Meet Mr Wizard the Lizard

[rocketraider]

 

Meet my house lizard. For some reason it thinks my enclosed back porch is a grand place to live and bask in the sun coming thru the storm door.

 

What's bad is its kin like the garage. I'm always finding little lizard gifts out there, sometimes on the car covers!

 

Does no good to shoo them out. They just come back. At least lizards aren't as destructive as mice. And they do eat a lot of insects. Saw this one toting a cricket in its mouth last week, head held high!

[Twisted Shifter]

I hear they are very affectionate if you feed them right.

 

[DFeeney]

Perhaps car owners with bugs in their cars should each get one of these.   The downside would be the "Master Mechanic's" would have less work.

[CHuDWah]

On 4/29/2023 at 2:01 PM, rocketraider said:

 

Meet my house lizard. For some reason it thinks my enclosed back porch is a grand place to live and bask in the sun coming thru the storm door.

 

What's bad is its kin like the garage. I'm always finding little lizard gifts out there, sometimes on the car covers!

 

Does no good to shoo them out. They just come back. At least lizards aren't as destructive as mice. And they do eat a lot of insects. Saw this one toting a cricket in its mouth last week, head held high!

 

Meh.  Here in Flaw-duh, we got some of these:

 

 

more of these:

 

 

a few of these:

 

 

way too many of these:

 

 

and lots of really big ones:

 

 

Both green and brown anole males have the red dewlap they can expand and contract as a mating/territorial display.  We get one on the lanai (FL screened porch) occasionally - if we can't shoo it out, we eventually find it petrified somewhere.  My nephew's cat would grab them by the tail, which would break off and grow back.  There were a lot of tail-less lizards running around his neighborhood.  The iguanas sleep in trees.  When the temperature gets below freezing (yes, it sometimes gets that cold in FL), it paralyzes them and they can't hold on to their branch.  TV weather people actually issue falling iguana warnings - getting hit on the head by a 10-pound frozen lizard would smart! 🤣

Edited April 30, 2023 by CHuDWah (see edit history)

[Bhigdog]

May not be strictly OT but damn entertaining. Thanks.........bob

[rocketraider]

Maybe some of them fancy lizards could be garage pets and keep the mouse population down!🦎🐀

 

I'd heard of iguanas getting too cold to move or hang on and falling out of their tree. Guess that's why Mr Wizard likes to hang out on the porch in the sun. Drizzle drazzle druzzle drome...

 

 

Yeah, I find Terrapins around here sometimes too. They like to take bites out of the melons, tomatoes and peppers. At least the lizards ain't eating the garden!

 

[nat]

     My wife didn't like mice in the house or using death traps.  I caught them in live traps.  To see if the same ones came back I sprayed them down with fluorescent punk hair dye before letting them loose at the annoying neighbor's house.

[CHuDWah]

35 minutes ago, rocketraider said:

Maybe some of them fancy lizards could be garage pets and keep the mouse population down!🦎🐀

 

I'd heard of iguanas getting too cold to move or hang on and falling out of their tree. Guess that's why Mr Wizard likes to hang out on the porch in the sun. Drizzle drazzle druzzle drome...

 

 

Yeah, I find Terrapins around here sometimes too. They like to take bites out of the melons, tomatoes and peppers. At least the lizards ain't eating the garden!

 

Our house is on a man-made lake that is home to lots of turtles (and the occasional gator 😲).  There's an overflow pipe that gets partially exposed if the water level goes low enough.  That pipe is prime turtle sunbathing real estate - they actually push each other off to get a place in the sun.

[Jim Bollman]

25 minutes ago, nat said:

     My wife didn't like mice in the house or using death traps.  I caught them in live traps.  To see if the same ones came back I sprayed them down with fluorescent punk hair dye before letting them loose at the annoying neighbor's house.

Had a friend that had the same wife problem and would paint the mice tails orange, the ones that he caught twice were never seen again.

[Leif in Calif]

At least it's only a lizard. Two doors up a neighbor's dog cornered a racoon in the living room, and two doors down a Black Bear was stuck in their redwood tree for a day.  

[CHuDWah]

19 minutes ago, nat said:

     My wife didn't like mice in the house or using death traps.  I caught them in live traps.  To see if the same ones came back I sprayed them down with fluorescent punk hair dye before letting them loose at the annoying neighbor's house.

 

Dang, glow-in-the-dark mice - that'd be pretty spooky! 😁 We had a house built and mice apparently got in the HVAC ducts before they were sealed.  I'd heard a mouse could get through anyplace its head would fit.  I believe it as I watched one go through the slats of a register like this:

 

Anyway, the wife didn't want me to poison bait the little buggers - she thought they'd smell up the ducts when they died.  So I tried dead trapping them for a while without much success.  I finally told her I was either going to bait them or get a snake to put in the ducts - she opted for the bait. 🤣

[Leif in Calif]

33 minutes ago, CHuDWah said:

 

Dang, glow-in-the-dark mice - that'd be pretty spooky! 😁 We had a house built and mice apparently got in the HVAC ducts before they were sealed.  I'd heard a mouse could get through anyplace its head would fit.  I believe it as I watched one go through the slats of a register like this:

 

Anyway, the wife didn't want me to poison bait the little buggers - she thought they'd smell up the ducts when they died.  So I tried dead trapping them for a while without much success.  I finally told her I was either going to bait them or get a snake to put in the ducts - she opted for the bait. 🤣

Many years ago, when my boys were little their litter of baby hamsters escaped the cage and somehow got in the heating ducts. We could hear their little toe nails as the ran. About a week later, the older boy (10years) brought home a gopher snake which also escaped it's cage. Neither it or the hamsters were ever heard from again. 

[Guest]

King Gizzard and the Lizard Wizard - live in Seattle. Enjoy!

 

 

 

 

Edited May 2, 2023 by John E. Guitar (see edit history)

[rocketraider]

Today has been reptile day here on HydraMatic Drive.

 

Went out to mow the yard. Had to step over Mr Wizard who, for reasons known only to him, wouldn't move out of his sunny spot.

 

Was mowing behind the garage and had to steer around a pair of amorous terrapins. There go the 'maters and peppers. Not planting melons this year.

 

Up next to the tractor shed there was a dinky little black snake who didn't move off his sunny spot in time. The one critter who might have kept the rodent population in check and it got sliced and diced before I saw it.

 

So how has y'all's day been?!🙃

[8E45E]

Keep them out from under your hood in new vehicles that have biodegradable/recyclable wiring harnesses!    Apparently, it is very tasty to them little critters!!

 

Craig

[Steve_Mack_CT]

My favorite lizard of all:

 

The guy a few posts back sounds a bit too Seattle grunge for me.. 😉😁

 

[Grimy]

In Vietnam we had the famous "F*ck you" lizards which emitted a rising-pitch cry remarkably similar to their unofficial name.  Only about 4-5 inches long, they reposed on the walls, defying gravity, and were experts at mosquito abatement--a very good thing.

 

I briefly toyed with the idea of sending a batch home to be mated and their offspring sold on college campuses....but then got a bit busy.

[rocketraider]

I had forgotten about the F-you lizards. A guy on one of my work crews was a Vietnam vet and told us about them. He could mimic them and kept us howling when he'd do it.

[rocketraider]

Couple of them 'Roos appear to be giving us the eff-u look... I've heard they can be vicious.

[Twisted Shifter]

We're plagued with "tall rats" here. They'll eat just about anything up to about a four foot height, then, if it's something they think is really tasty, stand on their back legs and go higher. Dumber than a rock generally, nearsighted, and suicidal. I think hitting the ones standing in the middle of the road at night generates the bulk of body-shop and junk yard business locally, but provides red meat for the county lock-up. 😜

 

[rocketraider]

I lost my pears to branch heads last year. First really good crop the tree had ever had and they got them all. They stripped the tree at night.

 

All they do is destroy property and eat the garden. Pests. Gimme a lizard any day.

 

 

[Buick35]

On 4/30/2023 at 6:40 PM, rocketraider said:

Maybe some of them fancy lizards could be garage pets and keep the mouse population down!🦎🐀

 

I'd heard of iguanas getting too cold to move or hang on and falling out of their tree. Guess that's why Mr Wizard likes to hang out on the porch in the sun. Drizzle drazzle druzzle drome...

 

 

Yeah, I find Terrapins around here sometimes too. They like to take bites out of the melons, tomatoes and peppers. At least the lizards ain't eating the garden!

 

You mean Hoover Chickens? I asked what a Hoover chicken was and was told it was a gopher tortoise because when Hoover was president he promised a chicken in every pot. I guess a lot of them are eaten during the depression. Hey they taste like chicken,I guess.

[rocketraider]

I have known people who ate turtle, and I understand turtle soup is still considered a delicacy in the Tidewater and Eastern Shore of Vajenya and in Louisiana.

 

When I was very young the men of this community would often seine the Dan River and catch enough fish, turtle, crawfish etc to host a community fish fry every July 4th. I'd eat the catfish, bass and crawdads but was never bold enough to go for the turtle meat.

[JACK M]

I think all turtles are protected in the US.

I have a friend that has a permit to harvest the snapping turtles from small community ponds as this is often where those little pet turtles get dumped.

They grow up to be quite vicious.

I had a turtle stew in Mexico many years ago and it was deeeelicious.

[yachtflame]

I ate a lot of turtle in the lower Caribbean in the 80’s & 90’s. In hind sight, it’s a waste of a decent animal and not much meat for the size of it but I do have to say that turtle steaks are really tasty!

[Steve_Mack_CT]

Next time this guy shows up uninvited I might have to kick his a$$....

[yachtflame]

Or vice versa! 🙄

[Steve_Mack_CT]

We love them actually, they are fun to watch and eat a lot of acorns! 😁😁

[yachtflame]

We have a bear come through our yard about every three weeks. It makes the round from the top of our “mountain” to our house hitting the same houses in the 5 mile one way trip. It’s hell on our bird feeders! She once brought her two cubs with her through our yard. She stands 5-6’ tall! Keeps opening and reaching into our neighbors large dumpster.