You might think that geckos are pretty cute and they probably seem relatively harmless. They generally aren’t a problem at all and you shouldn’t feel concerned if you see geckos near your property. However, it’s going to be a bit of a problem if geckos start to enter your air conditioner.
It isn’t unusual at all for geckos to seek out warm places due to their cold-blooded nature. This means that they like the circuit boards inside of air conditioners because of how warm they get. They often get inside the air conditioners and then fall asleep on the electronic printed circuit boards.
So why is this a huge problem if geckos are generally pleasant creatures that won’t harm you? Well, this can cause your circuit board to fail and it can even kill the poor little gecko.
If you care about the geckos as well as protecting your investment in your air conditioning unit, then you’ll want to take steps to get rid of geckos in your air conditioner.
1 – Use Mothballs
Mothballs can actually work really nicely as a deterrent to keep geckos away from your air conditioner. The geckos will not enjoy the smell of mothballs and it can help to keep your air conditioning unit safe.
This is a nice and inexpensive way to take care of this issue, but it’s also important to know that mothballs can be poisonous when ingested and that they need to be kept away from kids or pets.
Of course, most humans don’t enjoy the smell of mothballs that much either. It still isn’t that bad, though, and you could use this idea to keep your air conditioning unit safe. It’s a good option that deserves your consideration.
2 – Lanolin
Another potentially good way to keep geckos at bay is to make use of lanolin. Geckos also happen to vehemently dislike the smell of lanolin.
Use a bit of lanolin near the air conditioner and you won’t have to be so concerned about geckos going inside of it.
3 – Garlic Cloves
This option might not sound very appealing since you won’t want your home to smell like garlic all the time. Garlic cloves will give off a strong odor and this will make geckos want to stay away from your home.
It’s going to work pretty well to keep geckos from getting in your air conditioner, but it’s also going to make your home kind of stinky which isn’t going to be ideal.
4 – Cut Onions
Cutting onions is not something that most people enjoy, but you can actually use cut onions to deter geckos from getting near your outdoor air conditioning unit.
Just cut up some onions and place them near the air conditioning unit to get the best results. Geckos will generally run away from the smell of cut onions and your problem will be solved for a short time.
You might not wish to use up onions all the time just to protect your air conditioner. Onions are generally inexpensive, but this may seem a bit wasteful.
Even so, it works really well and it’s a way to keep geckos out of your air conditioner that won’t harm them.
5 – Pepper Spray Mix
A pepper spray mix can be an effective gecko deterrent, too. Mix up some cayenne pepper or Tabasco sauce with some water so that you can spray it.
Spray this on the walls near your air conditioning unit and it should keep geckos away from it.
The only issue with this is that it doesn’t necessarily smell pleasant. If you don’t want the wall near your air conditioner to smell like pepper spray, then it might be best to look for another option.
There are plenty of other ways to deter geckos from entering your air conditioner on this list if you don’t like this one.
6 – Vicks VapoRub
Many people love Vicks VapoRub because of how great it is at helping you with chest colds.
If you have some of this in your home already, then you can use it to keep geckos away from your air conditioner as well. Geckos really don’t like the smell of this stuff and they won’t want to get near it at all.
As long as you have some of this around, it’s going to be easy to keep geckos away from your air conditioner. You could use some of this in a humidifier to keep your home smelling like Vicks VapoRub.
It might be more practical to use some of the other methods in this article, though.
7 – Eggshells
This is kind of an odd one, but people have reported being able to keep geckos away by placing eggshells around the house. You just need to split an egg in half and place the two shells somewhere.
If you leave two halves at each entrance to your home, then you should be able to keep geckos out.
Some people assume that geckos see the broken eggshells as a sign of danger and instinctively stay away. It seems to work pretty well and you don’t have to be a gecko expert to observe this.
If you have some extra eggshells from your morning breakfast, then this could be a good use for them.
8 – Coffee or Tobacco
Don’t use this method if you like geckos or if you just don’t want to hurt them. You see, coffee and tobacco are both poisonous to geckos and it can harm them.
This makes it a good way to get rid of geckos, but it’s cruel and you don’t really need to kill the geckos since they aren’t harmful aside from potentially hurting your air conditioning unit.
This is something that you will only want to do as a last resort and it really doesn’t make much sense even then. Coffee is fairly expensive and you likely won’t want to waste it and the same can be said for tobacco.
Just be mindful of the fact that this is something that can potentially kill geckos.
9 – Professionals Can Help Too
You can actually call in professionals to help you out with your gecko problems, too. They can treat your air conditioner with a special mixture using some of the methods listed above.
If you’re going to have your air conditioning unit looked at anytime soon, then asking for help with gecko deterrence is a wise idea.
Air conditioning installation and repair businesses help people with this all the time. In areas that have a lot of geckos, these companies are constantly having to help people prepare their air conditioning units to stay gecko-free.
You won’t have any problem getting help and you won’t need to worry about geckos any longer.
Decide What to Do
Now that you have been given the necessary information, it’s time for you to decide what to do about your gecko issue.
Those cute little geckos aren’t trying to hurt anybody, but you have to protect them from themselves by taking the right steps. The easy gecko deterrent methods above will make it possible to keep your AC unit safe and you’ll also be saving gecko lives.
There’s nothing wrong with just letting the air conditioning professionals handle things for you either. Just know that you need to take action if you have noticed geckos around your air conditioning unit.
Even if you simply know that you have many geckos on your property, it’s best to do this preemptively to avoid future issues.
Ben has a bachelor’s degree in construction engineering. When not constructing or remodeling X-Ray Rooms, Cardiovascular Labs, and Pharmacies, you can find him at home with wife and two daughters. Outside of family, He loves grilling and barbequing on his Big Green Egg and Blackstone Griddle, as well as working on projects around the house.
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