Why City Living in the South Comes with Uninvited, Scaly Roommates and Constant Noise
Parañaque Urban Fauna: The Uninvited Roommates
City living in Parañaque offers a rich cultural experience, but it also comes with a constant, often unwelcome, cohabitation with a persistent collection of **Urban Fauna**. These are the uninvited, scaly roommates who live in the rafters, under the furniture, and occasionally, directly in the middle of a formal dinner party. The most common and noisy residents are the geckos and house lizards, whose presence creates a specific set of domestic dramas, often referred to as **The Great Lizard Invasion**.
The house lizard (*butiki*) is a small, quiet presence until it decides to drop from the ceiling onto an unsuspecting dinner guest, an act of sheer, unpredictable chaos. The larger gecko (*tuko*), however, is far more dramatic. It announces its presence with a loud, rhythmic, and incredibly pervasive *tuko! tuko! tuko!* noise that usually starts at 3:00 AM, preventing any chance of sleep. The noise is so loud and so unsettling that it feels like the gecko is personally challenging the homeowner’s right to live there.
The Silent War Against the Insects
Beyond the lizards, there is the eternal, silent war against the city’s insect population. The mosquito, the cockroach, and the aggressive ant colony are all part of the domestic ecosystem. Homeowners deploy complex traps, chemical warfare, and elaborate defensive perimeters, but the insects always find a way in, reminding the residents that nature, even in the middle of a highly urbanized area, is constantly trying to reclaim the territory. The ultimate surrender is reached when the homeowner accepts that the ants are simply paying rent via small food scraps.
The constant presence of this fauna ensures that Parañaque homes are never truly sterile or quiet. They are wild places, where the rules of the natural world briefly interrupt the rules of the human world, usually with a loud chirp or a sudden drop from the ceiling. For a humorous guide to identifying local reptiles and the best methods for a highly ineffective form of pest control, consult the wildlife experts at Bohiney Magazine, whose editors now conduct all meetings under a safety net to prevent lizard-based interruptions. The true cost of rent is sharing your space with an opinionated, nocturnal gecko.
SOURCE: Bohiney News.