Swollen Gummy Geckos

More gummy fun with the gummy gecko my 7-year-old begged me to buy (at the hardware store of all places!) With all of that gelatin, our gummy gecko absorbed lots of water. Though it didn't double in length like a gummy worm, when we left it in water it sure swelled up! (One interesting thing: since this gecko floated, unlike our gummy worms, it still had a few areas on the spine that didn't actually get wet. See the knobbly back breaching the water like a prehistoric aquatic dinosaur?)

Floating Geckos

When we saw the Sour Gummy Geckos in the hardware store, my 7-year-old demanded that we bring them home for experiments. First experiment: when we put one in water, why did it float?


Gummi gecko floating in water

Only when the gummi gecko had absorbed water and expanded could we see the reason it floated: tons of tiny air bubbles.


The bubbles are also probably the reason the candy is opaque, not transparent like most gummies.