Contrary to many popular opinions, lizards are not dangerous, nor are they poisonous.
In fact, there are many health benefits offered by lizards in our surroundings – as they help in reducing the flying insects by preying on mosquitoes, flies, and moths.
Like human beings and others, these creepy creatures are part of our Ecosystem.
And killing them can cause a few unwanted problems for you.
If, however, you want to kill the lizards in your home – using a cockroach red HIT spray can work for you.
Even though a mosquito spray like Raid Max, Baygon, or HIT may not work to kill the lizards instantly, these bug sprays, if used in sufficient quantity, do hurt them a lot and can slowly cause death.
These sprays and insecticides are so powerful that they can harm human beings, so they can surely kill the lizards.
But you may sometimes need to spray a dozen times to kill these pesky lizards before they get on their deathbed.
Generally speaking, after a spray or two, these irritating pests feel uneasy, and they will try to escape at a place wherever possible.
The half-dead lizard may try to hide but will come out soon in the open as it can’t breathe properly.
You will then get a chance to spray more. Keep on spraying the liquid for a few seconds, and you will soon find it dead.
When using these mosquito killer sprays to kill the lizards, remember to cover your skin and nose properly.
Do not breathe in the strong roach spray or any other pesticide spray as it can severely irritate or can block your throat.
7 Ways to Get Rid of Lizards in The House
As mentioned before, killing lizards should not be your first preference. You should instead try steps by which you can get rid of them without killing.
If a lizard has entered your house, it gets necessary to get rid of them at the lowest possible time to avoid the risks linked with them.
Simply tapping your hand or smashing it with your book or an old newspaper can help you scoot them out in the exit.
Sometimes it may be difficult to get rid of them, but the earlier you take the step, the simpler.
Some of the additional steps you can take to remove lizards include:
1- Eliminate food sources completely
Lizard gets attracted to food sources such as garbage or insects. They prefer eating flies as their food.
So, try to eliminate the insects from your house, which will also make the lizards leave your place (as they find nothing to prey for and eat).
To stop the insects, you can use products such as Bayer Advanced Insect Killer or a Lizard Defense Spray.
The dirtier the house, the higher the chances that there will be food for lizards and their young babies.
Hence, you should keep your home neat and clean to keep the lizards away from it
2- Make your house inhospitable
If your house has an unhygienic atmosphere, it welcomes all types of house lizards.
A messy home serves as a perfect hideout for lizards. They can hide anywhere and secrete their secretions anywhere.
Also, remember a dirty home is the breeding ground for their favorite treat –flies. So make sure that you clean and mop your house regularly.
Use anti-bacterial solutions to clean the walls, floors, windows, and ceilings.
3- Make it tough for the lizards to enter
A small opening is a simple way for lizards to enter your home.
As they have a sleek and scaly body, they can easily slip in from all sorts of openings and holes.
Check the interior and exterior of your home and look out for the areas which allow the entry of lizards.
Seal all the small cracks and holes (like present in walls, ceilings, windows, or door trims) tightly to stop them from coming inside.
For sealing the cracks, you can either use products like caulking, wood filler, steel wool, foam, silicone, etc.
You may also consider placing the furniture in your home 5 inches away from the walls, where the lizards often hide.
Metal screens can also be utilized for covering your open windows and doors.
4- Make the yard area inhospitable
Do not allow water to stay in the backyard for a long time. The stagnant water leads to the breeding of lizards.
Also, use fly repellent so that lizards don’t hunt them for food and stay there.
Remember lizards are also attracted to bright places and lights where they can easily find insects.
So, if you want to repel lizards out of your yard and home, it’s good to switch off the lights that are not required.
5- Get a pet cat in your house
Cats are one of the best natural predators of lizards. Or in other words, home lizards or geckos can be the favorite food for your pet cats.
So, if you want to keep your house lizard-free, you can keep a cat or kitten as a pet.
Having a cat or a kitten in your house will also make the lizards fearful and will keep them away from your house.
6- Keep plants that repel lizards
While lizards like to eat some fruits and potted plants, many plants can help them keep away.
These plants are Lemongrass, Eucalyptus, Japanese Mint plant, Pencil Tree or Euphorbia, etc.
You can keep these plants in your home or garden to repel the lizards very easily.
7- Catch and release the lizard out of your home
Lizards usually come and hang around at night to eat the insects. So that’s the best time when you may want to hunt them out.
You can install traps at the places where lizards enter your home. Or can place baits in that area to attract them.
Make sure that if you are setting up gecko traps, use them along with attractive-to-geckos scented lures, or else you will not get success catching them.
After you trap these common house geckos, you can either kill them or carry them to a distant place and release them.
Home Remedies You Can Try to Eradicate Lizards
The small dino successors many times become quite a challenge to manage in the house.
If you also fear lizards, then here are a few simple and easy DIY hacks to stop and get rid of them.
These products are readily accessible in the kitchen and can be picked up whenever you need them:
1- Use of coffee
A simple and effective method is to mix tobacco with coffee powder.
Mix and blend the coffee powder with tobacco properly to make DIY lizard-killing balls of them.
You will then need to keep these balls in every corner of your house, including the places where lizards enter your home.
Soon, lizards will either escape from the place or end up dying.
2- Naphthalene balls
Mothballs or naphthalene balls are great lizard-resistant items that can be used very easily.
You can put these balls (naphthalene balls or mothballs) in your closet, cupboard, or any other corner of the house.
Do not forget to place them at the house’s entrance, bathroom, and kitchen sink.
3- Chilled water
Cold water freezes the lizard and can easily make them immobile for some time.
When sprayed on their body, lizards may not be able to move for a few minutes.
This repellent spray gives you a good chance to catch them and throw them out far.
4- Onion
Lizards don’t like the strong, pungent smell of onion, and it gets them irritated.
Cutting the onion slices and keeping them in the locations where lizards enter from or reside will help you keep them off.
Onions have sulfur which produces a strong smell and makes the lizards run away.
If you want, you can also mix some onion juice with water and spray it all over the house.
5- Peacock feathers
It is a simple and convenient hack to make lizards stay out of your home.
All you need to do is put some peacock feathers on locations where lizards are usually seen in the house.
This home remedy works very well because peacock eats lizards, due to which their feathers scare the lizards away.
6- Homemade pepper spray
Pepper is considered an allergic compound for lizards that irritates them severely.
So, you can prepare a DIY pepper spray and use it on them to keep them out of your home.
Just crush some black pepper and mix it with water to get the spray ready.
Sprinkle it all over your house, especially the places where the lizards hide.
7- Eggshells
The smell of eggshells makes the lizard think that there are other organisms present in your area, which makes them go away from the place.
Put eggshells in all the corners of your house, and also near the trim of doors and windows.
8- Phenyl tablets
These are also great home remedies for repelling lizards.
As with other products, you will need to put the phenyl tablets along the entrance and corner of your house to keep the lizards stay away.
9- Garlic
Garlic has a strong smell that lizards literally cannot tolerate.
You can mix garlic juice with water and spray it around to make the lizards go away.
Placing some cloves along with garlic in the entrance and areas where lizards live could also prove effective and make them run away.
10- Cardboard box
Trapping lizards in cardboard boxes (like your shoe box) is another great way to catch them and throw them away from your house.
This method can work if you do not fear catching them live. Catch them in the cardboard box and get rid of them.
11- Flypapers
Flypapers are known to capture flies. But they are an effective method to catch lizards too.
Place the flypaper on the corners of the tube light or entrance locations of the lizard.
The lizard will stick to the paper, and then you can throw the paper away.
12- Tabasco sauce spray
Just like lizards get irritated by pepper, they also hate Tabasco sauce.
Dilute two tablespoons of Tabasco sauce in the water and fill in a spray bottle.
Now spray in the area where lizards are often seen, especially on ceilings and walls. It will make the lizards stay out of the house.
These are the 12 home remedies that you can use to get rid of lizards.
Pick anyone to get feasible results for you. You may try more than one remedy.
Where Do House Lizards Generally Lay Their Eggs?
Lizards usually lay their eggs in a dark, protected location which may include:
- A moist and cluttered basement
- Behind the bookshelves
- Under the sink
- In the cabinets
- Woodpiles, sheds, and decks
- Under the rocks, tree bark, or logs
Unlike chickens, lizards do not sit on their eggs for hatching. Instead, they depend on the right environmental conditions that will allow the eggs to hatch automatically.
Most of the house lizards lay their eggs in batches. Each batch can have up to 20 eggs.
The problem becomes severe because each female lizard can lay two to three batches per mating season.
Commercial Repellents You Can Use for Repelling the Lizards Away
Killing or catching a lizard in the home can be troublesome for many.
No matter whether you want to stop lizards inside or outside your home, some very effective commercial repellents can help.
These can be easily bought online or from your nearby household store.
Some of these are safe for humans and pets; lizard repellents include:
- Pest rid spray
- Ridsect lizard repellent
- Pest rid of organic granules
- Ultrasonic electronic pest repeller
- BuyBlocker all-natural lizard blocker
- Obasan organic lizard repellent spray
Are Lizard Droppings Poisonous – What to Do If You Find Them in Home?
Now when you know how to shield your home with lizards, it’s also important to know about their poop.
As an identification, lizards’ droppings are usually black with white tips.
Like all reptiles, lizards expel their fecal matter (urine and stool) through the same opening.
The white tip found on the feces is of uric acid crystals which is due to the highly concentrated urine.
The smaller-sized common geckos at home usually drop about a quarter-inch long and one-eighth inch wide.
Since the lizards may carry Salmonella, which can cause serious health problems in people, their droppings can be dangerous too.
Although not poisonous in nature, the droppings of house lizards can contaminate your food and beverages that can cause food poisoning if consumed.
Droppings, if small in number (like two to four), may go unnoticed in your kitchen and household.
But if you find it present in huge numbers, it can cause a significant problem for you and your family.
It’s important to:
- Avoid inhaling any dust from the dried feces
- Wash your garden vegetables thoroughly before consuming
- Keep your dishes and food covered in your kitchen if you find them
- Remove the droppings using a vacuum cleaner as soon as you find them in your home
- If it’s wet, you can use a dampened cloth (in soap water) to clean the surface. You can also use rubbing alcohol to clean.
Also, take proper steps to eradicate the lizards permanently from your home, which will help you stay safe from their harmful droppings.
Other Related Questions:
Are home lizards poisonous?
Home lizards or geckos that are found on your walls are not poisonous at all.
However, to defend themselves, they can bite humans, pets, or other predators around them.
The good thing is the bites of lizards are harmless but can cause some pain.
Are lizards harmful to humans?
Lizards usually don’t harm humans except for two species, the Mexican Beaded Lizard and Gila Monster.
These two breeds of lizards can be dangerous because they have poisonous venom.
Some species are so safe that they can be kept as pets. These include iguanas, bearded dragons, geckos, and anoles.
Do house lizards change their color?
Most house lizards can only change color from lighter to darker.
Male bearded dragons are territorial and can display a dark beard to indicate their authority.
Green anoles and some chameleons can, however, make dramatic changes in their colors and patterns.
The Conclusion
A lot of people are scared of the common home lizards because of their moving eyelids, color, and texture.
In many cases, people have lizard phobia, which can create many problems and issues in normal life.
The reptile phobia is called Herpetophobia. It includes fear of all types of reptiles, right from snakes and lizards to crocodiles.
If you are among those people who fear common home gecko or lizards, it’s best to try ways to get rid of them without killing them.
Using any kind of mosquito or cockroach sprays (such as HIT, Baygon, Mortein, etc.) to kill these lizards should be your last resort.
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Welcome to ProShieldPest.com. I am Tina Jones. I have been working as a pest removal professional in Winslow, Arizona lately. At present, I love to spend my time with my family as a retiree.
Here I share all my knowledge and experiences to help people understand better how they can stop pests at their homes without actually killing them. Hopefully, the information you will find here will help in safeguarding your home! You can check more about me here.