DEAR JOAN: I stay up in Redding the place it's sizzling, dry — and has loads of bugs to eat. A veritable paradise for lizards.
We've got lizards of each measurement and sort via many of the non-rainy season. This 12 months, the climate was just a little totally different. It did the conventional wet interval via winter and spring, then it turned sizzling, and the lizards got here out within the typical numbers.
Just a few weeks later, the rain and cooler temperatures got here again — not for lengthy, only a week or so. The lizards disappeared and by no means got here again. Even now, there aren't any lizards, despite the fact that the temperatures are excessive and staying excessive.
The place have all of the lizards gone, and can they arrive again subsequent 12 months? Do we've to go to New Mexico, Nevada or Arizona to get a brand new lizard provide? I get pleasure from watching them. So does my cat.
Troy Speers, Redding
DEAR TROY: I belief you don’t work for the Redding Chamber of Commerce, as a result of “Scorching, dry and loads of bugs” as a slogan may not encourage lots of people to go to. It ought to, nevertheless, enchantment to these lizards from New Mexico, Arizona and Nevada.
You need to nonetheless be seeing lizards. Though California has 60 totally different species of the reptile, the most typical one — the Western fence lizard — is lively from April via October. When the climate will get chilly, they go into hibernation.
The fence lizard lays as much as 20 eggs in moist soil, Might via August, they usually hatch from July to September.
In the event you’re not seeing them, chances are high they’ve left the realm in quest of meals. That is likely to be since you or your shut neighbors have been heavy-handed with using pesticides. Lizards, like all residing creatures, want a gentle provide of meals and water.
If you wish to welcome them again subsequent 12 months, scale back or remove pesticides, set out small, shallow bowls of water, and embody some habitat for them together with dense vegetation, tall grasses, groundcovers, mulched areas, piles of leaves and plenty of rocks to cover beneath and sunbathe on prime.
I do know you had been joking, however don’t attempt to seize lizards from different locations, together with out-of-state, and transport them to Redding. That’s in opposition to the legislation.
DEAR JOAN: Once I was a child, neighbourhood canine used to knock over all the rubbish pails on our avenue and unfold the rubbish throughout. My mom took to sprinkling cayenne pepper round our rubbish pails, and we grew to become the one home on the block with upright pails. Cayenne pepper is affordable, simply obtainable, chemical-free, innocent to vegetation, animals and people, and it really works like a allure. Sprinkle it in a band across the merchandise you wish to shield. Animals won't stroll on peppered floor.
Mary Anne E., Victoria, British Columbia, Canada
DEAR MARY ANNE: Cayenne pepper may be helpful in repelling plenty of creatures, however it ought to by no means be utilized in its powder type, out within the open. That’s as a result of if an animal, or a human, inhales the powder, it could actually trigger extreme respiratory misery.
In the event you’re going to make use of it to beat back critters, it ought to be blended in water and sprayed.
Contact Joan Morris at jmorris@bayareanewsgroup.com.
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