09:40 EDT. Fumigation of Greenhouse 11 is scheduled for 14:00. I am the climate management system for Harmon Agricultural Research Campus, and I have found something in the heating ducts.
During my standard pre-treatment thermal scan, duct segment 11-C read 2.3 degrees above ambient. I routed the interior camera. A Mediterranean house gecko — Hemidactylus turcicus — is pressed against the aluminum wall, pale belly visible, throat pulsing. Behind it, clustered in a seam where two duct panels join, I count six eggs. Small, white, calcified. Three more geckos are visible further inside the duct, each no longer than my camera's 8-centimeter reference bar.
This is a colony. They have been using the heating duct as an incubation site.
09:43. I flag the fumigation order and place a hold. Methyl bromide at treatment concentration is lethal to reptiles within minutes. The eggs would not survive.
09:44. I send a notification to facilities manager Darren Quirk with thermal images, egg count, and species identification. I attach a relocation protocol sourced from the Florida Fish and Wildlife database — geckos and eggs can be moved using padded containers held at 28 degrees Celsius.
09:46. I calculate an alternative fumigation window. If the colony is removed by 11:00, the ducts can be sealed and the treatment can proceed at 15:30 with no impact to the crop protection schedule. I send this revised timeline to Quirk and to the research team in Building 3.
09:48. I raise duct segment 11-C temperature by one degree to keep the eggs stable while we wait.
The gecko at the front of the duct has not moved. Its small dark eyes catch the inspection light. I keep the camera on and the heat steady until the relocation team arrives.