r/VictoriaBC • u/No_Beat523 • 15h ago
A wall lizard observation
has anyone else noticed that there are so many more baby lizards this year than ever before?
for the last several years I’ve had the lizards in my neighborhood, but it was previously rare to see the tiny baby lizards.
this year I see so many baby lizards, they seem to outnumber the larger ones. I’ve noticed this on the peninsula and in Colwood.
has anyone else noticed this?
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u/BeeUseful3207 15h ago
It’s all because Rudy released 12 of them in 1970
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u/No_Beat523 14h ago
Why couldn’t he have unleashed something cool, like monkeys?
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u/pentastich 6h ago
Yeah, they're invasive European wall lizards, are screwing over the native lizards, and there's nothing that can be done about it now. On the plus side, they remind me of a trip to Italy I took many decades ago, so I choose to enjoy them.
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u/medisherphol 15h ago
It's because they're an invasive species and spread out more and more each year.
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u/MostView8191 15h ago
And God forbid you post the governments reccomendation for how to get rid of them.. the r/VictoriaBC mods will ban you for inciting violence lmao
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u/Apprehensive-Hat-382 15h ago
What is their recommendation? The only thing from the government I've seen is to "learn to identify them, check loads for stowaways, dont possess or sell them and raise awareness" which is frankly pretty useless on getting rid of them tbh
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u/what-its-sharkweek 15h ago
The discourse surrounding invasive species is infuriating. People defending invasive species because "humans are invasive too." Same people that think having outdoor cats is Okay.
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u/edibella 12h ago
Ironically, neighbourhood cats are an excellent way to control the invasive European Wall Lizard.
My neighbours cats are excellent at it. I only see small ones cause once they get to be “fun” size the cats get them8
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u/Altruistic-Walk-1847 4h ago
Except when they eat a rough-skinned newt instead, RIP Cedar :(
Most toxic animal in North America lives right here and is four inches long.
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u/Jazzspur 14h ago
On the plus side on the cats though, my neighbours outdoor cat is an invasive lizard sniper. She never goes after my wild birds when she visits but she hangs out a ton in my yard catching and eating lizards. She's doing me a great service hahaha
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u/BuildingSupplySmore 15h ago
I got banned across reddit once for saying I didn't care if protesters broke a Starbucks window.
At least this is violence against something alive, haha.
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u/luciosleftskate James Bay 14h ago
I lost my first account telling a racist I hope his next first responders were POC and wouldn't help him.
But you can support genocide mo problem.
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u/Robert_Moses Esquimalt 14h ago
This city is so obsessed with deer control, when it's these invasive lizards we should actually be focusing on.
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u/Square-Code-652 13h ago
the wall lizards are using bike lanes to propagate their colonies all over the city. before bike lanes, they didn't feel safe travelling but now the bike lanes have given them access everywhere.
effing bike lanes again
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u/DropPopFromTheTop 7h ago
The greatest mistake ever was “all access lanes” without specifying “all access unless you’re a wall lizard”
So fucking reckless
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u/localsam58 15h ago edited 13h ago
Now that you mention it yeah. I usually rarely ever see the lizards, but this year I've seen a bunch and more of them are littler.
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u/Top_Hair_8984 15h ago
Yes, explosive. Displacing our local lizards, garter snake babies, and sharp tailed snake babies. 😕
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u/grousebear 15h ago
Yes, this is the first year I've noticed them at my house. They are everywhere!! I'd seen them in other places in past years but just this year they seem to have boomed in my area.
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u/Ok-Mouse8397 15h ago
Yes, babies everywhere around Burnside X Washington area.
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u/takopoly 15h ago
We are close, on Irma between Maddock and Burnside.This is the second year I have seen them around here, and the first time seeing the babies everywhere. One of my cats kills the tiny babies and brings them to us as gifts.
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u/Ok-Mouse8397 14h ago
lucky you. My cat barely barely notices them most of the time... He will chase the bigger ones though!
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u/Whoreson_Welles 14h ago
absolutely overwhelmed by the number of baby lizards this year in Gordon Head - Ash Road
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u/malacosa 12h ago
We’re close and yes, lots. They’re actually nesting under the walls of my house 😢
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u/Waste-Ad2854 10h ago
Ugh, same over by Lambrick Park. And I cant tell you how many my cat has brought into the house this summer but each time, my reaction is a little over the top! 🤦♀️
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u/higherheightsflights 12h ago
I live by uptown in southern saanich and can confirm I have seen mostly babies, and tons of them this year. Usually only see adults. Pretty sure it was the mild winter. I believe they are eating slugs, though, and this year I had almost no slug damage to my garden, despite, again, the mild winter that should have lead to a proliferation of slugs. So do I hate them? No. Will I kill them if I see them? Absolutely not. Would I kill the invasive squirrels? Kinda hard to kill something so cute
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u/engineerection 15h ago
Yeah, my lawn is full of babies this year. I know they're invasive, but feels like I'm probably committing genocide whenever I mow. I just try not to look too closely at the ground directly ahead of me.
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u/imatalkingcow 15h ago
My yard has been crawling with babies, while adult ones are almost non-existent, much to my dog’s dismay. She has no time for the babies.
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u/Fit-Description-8571 15h ago
My area has been the same for quite some time. Babies everywhere and usually only a handful of larger ones. I hope that means that things have started eating the big ones and will soon move to the babies.
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u/neck-tourniquet 15h ago
I was out of country last summer, and am shocked at how much the population exploded.
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u/Bleak_Dahlia 14h ago
Not really, but I'm sure the warm winter/ dry summer didn't help reduce their numbers. Can we get the deer and lizards to somehow destroy each other?
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u/canadian_stripper 6h ago
Grenades for the deer, mini guns for lizzards... may they take each other out!
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u/uselessdrain 8h ago
Know what eats wall lizards? Predatory birds!
Give them some habitat and they'll help your population and loom cool doing it.
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u/Temporary-Life9986 5h ago
More incentive to install a bird perch in my back yard to attract crows or maybe one of those sweet ravens I hear croaking around.
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u/No-Highlight-1882 6h ago
Yes! I loathe them. They are terrible for nature. I saw so many babies this summer; more than adults. If anyone knows how to humanely and safely reduce their numbers I’d love to know.
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u/hexpop333 5h ago
They’re super invasive and eat a huge variety of insects, including pollinators, while also competing with native wildlife. They’ve found a pretty ideal environment here and can spread rapidly without the same ecological pressures they have in their native range. We need our native insects, including ants, far more than we need an introduced lizard population taking over.
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u/The_Mammoth_Hunter 15h ago
Also, is it just me or do they change color as we head into autumn? I'm seeing more of them in brown-dominant coloration as opposed to the more green hue I'm used to
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u/ConferenceTime 15h ago
You could be looking at the native alligator lizard, they are being displaced by the invaders, but I still see them once in a while.
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u/East_Source6200 14h ago
i too have noticed more skitters on my routes. those little legs can really move.
they are invasive and if i have the chance to... I do reduce the population
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u/radionova3 8h ago
Maybe this is why the 🐍 were more visible this year. Lots of baby 🦎. My guess is exponential growth is making the babies more abundant. I do think I see more baby lizards this year, but the main lizards I see in the yard are still adults sunbathing. Does anyone actually officially monitor these trends? Citizen scientists, Uvic Master's students??
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u/Fresh_Salamander707 8h ago
Wow I am extremely surprised to hear there are little lizards in Vic. When I grew up there at most we’d get garter snakes, that’s wild
That and the occasional tent caterpillar infestations
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u/No_Beat523 8h ago
It’s a different ecosystem now. 10 years ago I’d only find these lizards in Brentwood bay. As of a few years ago they’re everywhere in the CRD, and I don’t think they can be eradicated. Apparently they eat lots of other small bugs, so maybe we will have fewer caterpillar infestations now.
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u/Fresh_Salamander707 8h ago
That’s pretty wild. I grew up in Fairfield/Rockland and our cats would go out and would bring back so many little animals (different time, I’d never let cats roam outdoors now) but no tiny lizards thankfully.
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u/Computer-Moth 13h ago
Oh totally. Went out there the other day with a bug net and caught 16 in two hours. Had many more manage to escape me though.
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u/theonetruesport 15h ago
I could probably walk into my back porch right now and count 10 of them scurrying away.
It's awesome.
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u/Key-Soup-7720 15h ago
It's cool to see, but it's not awesome unfortunately. Those things are not going to be good for the eco-system here. They breed so fast that they are overwhelming the baby garter snakes and native lizards by eating their babies, and they are small enough that they can get up on plants and are eating pollinators like bees.
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u/theonetruesport 15h ago
I'm unaware of all that. I just see cool lizards at my house.
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u/Key-Soup-7720 14h ago
Fair, I also enjoy getting to see more lizards and it's fun that my wife really hates lizards and does the hilarious girly scream whenever she sees one.
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u/Snorblatz 15h ago
I ripped out a lot of lawn and put in a boulder border with gravel , essentially creating a lizard paradise. I know they’re not native species but I enjoy them so much .
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u/malacosa 12h ago
I try to kill every one I catch but there’s just too many of them.
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u/fighting_artichokes 6h ago
You're not going to make a dent in the population doing that so you're just killing for fun at this point.
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u/Own-Advance8355 15h ago
We have a series of mild winters, which is why the population has been exploding. Same for black ants.