Lizard and gecko

How to recognise it

Wall lizards basking on stone in the sun; geckos on walls at night near lights.

Mistaken for

Chased off or feared indoors. Both are harmless and are steadily eating garden insects.

What it eats

Ants, Flea beetle, Aphids, Cabbage white caterpillar

How to attract it

Sun-warmed stone, dry stone walls, log piles, and no insecticides.

Plants that help

Not recorded — the field is blank rather than guessed.

Lifecycle

Several eggs a year in warm crevices; long-lived where undisturbed.

Months: March, April, May, June, July, August, September, October

The thing people get wrong

A dry stone wall or a simple pile of sun-facing rocks is a lizard hotel, and lizards patrol exactly the low foliage where flea beetles and young caterpillars sit. In a Mediterranean garden it is one of the cheapest habitat improvements you can make.