How To Get A Lizard Out Of Your House (Kentucky Edition)

Yes, Kentucky Has Lizards - And Yours Is Harmless

People are often surprised to learn Kentucky is home to several native lizard species. The one in your house is almost certainly a common five-lined skink - the sleek brown lizard whose juveniles sport a vivid electric-blue tail - or possibly a fence lizard or broad-headed skink. Around Louisville, five-lined skinks are everywhere: gardens, woodpiles, brick walls, and, occasionally, kitchens.

None of Kentucky's lizards are venomous or dangerous. The old folklore that blue-tailed "scorpions" are poisonous is a myth - the blue tail is just juvenile coloring. A skink can deliver a startled little pinch if you grab it, and nothing more.

The Cup-And-Card Method (Works Almost Every Time)

Forget chasing - a skink on hardwood will outmaneuver you all afternoon. Use its own instincts instead:

• Close interior doors and block gaps under them with a towel so the lizard stays in one room.
• Move slowly. Lizards react to fast motion; slow movement doesn't register as a threat.
• Herd, don't chase: use a broom or a piece of cardboard to gently steer it along a wall - lizards naturally run edges rather than open floor.
• Cap it: when it pauses, place a cup, bowl, or takeout container over it in one smooth motion.
• Slide stiff paper or thin cardboard under the container, keeping the lizard on top of the card.
• Release it outside against a rock border, shrub bed, or woodpile - somewhere with instant cover - not in the middle of the lawn.
• Never grab the tail: skinks drop their tails as a defense. The lizard survives, but it costs the animal dearly - and you'll still have a lizard, now tailless, loose in your house.

A Cold Lizard Is An Easy Lizard

Here's the pro trick: lizards are ectotherms, so their speed depends on their body temperature. A skink that's been in your air-conditioned house for a few hours is dramatically slower than one warmed on a sunny brick wall. If it keeps evading you, cool the room down, wait twenty minutes, and try again - early morning attempts also work far better than midafternoon.

If the lizard has vanished entirely, check the classics: behind curtains and baseboards, under appliances, in shoe racks, and around potted plants. Leaving a sunlit window accessible often draws them out to bask, which is your capture window.

Lizards In The Garage: A Different Strategy

Garages are lizard magnets - warm concrete, clutter to hide in, and a buffet of crickets and spiders. Cornering one behind a wall of storage bins isn't realistic, so work with its schedule instead. Open the garage door fully in late afternoon and quiet the space; lizards routinely wander out on their own to hunt and bask.

To speed things up, clear floor clutter toward the center so the wall perimeter (their preferred highway) leads to the open door, and place a flat board or shingle near the opening - skinks shelter under it, and you can carry the whole board outside. Then address why they're in there: sweep out webs and insects, and seal the gap under the garage door with a new bottom weather seal.

Repeat Lizards Are A Bug Problem Wearing A Lizard Costume

One lizard a summer is chance. A steady stream of them means your home has two things: entry gaps and an indoor insect population worth hunting. Lizards follow food - crickets, spiders, ants, roaches - so recurring skinks are genuinely useful intel that something else is going on.

The fix is the same exclusion thinking we apply to every animal: seal foundation cracks and utility penetrations, fix door sweeps and window screens, move woodpiles and dense mulch off the foundation line, and reduce the insects that make the trip worthwhile. Do that, and the lizards go back to doing free pest control in your garden - where you want them.

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