October 14, 2013
This lizard species, common to Southern California, is called the Western Fence Lizard, and in addition to eating pests and being really easy to handle, it has another, much more magical feature: when a tick carrying Lyme disease feeds on it, the lizard’s blood cleans the tick’s blood of Lyme disease.
Apparently you can even keep them as pets, but I’m not going to tell my kids that.
These are some they’ve caught – and released – over the years.
You can even use them for temporary hair accessories. They don’t seem to mind!
Apparently the brighter-blue the belly, the more likely the lizard is to be male. And male Blue-bellies are highly territorial, so if you do keep more than one as pets, the ideal combination is one male with two females per 20-gallon tank.
Make sure their “sun spot” is 90 degrees, as they like it hot!
Thanks for looking, and happy lizard-hunting.
