Lizards are a natural component of a healthy ecosystem, often consuming garden pests like spiders, beetles, and ants. When these reptiles congregate in large numbers or venture into unwanted areas like patios or near entryways, homeowners look for effective and humane methods to encourage them to relocate. Successful exclusion strategies involve understanding the factors that attract lizards and systematically eliminating those resources. This approach ensures the reptiles find your garden less hospitable and move to a suitable nearby habitat.
Understanding Why Lizards Choose Your Garden
Lizards are drawn to a garden environment because it provides three necessities: food, water, and shelter. A robust insect population is the largest attractant, as most common garden lizards are insectivores, feeding on pests like grasshoppers, wasps, and aphids. A high volume of these invertebrates signals a reliable food source, encouraging lizards to establish a territory.
Water availability also plays a role, particularly during hot, dry periods. Sources like leaky outdoor faucets, poorly draining irrigation systems, pet water bowls, and standing water in planters provide consistent hydration. Lizards also require safe places to hide from predators, regulate their body temperature, and rest. Shelter often comes in the form of dense, low-growing vegetation, debris piles, rock stacks, thick mulch layers, and gaps under decks or sheds.
Modifying the Environment to Discourage Lizards
Discouraging lizards begins by managing the elements that provide them sustenance and refuge. Reducing the insect population directly diminishes the food source. This is accomplished by controlling pests without resorting to broad-spectrum pesticides that harm the lizards themselves. Regularly cleaning up fallen fruit or food scraps also helps, as these items draw in the insects lizards feed upon.
Addressing shelter involves removing or modifying potential hiding spots throughout the garden space. Clear away debris such as old wood piles, stacks of bricks, and leaf litter, which offer cool, protected areas for lizards. Keep the lawn well-maintained and trim dense, low-hanging shrubs or ground covers, especially those against a home’s foundation or pathways. Efficient water management, such as fixing drips and leaks from outdoor plumbing and ensuring irrigation runoff does not pool, removes standing water sources.
Implementing Physical Barriers and Repellents
Once the environment is less appealing, physical barriers and targeted repellents can be used for exclusion in specific areas. Installing fine-mesh screens or hardware cloth around vulnerable spots, like openings under decks, sheds, or raised garden beds, prevents lizards from accessing sheltered spaces. This barrier should be fine enough to block small reptiles and secured firmly to the ground to prevent them from slipping underneath.
Certain natural substances and scents also act as non-toxic deterrents because lizards find their strong aromas or textures unpleasant. The pungency of garlic or onion can be utilized by placing crushed cloves or slices in areas where lizards are frequently seen. Alternatively, a spray can be made using water mixed with cayenne pepper or hot sauce, which lizards strongly dislike. This mixture must be applied only to non-edible surfaces or around the perimeter of garden beds to prevent plant damage. Scattering used coffee grounds or crushed eggshells provides another layer of deterrence, as the strong coffee smell is unappealing, and the sharp edges of the shells discourage movement.