Q: I was surprised to read your answer to the Green Valley lady who wanted to relocate lizards. I am the opposite of her: I would love to relocate some lizards from my office building area to my home, if I could catch them. I live in the northwest area of Tucson near the Tucson Mountain foothills and we do have a few lizards. I would like to know how to encourage them to stay and bring their friends.
A: The Arizona Native Plant Society has a brochure on its website that describes how to make your yard lizard friendly. You can also check the Tucson Herpetological Society website for more information on lizard species.
In short, providing a variety of plants and shelters for lizards should entice them to make homes in your landscape. Lizard-friendly plants can be trees, shrubs, cacti, and flowering plants that provide places to forage, bask, hibernate, and breed. Native plants such as prickly pear cactus, desert spoon, and cholla cactus work well for this purpose. Lizards need protection from predators like cats, dogs, and birds. A simple way to provide protection is by creating rock or log piles. These piles will give lizards places to bask and forage. If you build it, they will come.
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Peter L. Warren is the urban horticulture agent for the Pima County Cooperative Extension and the University of Arizona. Email questions to
