10 effective DIY methods to get rid of house lizards

Among thousands of species of lizards, the most common house lizards are of two types:

Carolina Anole/and Green Anole: These are tiny lizards that come either in green or brown. They typically are tree lizards but will make their way into your house if the winter season sets in.

Gecko or The Common House Gecko: You’ll find large infestations of the geckos in warm weather conditions. the feature of the everyday house gecko that is a major giveaway is the long body and the flat skull. You’ll find them in dull colors like brown or grey, sometimes green. 

Since they love the earth, you’ll find more and more of the geckos inside your house during the cold season.

After these two common lizards, you may also find the occasional rare outdoor lizards that have made their way into your house foraging for food: Tokay Gecko, Western fence Lizards, Alligator lizards,  and Wild Gecko.

There are many reasons why lizards may inhabit your house, and here are some of the most common ones:

• Damp and moist areas in your house will attract lizards to your home. If you have leaky pipes or need the plumping fixed in the place, get it done ASAP to avoid lizards from breading. 
• Your house is warm and inviting for the lizard. If you’re someone who always has the thermostat up a few degrees, it can seem very inviting for lizards to breed in your space.
• You have unrepaired cracks on your walls and faulty ventilation systems. Lizards can crawl through virtually any space, so if you have ventilations that do not close or exhaust vents and cracks on your walls. Lizards can quickly enter your house through these small gaps.

10 DIY simple methods to get rid of house lizards:

Phenyl Tablets

Phenyl tablets are readily available at convenience stores. They have a strong scent to them which repels lizards. You can place some of these tablets in and around your house to drive the lizards at bay.

Tabasco sauce spray

Lizards are not into spice and smell at all. So, an effective way to get rid of them from your house is by using a Tabasco sauce spray.  You can make this spray by mixing the sauce with water and using a bottle prayer to spurt it around the house.

Naphthalene Balls

There’s nothing like a good old remedy of naphthalene balls. You can place these balls in every corner, drawer, and cabinet, under furniture and window panes. The pungent smell of the naphthalene balls repels lizards, so you’ll have a house free of lizards in no time. This method is safest when you don’t have minor children or pets in the place that will accidentally eat these mothballs.

Eggshells

The smell of eggshells induces nausea in lizards. So you can crush some eggshells and sprinkle them around in places where you think the lizards probably come from. Ensure not to wash the eggshells since the strong smell of eggs makes lizards want to stay away.

Homemade Pepper Spray

Get some black pepper powder and mix it with cold water. Pour this concoction into a spray bottle and use this pepper spray around the house. If you suspect the lizard infestation source to be outside, you can spread this concoction outside your home and in every crack and crevice, you can see. Lizards are allergic to pepper, so that they will stay away from your house. If you don’t have pepper, you can substitute it with hot sauce, chili flakes, or chili powder in water.

Coffee and tobacco balls

Mix ground coffee with tobacco powder and make them into small balls. You can leave these balls in all the corners of the house, and within a few days, you’ll see that your home is free from lizards.

Peacock Feathers

Peacocks are predators of lizards out in the wild because peacocks eat lizards. Hence, the logic is that the sight of peacock feathers will scare the lizards away due to natural selection.

Flypaper

Like fly-catching, if you stick the flypaper on the walls and corners where lizards tend to gather in your house, you can dispose of them quickly once they get stuck to the paper.

Onion and garlic

You’re already familiar with the strong smell of onion and garlic. For lizards, it is even worse. The sulfur in the onion gives off an aroma that the lizards cannot take, so they will stay away from your house if you chop up the onion and leave them around your home. You can do the same with cloves of garlic. You can even mix the onion or garlic juice and pour it into a spray bottle if you want, and it will give you a similar effect.

Lemongrass

Lemongrass has a powerful citrus smell which is utterly unappealing for lizards. You can cut up some lemongrass and place them around the house, and it will act as both a lizard repellent and a room freshener.

If you’ve already caught a few lizards in your house and want to know where to look for lizards, we recommend these steps:

• Lizards like warm areas, so check your storage places and other possible hiding places
• Look for lizard droppings in your home clutter. It is indicative of a lizard home nearby.
• Humid and damp areas are a treat for lizards, so they are most likely hiding in such areas. You can check under your sink or other places with possible water stagnation.
• Check all the small vents and cracks in the walls. Lizards can crawl through tiny spaces like these.

What to do:

• Keep the home temperature low. Since lizards love being in humid and warm spaces, if your room temperature is significantly down, the lizards are likely to stay away.
• Maintain a clean environment in your home. Keep everything fresh and cleaned to not attract unwanted visitors like the lizards to your house.
• Dispose of all leftover food or store them in the fridge. Make sure that there are no food sources out in the open, which will attract lizards.
• Follow a schedule to spring clean your cabinets and clean out the storage rooms. Lizards love to breed in the clutter of your storerooms, so if you declutter regularly, you’ll rid your home of lizards significantly.
• Ensure you take care of any leaky pipes, moldy walls, and dampness in your house to prevent further lizards breeding. Check all water sources and make sure nothing is stagnant.
• Repair cracks on the walls and windows and keeps everything closed when you don’t need them, such as the lights in your room, and shut the windows.
• Throw out the trash regularly
• Keep an electronic pest control device outside your house

What not to do:

• Don’t leave bits of food like cookie crumbles in your house unattended for long. The food is what attracts lizards to your home.
• Limit the number of wall hangings in your home, as lizards love to hang around such places