Tuesday, May 19, 2009

Seeing eye-to-eye with a lizard

During a quiet moment in the garden Sunday morning, this western fence lizard was brave enough to pose for a few pictures. He'd heard about the recent massacres of his reptilian relatives by Smooch and Deets and was a bit camera-shy at first.


He stuck around long enough to provide me a quote on auto insurance, then scurried off to slurp bugs.


Further research into the species has turned up this very interesting fact:
It is thought that the presence of western fence lizards diminishes the danger of transmission of Lyme disease by ticks. The incidence of Lyme disease is lower in areas where the lizards occur, and it has been found that when ticks carrying Lyme disease feed on these lizards (which they commonly do, especially around their ears), the bacteria that cause the disease are killed.

Who knew?

15 comments:

  1. I've heard about the lizards and connection to Lyme disease. If they could live here in the cold, I would import them for the fields, I think.
    Great pictures as usual.

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  2. I knew I liked these little guys! Now that I know they deactivate Lyme disease, they will be honored guests in Sonoma.

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  3. great photos...I almost expected him to give us an insurance quote...that is great about helping with Lyme disease...we have a ton of lizards here...my bird dog spends most of her day chasing them around...she's had a few for snacks..

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  4. Wow, that IS cool. You'd better tell Smooch & Deets.

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  5. great pics of the lizard :) i like lizards but we dont have any like that one here!

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  6. Love the pictures...they would be toast around here, Dora would kill them....she is just like that with lizzards or anything that moves.

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  7. Huh! Very interesting! I always catch those little lizards (we have a lot around here) and actually I've relieved a lot of them from those ticks behind their ears. :)

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  8. Hmmm....that Mother Nature is a pretty smart gal, huh?

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  9. I'll be smiling for quite some time over that insurance quote line!!!

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  10. Never knew that about the lizard, very interesting. I hope he gave you a good qoute! Very funny!

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  11. I love these pics, I've always found lizards to be very cute, lol!

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  12. Wow great pictures! Did he give you a good quote? :)

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  13. Great clarity in those pix! Thanks for sharing.

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  14. There you go! Yet another reason to Respect The Reptiles!!!

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