- Author: Erin Mahaney
I was moving some pots around in the backyard this spring when I glanced in one pot and was startled to find beady eyes calmly looking back at me. I'm no herpetologist, but my best guess is that it is an alligator lizard (genus Elgaria), perhaps a San Francisco alligator lizard (Elgaria coerulea coerulea).
Lizards are the most abundant of the reptiles, with over 60 types in California. Most lizards in California are completely harmless, but they may attempt to bite if roughly handled. Lizards mostly feed on insects, although some will feed on plants. In California, the most common lizards feed on beetles, ants, wasps, aphids, grasshoppers, and spiders.
Despite their common name, alligator lizards are not closely related to alligators and are generally harmless. Alligator lizards have a thick, rounded body with short limbs and a long tail and can reach up to 7 inches long from the snout to the base of the tail. As with many lizards, the tail may break off, perhaps as a defensive mechanism to distract predators, and then regenerate. The tail can reach twice the length of the lizard's body if it has never been broken off and regenerated. Alligator lizards are active during the day and inactive during cold periods. They are good swimmers. In general, alligator lizards are secretive, and typically hide in the brush or under rocks unless they are foraging. Apparently, they like slightly messy gardens with lots of twigs and leaves scattered about. That describes my garden!
Lizards do not cause measurable damage to plants in gardens. In fact, they may be beneficial because they eat pest insects. In addition, lizards may help reduce human exposure to Lyme disease. The lizards carry an enzyme in their blood that kills the Lyme disease bacteria in the guts of infected immature western black-legged ticks.
I was happy that the lizard had made its home in my yard, so I quickly tipped and then finished moving the pots around, and hoped that it would find its way back home.
For information on lizards in the garden generally, see the UC Integrated Pest Management Notes on lizards at http://ipm.ucanr.edu/PMG/PESTNOTES/pn74120.html.
For a guide to amphibians and reptiles in California, see the California Herps website at http://www.californiaherps.com/index.html.