Resolving Thai Myths and Truths about Toktaws.

[Vogele123]

For years I have heard Thais blather on about Toktaws and how they will jump out and attack you, giving a death grip that if bitten you need to go to the hospital with the Toktaw still attached so the Doctor can remove it without it chewing you into minced person.

Well, some truth and a lot of BULL!

1: Toktaws jump at you and attack - Absolute rubbish! It took me 20 minutes and 5 bottles of Chang before I could manage to actually grab the big mother (about 16") that lives in my place. They do not jump, they run away.

2: Death Grip - This is entirely true, they do not let go! (Easily). After successfully catching my evil little friend I took it into the bedroom to show my son and wife - Boy ran away, wife hid! The Toktaw then goes into "play dead mode", I get accused of killing it by shock.

Now comes the mistake, to prove it was still alive I put it on the bedroom floor, it sat there looking very dead for about 2 minutes, then, like a bolt of lightening it took off across the floor and ran up into the wardrobe.

The big mistake here was I could see its tail sticking out and of course a little bit of "Chang" bravery (ran out of Red Horse) I decided to grab its tail. Well, this is where another truth comes in - Yes they do bite, they bite quite hard, and guess what? They do not let go!

The bugger got my thumb in its mouth and locked on, they have pretty sharp teeth too! There was blood everywhere and it still had a mouthful of Meng Mao at the time.

I eventually managed to grab its bottom jaw and lever it off, took it outside and let it go. (No need to go to the hospital for surgical removal and no need to hurt the Toktaw)

Thumb is a mess, Toktaw is fine, washed to cuts with Dettol and all is healing, no infection etc. So there you go. Toktaw was back again last night, he still lets me get my face within 12 inches of him, he doesn't attack, I think he knows he won!

Fantastic creatures - The wife apparently told her family, they are a bit old school and believe loads of superstition - They have been praying for me that I never do it again, well, we will see.

Edited July 19, 2015 by Vogele123

[petedk]

I have been in Thailand for 15 years, but have no idea what a Toktaw is.

Edit: At first the image didn't appear, but now I see it, I know what it is.

I am glad I have never met one though.

Edited July 19, 2015 by petedk

[Slip]

I hear you can get good money for them. We have at least 5 in the kitchen. You seem to be the torkay wrangler. Want to do a deal?

[Vogele123]

I hear you can get good money for them. We have at least 5 in the kitchen. You seem to be the torkay wrangler. Want to do a deal?

Indeed, we have heard people selling them for up to 10K Baht (To the Chinese who eat em!!!!)

Sorry, but none of mine are ever for sale, we have loads of them, they are everywhere. They love the dark, gaps and crevices in our wooden home. They are fantastic at eating just about any insect that moves. I would never sell one or kill one, they do no harm to people at all unless you do something stupid like I did.

The only problem with them is when they get big, they often take a dump almost the same size as a cat dump, this is pretty unwelcome on the car etc. Other than that (apart from the noise they make from where I believe they get their Thai name they screech "TOKTAW TOKTAW" - The locals where I live count the amount of calls and bet on the lotto! - probably loads of Lotto tickets around here with 9,10,11 & 12) they are a benefit to any home.

Don't sell them, just let them be - I have seen some of our bigger ones run down the house supports and swallow whole (8-10" long) Jakep! and those buggers are nasty if they get in your bed!

And their favourite food - The Meng Mao (This is a photo playing Tennis with the damn things - They are flying Termites)

Edited July 19, 2015 by Vogele123

[Eddy B]

In North Thailand where I live all the locals call them Tokay. Maybe a difference because of locations. Your right OP, there is no need to kill them at all. They are a good form of natural pest control, be it insects or small rodents. When they do get into the house the Thai part of my family. i.e. wife and step-son will go into an hysterical panic. So I have to chase the medium sized bugger out. The last time I had to man-handle one I was lucky I still had my leather/suede gauntlets for gardening to grab it. Man, it bit down hard but luckily the leather had hardened so all I felt was the pressure and not the pain. I let the sucker go in the back of the house and he was free again to cause what ever mischievous acts it wanted.

[stoneyboy]

I sit and talk to one on the veranda when the wife's in bed it's far more interesting than hearing about the woman round the corner selling more land.

[billd766]

I have a mutuality pact with mine. I leave them alone and they leave me alone.

Vogele123 is correct about the size of their crap too.

[Squeegee]

In Isaan I had a big one go in my shower room and sit in the squat toilet water looking upwards and never moving until I forced it out with a toilet brush handle. I even prod-chased it outside only for it to go back into the toilet water. It became increasingly lethargic over the next day or two then died on the shower room floor.

[wpcoe]

I've heard that one way to get a tokay to release its "death grip" on a finger is to submerge your hand in water. They have to let go in order to surface to breathe. Of course, then the race is on again if you want to try to catch it again.

[fish fingers]

I thought they were called something like Tookae

[sipi]

We have one in the ceiling. The sod barks 5 times on the hour every hour, all night. Apart from that we enjoy his company.

[fish fingers]

The sod barks 5 times on the hour every hour, all night.

That must be the extremely rare Tiktoktaw

[sipi]

The sod barks 5 times on the hour every hour, all night.

That must be the extremely rare Tiktoktaw

Really? Apparently more than 5 barks is good luck.

Edited July 20, 2015 by sipi

[Saan]

I read somewhere that during WW11 allied soldiers thought the tokay was a bird, not having seen the lizard, and because of the call they were known as f...k you birds.

[Just1Voice]

We used to have them here in our moo ban before most of the houses went up. Last one to leave was a monster, easily over 2 foot long from nose to tip of tail. But he finally disappeared as well. Now all we have are the little gekkos that love to hang out in the downstairs bathroom near the screened window.

[recycler]

We have over 20 in the attic, some very big ones. When one gets in the house it has to go, wife is not a fan of them.

They are easy to catch if you spray water on and around them they loose their grip.

If they sing only 5 times or less they are lazy and according to my wife you should get rid of them.

[jonnit]

I read somewhere that during WW11 allied soldiers thought the tokay was a bird, not having seen the lizard, and because of the call they were known as f...k you birds.

If this is what I think it is, soldiers from the Vietnam era called them f..k you lizards, They made a sound similar to someone saying that.

[prakhonchai nick]

The sod barks 5 times on the hour every hour, all night.

That must be the extremely rare Tiktoktaw

Really? Apparently more than 5 barks is good luck.

4 means a death. 5 and up brings increasing levels of good luck..............so the locals believe!

[RasiMike]

We one in our house and another pair in our shop and they are the best pest controllers in the business, so leave them be. The sound is annoying and frightening to those that aren't too comfortable with the natural world and believers in ghosts etc. As far as their danger rating goes, they are outweighed by the average human and their teeth can't be more than 2mm long.

[cooked]

They seem to have disappeared from the neighbourhood here, haven't heard one this year. Maybe they don't like the mosquito spray.

[Catoni]

In North Thailand where I live all the locals call them Tokay. Maybe a difference because of locations. Your right OP, there is no need to kill them at all. They are a good form of natural pest control, be it insects or small rodents. When they do get into the house the Thai part of my family. i.e. wife and step-son will go into an hysterical panic. So I have to chase the medium sized bugger out. The last time I had to man-handle one I was lucky I still had my leather/suede gauntlets for gardening to grab it. Man, it bit down hard but luckily the leather had hardened so all I felt was the pressure and not the pain. I let the sucker go in the back of the house and he was free again to cause what ever mischievous acts it wanted.

When I was in northern Thailand for four months, based out of Chiang Mai, I used to hear a crazy noise sometimes outside the window of a Thai massage place I used to go for Thai massage.. I asked the girl..."What is that" and she smiled and said something that sounded like "Toe Toe". I wondered what "Toe Toe" was... until I found out.

It's a variety of large Geko called a Tokay Geko.

Here is what it sounded like:

[monkey4u]

They seem to have disappeared from the neighbourhood here, haven't heard one this year. Maybe they don't like the mosquito spray.

Maybe they ended up on someone's bbq

[chilidog]

What i have seen about the Tokay here is that parents use them to scare kids. They might say dont go outside because a Tokay is coming and the kids run back in the house. These kids grow up and become adults and are still scared to death of them.

[Toknarok]

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tokay_gecko

[Liquorice]

We used to occasionally get one in the house.

The g/f catches them by placing a firm finger on the top of it's head, then slides a finger underneath it's lower jaw.

Something like the approach snake catchers take.

It can then be safely carried outside and released.

This year only seen one and that's disappeared for now.

[northernphil]

I like sitting outside at the days' end listening to the Tokay over the road in the wooden house. This Tokay is a posh one and says doctor ,doctor. I love the way they run out of breath at the end after about 10 shouts. I also like the fact that folk here on TV also seem to like them. I would like one for a pet but have only seen bugs and frogs for sale in the markets.

[Laza 45]

..There is a Thai myth that if they bite you they won't let go until it thunders... I had a small _{one latch onto a work glove while I was moving some timber.. I took the glove off... with the Toukay attached... when I cam back 1/2 hr later it was still attached!}

[timmyp]

Hilarious story, thanks for sharing. I fully support those who challenge the silly crap people believe is true but is just based on silly rumour... though most folks seem to get irritated even after they've been shown the truth: "Why can't he just accept it? He only got lucky this time. We refuse to stop believing." Hope your finger heals.

[Fullstop]

I thought they were called something like Tookae

They are.

[sipi]

In North Thailand where I live all the locals call them Tokay. Maybe a difference because of locations. Your right OP, there is no need to kill them at all. They are a good form of natural pest control, be it insects or small rodents. When they do get into the house the Thai part of my family. i.e. wife and step-son will go into an hysterical panic. So I have to chase the medium sized bugger out. The last time I had to man-handle one I was lucky I still had my leather/suede gauntlets for gardening to grab it. Man, it bit down hard but luckily the leather had hardened so all I felt was the pressure and not the pain. I let the sucker go in the back of the house and he was free again to cause what ever mischievous acts it wanted.

When I was in northern Thailand for four months, based out of Chiang Mai, I used to hear a crazy noise sometimes outside the window of a Thai massage place I used to go for Thai massage.. I asked the girl..."What is that" and she smiled and said something that sounded like "Toe Toe". I wondered what "Toe Toe" was... until I found out.

It's a variety of large Geko called a Tokay Geko.

Here is what it sounded like:

Sipi has a new ringtone. Love it. Thanks...