A race runner lizard has taken up residence in the soil of one of my flower beds. One of your posted answers suggested mothballs and eliminating food supply, ie. bugs. So this morning I cut down my marigold bushes, sprayed the beds with insecticide and put out mothballs in pots and along the perimeter of the flower bed.
Around noon I saw the lizard climbing the fence. It then walked along the middle support to another section of the fence. Then it went down the fence, across a plywood divider and into the bed it had been sited in originally. This maneuver allowed it to avoid the heaviest concentration of mothballs.
How do I get rid of this thing? I'm ready to pour bleach over the entire bed!
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I do not know of a lizard type called race lizard, however, your garden lizard is most probably an alligator lizard (similar appearance). They are completely harmless to humans and pets but are deadly to all garden spiders, mosquitos, pill bugs, etc., almost all garden pests. If you want to repel or kill your lizards, you will then have many more garden pests to deal with as lizards love garden insects. You can try a search yourself (get rid of garden lizards) or this helpful site to start:
www.gardeningknowhow.com/
You are talking about skinks.. but they will continue to grow if you keep feeding them... I have 2 about a foot long... they have got to go!!!! They scare to stew out of my mom!!
You all can say all you want about lizards until you come face to face with one of those red/orange broad headed big lizards things that comes out and nearly gives me a heart attack. I chopped the head off one, but the others skit across and i can't seen to be fast enough. .Those things belong in a desert somewhere and not around my house. I do not know what I would do if one gets in my house. Sell the house I guess. I can handle a small lizard or gecko once in awhile, but not that big red broad headed ones I see from tine to time.
I'm with Dinah, here. The Racerunner lizard is a harmless lizard that eats many insect pests. You are quite lucky to have one in your flower beds. I don't have any idea why you'd want to remove it. You'll only have to use more insecticides on your flowers.
To each her own, I guess.
Dinah and Abigail, thank you for responding to my question. I have a number of reasons for not wanting the race runner in my garden, but the most important one is my 2 year old grandson who plays in the back yard where the lizard has been spotted. I don't want him handling the lizard or its droppings.
Beth, I guarantee your grandchild will not be able to catch your lizard!!! My husband is a biologist who frequently traps animals of all types for research (then releases them unharmed!). Even he has problems catching lizards. He sneaks up on them with a little string noose on a fishing pole and they still outsmart him!
As for lizard droppings, there are far worse things in your yard than lizard droppings that your grandchild will definitely find no matter how careful you are: Animal feces from rats & mice (both can carry several diseases easily transferable to humans), ants-can have very painful bites, many other insects-dung beetles who love to roll and eat dung, centipedes and millipedes-also very painful bites, spiders-painful and worse bites, etc. In addition to possible bites, all of these insects and animals drop feces wherever they are and your entire yard is fair game for them.
I hope that you will consider letting your lizard live as she or he is a very pretty animal and an excellent pest controller in your yard!
Yes pour bleach around the area to ward them away.
yikes......why ? bleach is poison, bad for the soil and the drinking water. These lizards are wonderful in your garden....they eat all the bugs you do not want.
That's how you feel and I can respect your opinion because everybody has one. Now please respect mine as well: I'm in 100% agreement with anyone wanting to KILL the lizards. Damn the insects that it eats and to hell with any other benefits that may come from lizards being around...KILL them! #IHATELIZARDS
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