I was just on the phone, and looking for a pen to write with. Started shuffling papers around and noticed that there was some teeny tiny little brown thing, which I briefly assumed was a leaf or something. As I shuffled the papers some more, I brushed against the brown thing, which suddenly decided it was a wriggling, squirming brown thing, and realized I had my first lizard invasion.
It was teeny tiny - less narrow and shorter than a cigarette, and probably scurried off somewhere to die of a heart attack, but I could help but shiver a little and announce to the poor (and humorless) soul on the other end of the phone “There’s a lizard in here!” before proceeding to write down the information he was giving me.
The perils of living in a place where lizards are more common than squirrels, I guess…
I used to work for a boss who once asked me if I had ever bought any “lizard poison”. He explained that he kept seeing lizards sunning themselves on the wall in his backyard and he wanted to eradicate them. Nothing I could say would convince him that lizards weren’t “vermin”, but harmless small predators whose presence indicated that his backyard was a healthy functioning ecosystem. No, he equated them with roaches or termites or something malevolent like that and he wanted them exterminated.
A few years ago, when we first moved down here, I was working on the loading dock for a company. Thought my crewmembers were having a bit of a joke; there was a two-foot long plastic lizard attached to the loading door’s frame. When it jumped down and ran out the door – on it’s hind legs – I realized that it was an honest-to-Og living Basilisk, or Jesus Christ Lizard! A transplant, but still very, very cool.
My place of employment is a one-story square type building with a very large inner courtyard that has been designed with trees, bushes, and large areas of river rocks…Prime lizard territory! You’d think that, wouldn’t you? Then tell me why it’s infested with suicidal lizards. I am not making this up. They will literally run under your feet rather than away in the opposite direction. That I haven’t fallen and broken a leg in my attempts to abort assorted lizard squashing is truly a miracle.
In Cape Coral, there’s an infestation of Monitor lizards. Now those things are dangerous! And the first time I flew out of MIA, it was a real surprise to see iguanas in the trees.
And all of these are in addition to the BIG FREAKIN’ ALLIGATORS that one can find even in suburban neighborhoods.
We had a lizard in our kitchen last summer. One little horned lizard, about an inch and a half long, which to my wife equals, “We’re being invaded by lizards!” I tried to reason with her that the Texas horned lizard is endangered and thus probably a good luck charm, but she would have none of it.
Here’s a picture of the cute little sucker after I caught him in a coffee cup and set him loose outside.
She would have freaked over something I once encountered. I left an empty glass on the coffee table after it had soda in it. The next morning there was a little brown anole stuck to the inside bottom of the glass. A little spritz of tap water and it was ready to go. Out the door, that is.
Every once in a while, I encounter a tiny little frog hopping around the apartment or more often a dried up little frog husk. Any witches out can call me if they need dried frogs for their potions.
See, that’s the funny thing – when I worked in a garden shop up north, we’d get our tropicals in from Florida, and they would always come with dozens of little tree frogs. Down here in SoFla, though, I barely ever see the little suckers, uh, hoppers. Tiny ground toads, yes, but not tree frogs. Must be regional.
It’s true there are a lot of lizards in South Florida. My grandfather used to call them streakers. When we went to visit him he’d say “There’s a streaker!” and we’d look around expecting to see some naked dude running down the street, but it would just be a dumb old lizard.
Where do you live? Sounds like you’ve acquired an anole… will not hurt you, and will eat stray insects in your house while he hides from you. If you find him again he’ll be easier to catch if you toss a small piece of cloth over him first and then gather him up with it. The sudden darkness will temporaily calm him and make him pick-uppable.
AFG, taking care of anoles for 12 years.
btw, I knew a lady once who found a baby leopard gecko in her bananas.
If by ‘very cool’ you mean an invasive species w/ no local predators so it can eat all the food the local species needs untiil they die out and leave the alien on the top of the food chain, I think you may be short-sighted in your adoration of the cool reptile.
(Yes, I know ‘coqui’ means frog, so they’re just calling it a frog frog.)
Oh, I recognize this fact and I’m not a booster for invasive species. I just meant the fact that I, as a lizard-lover, got to see one was cool. I was thinking about trying to capture it (it took up residence under the company’s trash compactor for a short while), but when I read up on the species, I learned they are extremely aggressive and tend to bite like hell.
A short while ago, I saw a smaller one (1-foot) squooshed by the side of the road, and I admit that I thought, “Well, there’s one that won’t be competing with the local iguanas.”
