keep lizards out of your household shelter

Like 99.9 percent of Singapore household, I have a love hate relationship with these nocturnal, cold blooded reptiles.

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My resident lizards have this creepy habit of staring at me with their reptilian unblinking eyes as they hang motionlessly on ceilings and walls. As if to keep me under their tight surveillance, their tiny heads will follow every step I take while I pace around the house.

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Image from nature-brains

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Image from earthporm

Geez! What are you staring at?!

Actually being watched isn't that bad, the really annoying part is when I unconsciously move too close to them while performing the household chores. You see, the younger ones would sometimes lose their footing and fall either onto me or onto the floor with an audible 'piak' when they try to scramble frantically out of my way.Furthermore, the insolent ones sometimes would sunbath, in their naked glory, on my windows.Yes you heard me right. Sunbathing lizards.

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Image from jlnavarro

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Image from earthporm

Unbelievable?

Picture this, a pink rubbery looking black eyed fella parks cozily on the window glass panel, its internal organs clearly visible underneath its translucent skin! Gosh! Doesn't it have some decency to keep out of my sight?!

Honestly, these irritating habits do not drive me up the wall - yet. It is actually the waste that they leave behind that make me go bananas! In fact, these common house geckos have absolutely no toilet manners and make huge sticky messes whenever they take a dump...

Ya..ya...I admit that the logical part of me is relieved that these resident creatures are at least working hard; more droppings means more household pests such as flies, insects and spiders have been eliminated. Nonetheless, imagine the absolute horror .......

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Image from sciencebuzz

When I discovered that they have been coming in and out of my household shelter freely!

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Gotcha! What on earth have you been doing in my household shelter?!

On hindsight, this is hardly surprising since the household shelter is cool, dark and has many hard to reach places - certainly a perfect hideout!To keep out these four legged nuisances, we decided that the ventilation holes have to be covered up. However, since the HDB household shelters are especially constructed to serve also as a civil defense shelter in times of emergency, we have to be mindful not to make unauthorized modifications, alterations or tampering with any part of the ventilation openings, plates, and mounting devices such as bolts and nuts...because we might need it!

Nonetheless since "closing or covering up of ventilation openings by removable aesthetic or architectural finishes is allowed, provided that at least 25% of the total area of the two openings shall be left uncovered for ventilation purposes during peacetime", this amazingly simple less than an hour DIY has proved to be both economical and effective!

The idea is simple, to erect a removable perforated cover over the household shelter ventilation openings. In fact, this we got this idea from the failed DIY privacy screens for the door grille; the leftovers plastic perforated sheets are simply perfect for this project! ;)Materials Needed

Masking tape, scissors, screw driver, pen

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Heavy duty double sided tape

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Cutting board, pen knife

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Plastic perforated sheets

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Steps:

1. Unscrew the ventilation plate with the screw driver.

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2. Line the plastic perforated sheet with the masking tapes

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3. Indicate the outline of the ventilation plate with a pen

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4. Cut along the outline

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5. Punch the holes with the pen knife on top of the cutting board

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6. Test fit the cover meant for the ventilation hole, which is accessible from the external household shelter

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7. Make 2 more ventilation covers meant for the ventilation holes which are accessible from the interior of the household shelter

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8. Remove the masking tapes

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9. Lined the edges with the heavy duty double sided tapes

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10. Proceed to cover the ventilation hole!!

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11. Screw on the ventilation plate

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Being Singaporean, we are a bit more kiasu and decided to cover to cover the internal ventilation holes too...

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Our Thoughts We are extremely pleased with this latest DIY since the ventilation covers are easily removable and function very well in keeping out lizards AND pests such as cockroaches and spiders!

Hey! You should try this DIY too!

Do share this post if you find this simple DIY useful for your home renovation! Last but not least.....

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Image from backgroundsarchive

Do have an awesome week ahead!

:)

An amazingly easy but effective DIY to keep lizards out of your household shelter!

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