RAUK - Archived Forum - Posts by LizardLover:

Hello all*

Im new here, and I happen to adore lizards I own many geckos,and a chameleon.

In the past my cat brought me a live injured slow worm, and I nursed him back to health,I also found an injured smooth newt I also nursed back to health.

I sadly however have never seen a common lizard, but we get lots of frogs and toads in our garden,I reckon our neighbours garden which is a jungle because he never touches it, is a haven for some wildlife!.

I live in Gloucester,and even though I know you do get common lizards in the Gloucestershire area,because we live nearer the city area, i dont know if I have any hope of common lizards visiting our garden.

Firstly i would like to know, is there anyone here from Gloucestershire?

Ok, on to the main reason for my post,the fact is I own a dog and a cat, we only have a small garden, but since I have seen a slow worm,and a smooth newt and we have lots of frogs,I hoped if I create a small rockery, possibly I could encourage common lizards to want to move in?,we are an end semi detached house,beside a lot of trees,its like a small but long woodland area beside us, i dont know exactly what to call it!,as we are in a cul de sac area.Not too far away there is a small park with a working railway area next to it, so its quite near us,I dont know if there are common lizards there, but I heard thats another sort of place they like?

I intend to have a rockery with a small pond long grass and shrubs and flowers, so really its a wildlife garden, I hope to attract bumble bees,hoverflies,butterflies,slugs, snails,dragonflies and many other insects,I especially wish to attract slow worms,newts and common lizards, I have been reseaching like mad the right plants to attract them all,however if anyone who does know other things they like would like to help me with my garden i would really apreciate it, and it would be nice to know it is possible even though i own a dog and cat.

Please can anyone here let me know if this is a good idea or not,as at the moment our garden is bare the frogs have no where to go!

Would anyone know how to make the garden more safe for my hopeful residents???

Thank you for any reply you can give*

PS:LOVE the site*

Beautiful pictures,im sure i saw some smiling at you,who says reptiles dont have expressions!lol

Im hoping to attract my own common lizards to the garden,just found out the railway near us has lots of them*

I dont know why but you reminded me of the David Attenbourgh life in cold blood TV series that was on when you said that!

I just had a thought,It might be crazy,i might be on to something,i dont know,but if you have seen proof common lizards dig holes, then just like the pygmy blue tounge skink, perhaps the common lizards here would like an empty trap door spider burrow too!, it would be great if we could replecate that for them, or even use the spiders for that reason, as if you saw the TV series, thats why the pygmy blue tounge skink was surviving bush fires!,it made me wish we could do something like that here for the common lizards in threat near fire areas!

Let me know anyone if you think something like that could be possible?

Hi Phillip

Can I ask what did you do to try and attract common lizards?,I just found out recently that there are LOTS of common lizards near our railway afterall*,i know this because a friends cats keep bring them in alive(luckily!)so she has to keep setting them free at the railway!lol.

Due to knowing this is 5-10 mins from me,I was told by others that theres a high chance common lizards are nearer me than i think, as it seems some spread out in the strangest of places,so heres hoping*

Thank you for the advice Suzi and Gemma*

Im probably repeating myself but as I said I know now they could be very near me, I found an old rusty paint can,but which way do I use it?,theres nothing in it,and I could only find a little peice of black carpet,but no bricks,I noticed an old tyre in a little grassy lane just outside,but my boyfriend does not want a tyre he said it will make the garden look tacky!.Cant find any small sheets of metal,but Im thinking of making a log pile as well.I have no where to do a survey check in garden at moment,as theres no grass!,my survey is our neighbours garden its a smaller garden than ours but full of ivy vines branches grasses wood all sorts!the dog ruined all our grass when he was a baby.There are only rocks at the back flat down at the area the garden is going to be, but the rest of the garden the dog needs, so my boyfriend is making a fence so my garden is contained in a safe little area,I just hope to God this all works out,as it means a lot to me to be able to help wildlife,they dont have many places left, thanks to humans!

About putting the cat and dog off,I cant use the electronic cat deterant as i think my cat would leave home!but to put cats off and other predators,I found that the plant called the scaredy cat plant is meant to put both cats and dogs off as they cant stand the smell, well thats got to be better than giving them a headache all day huh?

I also for cover am going to plant a shrub called Barberis Darwinii, if youve not heard of it, it is like a holly bush has spikey leaves and the bonus is beautiful orange little flowers that attract bees,then edible purple berries,that attract birds,Im not really wanting to attract birds but I do love this shrub,we had it in our garden when i was a little girl,and I remember hoverflies landing on me near it,and bumble bees.

I found out the Hosta plant is a magnet for slugs and snails, which i would think is good news if you want to attract wildlife, as slow worms love them!.