Garden friends

[lilacsigil]

This is Stumpy, a blue tongue lizard (skink) who lives in our garden. Two years ago she lost most of her tail - it looked like it had been partially bitten off, then the rest dried up and fell off - hence her name. Her tail is not as stumpy as it was! She currently looks very pregnant, so hopefully there'll be more blueys soon!

Comments

[lilacsigil]

Blue tongues eat baby snakes, but snakes eat baby blue tongues, so the continuing presence of a blue tongue is good news for no snakes! They also eat snails, which is great for the garden.

[spiralsheep]

That's interesting, thank you.

[laurenthemself]

They eat snails?

If we weren't so far apart physically I would be kidnapping a couple of the babies, just saying.

[lilacsigil]

Yes they do! I keep reading about how to encourage lizards in your own garden but unfortunately most of those ways also encourage snakes. But one thing you can do for a more lizard-friendly environment is use the iron-based wildlife safe snail pellets rather than the green/blue ones.

[laurenthemself]

Oh, I don't use pellets at all, just resigned swearing and picking them off the walls to drop them right down the front yard. Which is, if anywhere, where lizards might end up finding them, but also more likely the ducks that occasionally turn up.