That sickening feeling...

[Chinadog]

...When you suddenly realise you've left a lid open! I siphoned a small amount of water out of my adult firebellies tank to fill a tub for some eggs and only realized I hadn't slid the lid shut just now I had visions of tearing the whole house apart to find the escapees flashing through my head but I needn't have panicked, the females are too lazy and the males are too busy swishing their swanky tails about to be bothered about what's beyond the glass.
I won't do it again though, lesson learned.

 

[Ted]

Oh boy,I think we're all guilty of this at one point or another..in collage I brought a girl up to my room,and then started freaking out.she asked what was wrong ,and I said,do you see that empty fish tank over there?well there was a huge scorpion in it when I left and now I think we should leave right now..I just recently forgot to put the lid on my red salamander and the next morning when I saw it I really started getting ill..but he was to big and fat to climb up anywhere..one night I was watching tv and had one of my snakes crawl right into the living room right in front of me..and I have two cats !

 

[Smoxolotl]

Just what she wanted to hear, eh Ted?

 

[sde]

Ugh. Just happened to me today. I was checking on my A. gracile and forgot to put the lid back on.......for the second time :nono: Luckily for me they probably didn't even notice. They are big and fat and aren't wet also, so they probably wouldn't be able to climb out anyway.....I don't think. I guess it happens.

Ted, I am curious to know, did you ever find that scorpion? Or is there a huge scorpion making residence in your college? Heh heh, I hope not....:errr:

 

[Ted]

Seth,,when I was younger,back during the vintage days,the information in the 60 's and 70's just wasn't there like today.you had to write letters to people using the mail and go to the library and try to research anything you can find on your pet,the antique way.so you tried your best and struggle to keep your animals.but a lot of times we just didn't know better so things escape and got out.im almost embarrassed to say that I've found more than my share of dried up funny looking dust balls in every corner.were lucky to have a site like this to learn state of the art techniques from others and keep improving our knowledge.my explanation sounds good for back then but for my more recent mistakes my only excuse is probably not always double checking the tops.....ok,,Seth,I never found my scorpion! To this day I have no idea what happened to it...I have a feeling it might have crawled into a vent.

 

[AfroNewtkeeper]

I've had my share of escape artists... About a year ago while cleaning my fat-tailed gecko's tank, I left the lid off of the box I set her in... After about 30 minutes of searching, I found her curled up in the corner of the room, covered in dust and cobwebs. Spent another ten minutes just trying to catch her.

(Sorry I haven't been on lately. I've been preparing to adopt a blue tongue skink for the past few weeks.)

 

[Jennewt]

I know too well the panic of finding an open lid. I've reduced my chances of doing this by making a rule for myself. I must close the lid any time I step away from a tank, even if I'm only going 2 feet away to get some newt food or empty a bucket. In other words, I never move an inch away from an open tank, even if I'm coming right back. This has helped me, but there is still the rare incident, ugh.

 

[velasco13000]

The best escape artists are the kaiseri...ive had a few escapees myself ...they are like spiderman newts lol

 

[srf312]

My first fire belly escaped a couple weeks ago. Haven't found him and I feel terrible about it!

 

[Chinadog]

We've all done it, one of last years metamorphs climbed up and over the top when I was right there feeding them. Didn't find him 'till it as way too late.

 

[Smoxolotl]

I reached down to pick up a piece of lint off of the floor a while ago and it reared up and snapped at me! The little crab that I hadn't seen in a few days was now challenging me to a duel! The only reason that it survived at all was because my cat was out prowling, luckily for it!