How to catch a lizard?
 

We have a wild lizard (the kind that looks like a snake with legs) loose in our showroom. It's about a foot long I'm told.

Any ideas on how to catch him (humanely) and get him back outside?

Bait a trap with it's favorite food. That always works. Although I wonder what a snake with leg's favorite food would be.....

Offer to buy its car insurance?

Yes, I know a gecko is not the same thing as a lizard.

My mother used a broom and a pickle jar to trap a lizard in her house, and that was over six months ago. It has been my son's pet even since then. Not sure how humane the broom method is, but the little guy seems to have suffered no ill effects from the incident.

We thought it was a skink, but have since been told it is an alligator lizard. His name is Crush.

He's been spotted a few times - but he's fast and there's a tons of furniture to hide behind. I think we'll have better luck if we can trap him but - What kind of trap can be used to trap him? Any ideas? Kevy where are you?

The trap we have is used for various furry creatures that end up on our warehouse and set off the alarm at night. (a wire trap that does not hurt them). I'm pretty sure a lizard would just crawl right out of there.

I would imagine the guy will need water sooner or later... am I going to come in some morning to find him in one of our toilets?

Paging Kevy Baby?

Very carefully.

Seriously, I have to admit that I have very little experience in catching lizards. On the rare occasion that one got loose, I have been able to just walk up to it and catch it by hand. Dragons aren't that fast.

However, if you can easily hunt him down but can't capture him due to speed, I suggest just using several people and various soft implements (brooms are good) to shoo him towards an exit. If you are unable to easily locate him and need to trap him like a rat/mouse, I suggest seeing if you can secure a small animal cage from the Humane Society (I believe they loan them out) and lure him with some greens (collard, mustard, etc.) and/or large meal worms (if you can find a reptile store close to you. If you let me know where you live, I'll see if I can locate one near you.

That is correct

Get a cat.

Have you just tried asking to the lizard to leave? You'd be surprised how far a little politeness can get you.

No, then you'd just end up with a lizard with no tail. I've had several tail-less alligator lizard pets that I saved from being cat toys.

Do you have to get him out? I've let geckos live in my house before. They eat any creepy crawlies that are around. I would imagine that he can find his own way out if he really wants to.

Yeah, it's too bad you can't just keep him around... eats bugs.

If he's okay living indoors I don't have much of a problem with him. If I go to pee and find him in the toilet taking a drink though I'm going to freak out and probably run screaming from the bathroom.

Snakes are rather icky and snakes with legs I think fall into that category.

Can they climb on walls or anything that's going to freak customers out? I wonder if they eat or repel mice? Not much of a bug issue but we're in a pretty rural area and have mice problems every now and then.

People ask us if we let the dragons wander the house. We can't because we also have cats and the cats would LOVE new toys to play with.

Snakes and other reptiles can be quite fascinating if you get to know them!

They really can't climb flat/straight walls (like some other reps can such as geckos), but they can climb pipes, branches, etc.

They may be of some assistance on the mice, but they are probably limited on how big of a mouse they can catch. Rats would probably be too large for them.

Reading up on them a little, you may want to see if you can get him out of the building as there is a small potential for the lizard biting someone. They aren't poisonous, but their bite can leave a mark.

Sounds like the girls I dated in high school.

I thought you gave up dating high school girls once you turned 40?

I wasn't serious ;)

Whew! I knew you would comment on that one, I was afraid you would call me out on my use of a plural in my reply.

I was being polite.

But even singular, it is a stretch

I thought it was a good idea! But NA is right about the tails.

They found a snake instead of a lizard and now wonder if it was a snake they'd seen all along. He was coiled up in the bottom of a small bar sized fridge in amidst the fridge coils.

Wait a minute- what are the rules here? I'm allowed pluralities....

I had a roommate's snake in my kitchen a while back. It started to crawl up into the portable dishwasher and she only had a hold of the back half of the snake.

On the bright side, snakes *do* eat rats and mice.

If it bleeds, it breeds
If there is grass on the field, PLAY BALL!

You you referring to the snake I'm sure. Right?

My jaw clenched, my eyes slightly narrowed when I read this post. IRL, my reaction would be