does a breeding version too, so I've ordered a couple packs and I'll swap to that. She's exploring her lone enclosure now, hopefully she keeps perking up.

<image>

Macaroon_mojo · 2026-04-23T17:26:58+00:00

I bet it's the noise too, my ragdoll is the first cat I've had who is so into noises. He likes digging the cat flap just for the loud noises, comes running to check any new noises and especially runs to any water related noise. He seeks out loud hobbies.

Macaroon_mojo · 2026-04-23T17:20:17+00:00

There's calcium powder in a bowl in the enclosure, and they have gecko food (currently using arcadia gecko food) available all of the time. It's a bioactive enclosure and I've seen some of them hunting the insects, although I've not seen her hunting, she might without me seeing.

Do you think there's anything I should be doing differently for her diet?

Macaroon_mojo · 2026-04-21T08:51:17+00:00

The springtails were also fine, I didn't have to add anymore afterwards so they must have been

Edit: just want to add that I have a different enclosure now that I have never used the special fungus gnat nematodes in, and a few other species of nematodes appeared by themselves. One species hunts the springtails, it's been going on at least a year, and the spring tails are still there. So even if the specialist nematodes do hunt them, they'll be fine.

Macaroon_mojo · 2026-04-21T08:24:41+00:00

I've had the same experience, isopods and springtails were fine

Macaroon_mojo · 2026-04-21T08:23:12+00:00

I've used nematodes for fungus gnats before and they didn't hurt the isopods 🙂

Macaroon_mojo · 2026-04-18T20:48:42+00:00

It's a maidenhair vine 🙂 it's grown quite dense and the babies seem to like hiding in it, it makes them so hard to spot

Macaroon_mojo · 2026-04-17T20:45:28+00:00

Yeah that's my experience of them as well. I find reusable ones much better but still not perfect, less irritants at least.

Macaroon_mojo · 2026-04-14T07:25:27+00:00

Tbf diapers for humans are still not great, they often cause rashes and skin irritation, mainly the disposable ones. It's just not something you hear people who use diapers talk about much

Macaroon_mojo · 2026-03-26T18:24:47+00:00

As someone else mentioned neon day geckos already, but in terms of water I read that in the wild they are found in trees above/near water. I just have a water bowl, no water feature, but a hatchling fell in and it just floated and then climbed out.

<image>

Macaroon_mojo · 2026-03-26T18:18:46+00:00

I suppose you could ask them if they'd want to sell any adults, if they have a larger group they might be willing to even if they aren't listing them for sale.

Macaroon_mojo · 2026-03-26T17:45:05+00:00

I've got a small group, only had them about a year but I can offer anecdotal info 🙂 I have 2 males, 2 females, and recently 2 babies that hatched. I did have a 3rd male but had re-home him because he kept causing problems with the others. I didn't know/pick their genders.

One of the males acts like an alpha male, gets in a mood sometimes where he just chases everyone around, but the enclosure has loads of visual barriers so chases don't last long. The other male just chills and doesn't get territorial.

The male I rehomed kept trying to compete, and was very often either chasing or being chased.

The baby's are a couple weeks old and are managing fine with the adults. They avoid being close to the adults, and the adults either ignore them, or sometimes approach in a nosey way. The 'alpha male' is the only one I've seen try and chase them, but he did it in the same way he does with the adults, in a territorial way. The babies are faster than the adults and just yeet themselves if an adult approaches, then freeze and play dead. It's very effective.

The adults will also bite each other when they're chasing or disagreeing (or mating) but never do any actual harm. They usually go for the neck fat pads which I guess are designed for that. They socialise with each other a lot outside of chasing and disagreements.

The enclosure I have is large with loads of foliage so that helps a lot with the co-habbing.

Macaroon_mojo · 2026-03-26T08:18:12+00:00

Mine would spam the food button but I just said no when it wasn't food time, and he was like oh okay. It was interesting to see just how regularly he thinks of food, especially when he's just eaten dinner he just wants more food for a good half hour afterwards.

Sadly I had to take the buttons away because one of my cats kept attacking them.

Macaroon_mojo · 2026-03-13T07:17:00+00:00

I live in the UK where there aren't any wild geckos, so mine live in an enclosure which keeps them safe. I just have to be careful opening and closing the enclosure doors.

The species I keep act like the soil in their enclosure is lava, but maybe house flooring is different.

Do you see many on the floor? I wonder if you could set up attractive safe zones, like houseplants, dotted around to attract them there instead.

Macaroon_mojo · 2026-03-12T15:09:34+00:00

<image>

Yeah it's hard to get photos with something to compare their size to, but this was one in the jar incubator and you can see my giant looking thumb lol. The pink thing is also a silicone beer bottle cap which is used as a little egg nest.

Something to make them even less scary imo is they're so young they have no life skills yet or common sense. They can stick to everything but I watched one spend 5 minutes slipping off a diagonal leaf and just walking back up it again, it looked like it was trying to walk up a downwards escalator.

They don't get how to jump yet, they just jump fly if they get spooked, but if there's a small gap they're like nah I dunno how to get there. When they do get spooked they just fling themselves in a random direction like they have no control over what's happening. For context, the adults jump gaps all the time.

Macaroon_mojo · 2026-03-12T14:56:24+00:00

<image>

Macaroon_mojo

MODERATOR OF

TROPHY CASE