Behavior and Biology
Lizard Control
Lizards are often an uninvited guest that makes their way into your home. You could be relaxing on the couch and enjoying yourself when suddenly out darts a lizard, making its way up to your wall. Lizards often invade homes by accident while looking for their next meal.
While household lizards are not venomous, they do leave hazardous germs behind. This is because lizards like to eat flies and mosquitoes and other blood-sucking and germy vector carriers. When they defecate, you may come in contact with the lizard droppings and potentially contract an illness.
Facts
- There are more than 6,000 different lizard species
- Some lizards can change color
- They belong to the reptile family
- Some lizards drop their tails when a human tries to capture them with hands as a defense mechanism
- Some lizards can walk on water
Diseases/Threats
- Most lizards are not dangerous to humans
- Salmonellosis is an infection with bacteria called Salmonella, which generally affects the intestines and occasionally the bloodstream
- Botulism is a serious and life-threatening illness caused by a toxin found in some lizards (reptile family)
- Leptospirosis is a bacterial infection frequently found both in wild and domestic animals such as dogs, cats and reptiles. The infection is spread through contact with urine of animals carrying the bacterium.
- Hemorrhagic Fever with Renal Syndrome caused by breathing in dust that is contaminated with rodent urine or droppings