Those Pesky Lizards

By Bobbi

There is a family of lizards living on our front porch. Not that we mind having them there. Their diet includes moths and bugs that would otherwise swarm around our two porch lights at night. This group makes its home underneath the gray vinyl siding surrounding those lights, a perfect spot to hide while they stalk their prey.

Our area of the country is filled with these lizards. I have no idea what type they are and I don’t really care. You can’t walk out the front or back door without seeing some scurrying away. They’re good climbers so you will see them in bushes, on the outside of buildings, and on fences to name just a few places. If you take a walk, you will also see them hurrying across sidewalks and lawns so you have to be careful not to step on them.

As far as size goes, the smaller ones are 1 – 2” long, the largest about 6” from the tips of their noses to the ends of their tails. They are light brown in color; during mating season a male can make the skin along the front of his neck stretch out, forming an orange half-circle. Our little fellas happen to be albinos. I wonder if that’s because they’ve spent so much time around the lights, they adapted to their environment.

The porch lights are located on either side of the front door. Occasionally, one of the lizards doesn’t get out of the way fast enough when we’re closing that door and we find its flattened remains on top. I really hate when that happens.

Let’s see now, the lizards kill bugs we don’t want around, they don’t bite (as far as I know), and I’ve gotten used to seeing movement almost everywhere I look. Maybe they’re not so pesky after all.