Brandon Florida Real Estate

Lizards are everywhere here.  Kinda like ants, everywhere you look, you are bound to see them.  They crawl up everything, including people!

I was shopping the other day and was at the checkout lane where there was a group of people in front of the lane I was in, talking to one another.  They appeared to be waiting for the rest of their group to finish shopping before they left. 

Anyhow, they were all just standing around talking to one another when one when of them started kicking his leg everywhere and everyone stopped to see what the heck he was doing.  He had a look of panic on his face as he was kicking his leg up and out and twisting and turning his body to get this creature off of him.  Meanwhile, his shoe comes flying off and he is screeching....ahhh....ahhh....ahhh.  So the lizard comes flying off of him and lands on the floor in front of him and doesn't move.  The group of people then decide to gather around this tiny little 7 or 8 inch lizard to get a better look at it, I guess to see what it was.  It appeared as if they had never seen one before.  After a few moments of pointing at it and taunting it, the lizard ran off.  As it ran off, the whole group jumped back (as if the gecko was going to get them).  Now mind you the lizard was trying to get away from them.  We all cracked up laughing when we realized that it was just a gecko they were all afraid of.  It was pretty amusing to see.

These little lizards will crawl up anything and everything.  They are always on the windows, screens in the lanai, trees, cars...anything they can crawl up, you are bound to see them.  Anytime you open the door and go outside, they are always on the sidewalks and driveway and scurry away as soon as you come towards them.

They are harmless.  They are more scared of you, I can assure you, then you should be of them. 

Occasionally when I leave I will have one on the hood of my car.  Now mind you, I am now driving down the road with a lizard on the hood of my car holding on for dear life looking at me through the windshield, like he just realized he is now riding on what must feel like riding on the outside of an airplane going down a runway 200 MPH and trying to hold on before getting sucked off.  Kinda funny to watch though.....LOL

The last time my family came down to stay with us, my nieces wanted to sleep out in the lanai every-night because it was so nice out.  So we blew up an air bed and they slept out there.  We occasionally heard loud screams when they realized there was a lizard in the bed with them.  That was pretty hilarious.

They are small enough and fast enough, that it is nearly impossible to always keep them from getting inside some part of your home.  Occasionally, we have to shew them back outside before they run off somewhere and hide, where you can't get to them.

It still cracks me up to see people that live here run from them if they see them.  I've seen people refuse to push a shopping cart if one was on it because they were afraid it would "get them."  LOL....

They are always on the screens in the lanai crawling up and down them.  The pictures above were taken in my lanai just this morning. 

These little guys were great for one thing.....

Last year we had a black snake in our backyard a few times.  And since the snake likes to eat these little guys, they of course run when they know the snake is coming and they climb up high on the screens where the snake can't get to them.  So if I ever walk out to the lanai and there are a lot of lizards on the screen up high, I can almost bet that darn snake is around close by and I know not to go outside of the lanai.

So if you do come to visit Florida, don't worry, these little fellas won't harm you!!

Copyright © 2007 Becky Troutt.  All rights reserved.