A blue-tongued lizard (in this photo) has just decided to come into my back room, and is currently hiding behind some bookshelves. So, what should I do?
This has happened to me a few times in Florida, from freakishly large iguanas, a blue tegu, a foot and a half long cuban anole (the same one over and over again) as well as a owl. They all got into my house and the others just hung out on the patio till they were weak from not eating. I still would put out something they can use, like heat rock, water, food close to the exit which was the door they crawled thru. I never approached the cuban anole because he was vicious but after a few visits he became hand tame.
Leave it alone until you get an easy chance to catch and release it. That’s what I do whenever I find a lizard, rat, feral cat, possom, raccoon, bat, etc. in my place.
Find it and hit it, then you’ll start “Tracking Down the Manager”.
I voted wait.
Is there anything in your house for it to eat? According to the Herp Care page, it seems that captive ones like to eat salad and love blueberries and cherries.
I recently had a gecko living in my place. Loved it being around and it presumably ate some mozzies too. Unfortunately it was hiding in the sliding mechanism of the French windows and I killed it when I opened the door. 
I first read that as “manger”, giving rise to the idea of dropping the lizard & a kresh into an empty 5-gallon fish talk and filming a bad team-up of Technicolor movies:
“The Robe vs The Lost World”
"…and the Lord said, The Meek Shall Inherit The… Holy Hell! Is that a 200 foot Iguana??? insert phony iguana roar "
I vote kill it, kill it now, kill it with fire.
The Druidess votes keep it as a pet.
Yes, we are married. I don’t kill stuff much anymore. Except spiders. The Druidess will announce a spider’s presence and then leave the room while husband deals with it as he will. In this instance, I suspect we’d end up with another pet. :rolleyes:
How big is it?
You know what’s funny? In the game that that’s a reference to, I read it as “manger” the first few times, too.
It’s from Echo Bazaar, by the way…there’s a card that says you find a lizard in your room and if you click on the card, you start a mission called “Tracking down the Manager”.
I was figuring the reference would be lost on about 99.9 percent of dopers, but that .1 percent that got it would make it worth it. : p
As for the OP, so I don’t hijack it, I’d definitely keep it. Lizards eat a great many pesty bugs.
Assuming it’s not dangerous (you are in Australia, after all) and you have no housepets who will vehemently object to its presence, I say let it be. Presumable it will help keep your house free of bugs, or it will leave on its own when it’s tired of living with you.
But what about all the lizard poop?
I’ve checked in a couple of sources, and (despite being a native Australian animal) it’s not dangerous at all. But I now can’t see it at all: it may still be hiding where I can’t see it, since I don’t think it’s escaped.
I’m not even sure what that looks like, but maybe I’m going to find out.
I love house lizards. The wife always wants me to chase them out and can’t understand why I always try to make them feel at home instead.
My husband has accepted my laundry room lizards as just one of my harmless quirks. For the past two winters, at our previous home, geckos took up residence to escape the cold. When spring came, fat happy geckos were trapped and released. A couple of days ago, Tony and I were attacking the decorative vines that were eating the house. We finally untangled the one from around the back door (it was up in the gutters and trying to penetrate the office windows!) and uncovered a gecko’s hidey hole. Tony figures that one will winter indoors this year.
If it were something larger than a gecko, though, it would probably have to leave before the dogs tried to eat it.
Blue tongues are easy to catch, Giles - coax him out by leaving a snail, or a bit of green leafy vegetable matter, and drop a towel over him so you can pick him up. They’re docile; although (if you’re unlucky enough) they do have a painful bite that can break the skin and leave bruising.
If he’s at all threatened by you, you’ll know: he’ll open his mouth wide, and show you that big blue tongue while hissing at you. If he feels really under attack, he’ll drop his tail; similarly if you handle him roughly by the tail (which I know you won’t do.) So if he is frightened by you, (which he probably won’t be) just leave him alone until he comes to his senses.
He’s harmless, so if you don’t want to wait until he leaves of his own accord just use the towel. Pick him up with one hand over his head and the other over his back legs to take him outside.
I await the lizard poop pics!
How big is the lizard, btw?
Have an army man blow him up with dynamite and then ship his ass to El Salvador.
It’s a bit over 30 cm long – or 1 foot to the unmetricated. We have a lot of smaller skinks living in our back yard, but this is he first time that I’ve seen a blue-tongue outside a zoo. And now I’m really not sure if it’s still hiding in the house, or if it escaped while we ignored it.