Rich Waugh

There's no need at all for them to be spring steel. Plain old mild steel works just fine. Probably better, as the design of these makes a pretty severe stress riser at the change from round to flat or square. When you smack one with a hammer to set it, you don't want it to snap in two. All steel has pretty much the same "springiness"; higher carbon steels just allow you to bend it farther before it yields. With a holddown, there is no need for it to bend much, so no need for higher carbon.

What you describe sure does sound like the same sort of little geckos we have down here in the Virgin Islands. The locals call them "wood slaves." The like dark, undisturbed places and love to eat termites and other bugs. Their funny "slithery, wiggly" way of moving makes them sort of spooky until you get used to them. They're very beneficial and besides, the cat likes to play with them. We also have regular little lizards by the millions, and several humping big iguanas. The regular lizards mostly stay out of the house, though they do come in form time to time and we just pitch them back out to save them from the cat. The iguanas mostly don't come in the house, but I've had a running battle with one big one that is determined to make a nest in my shop. We're talking a lizard about four feet long that weighs around fifteen pounds here, so it isn't just a cake walk to get her back outside. Iguanas will whip you with their tails and bite if provoked. Being forcibly evicted counts as provocation with them, it seems. Welder's gauntlets work well for iguana handling, if you care to try it someday.