We have lots of bad bugs in our gardens. They are an absolute nuisance and wreak havoc on our vegetable plants. Battling the bugs is a constant and I am always looking for natural ways to keep the population of the bad bugs down. We do everything we can to encourage the good bugs like ladybugs, praying mantis, green lacewings, and damsel bugs. We also leave the snakes alone even though they have a tendency to scare the crap out of me if I happen to run across one.

Besides my own gardens, for years I have helped an older neighbor lady take care of her gardens too. I noticed that she did not have near as many bugs in her gardens as I do. One thing that she did have in her gardens that I did not was lizards, and lots of them. These are the common Western Fence lizards — we have always called them blue-belly lizards because their belly has a blue tint to it. I realized that the lizards were keeping the bug population down in her gardens and wondered if transplanting a few to my gardens would help with the bug problem there.

I enlisted the help of grandson Brantley to catch the lizards — I’m just a little squeamish about picking up wriggly things. Brantley caught six lizards over the course of a few weeks. He put them in paper bags for transport and let them go in my garden.

We wondered if the lizards would stick around and they did! We spot them occasionally sunning themselves on the rocks or concrete stepping stones, and this year we found a baby! So not only are they sticking around, they are multiplying too.

I have yet to notice much difference in the bug population; this is only the second year the lizards have been here. I would imagine it will take a while for the lizard population to build up enough to see a difference.