Baby Anole Living among Orchids

[Anglo]

I brought some potted plants inside three nights ago to keep them from freezing. This little green anole (Anolis carolinensis) was in one of the pots sleeping or hibernating. He (or she?) was up and walking across the kitchen floor the next morning. I can’t put him back outside now because we’re having an ice storm.

So I put him among my overcrowded orchids. He evidently likes that well enough as a temporary habitat because he hasn’t wandered off yet. He’s been helping me reduce the fungus gnat population. There is water available in a little dish set in one of the orchid baskets, but he has ignored it, so I’m trying to provide water by spraying it on leaves until droplets form.

He’s active during the day, patrolling from basket to basket in search of fungus gnats. At night, he sleeps in a depression at the base of a leaf or between the slats on the side of a basket.

Green anoles are native lizards. Their color changes from green to brown as needed for camouflage. We also have Mediterranean geckos (Hemidactylus turcicus), an introduced nocturnal species. Both are very common around here.

[cb977]

We have what seems like hundreds of these lizards around the property I find them among the orchids all the time. Keeping my dog away from them has been a challenge but so far...so good

[mnh3281]

Oh he's cute! I've found those up here, but they were among the plants that were shipped up from Florida (tropicals here in Indy).

[Marty]

Very nice, we have those here too at $19.99+tax in a pet store

A carolinensis, aka the American chameleon, though it's not a true chameleon...it does change skin colour from brown to bright green - kind of cool

[LizT]

Now that's cool!!!!!!!!!!!!

[Tindomul]

Awww, isn't it cute! So, what will you feed it once all the gnats are gone?

[orcdfrk]

Keep him with you and you've got your own fertilizer store.

[Anglo]

Now that you mention it, what will I feed him? Before I saw him going after the gnats, I tried placing some little tiny pieces of meat where he'd see them, but he paid no attention and they sat there until they dried up. So it looks like he's only interested in live food.

-And yes, the organic fertilizer is an added bonus. I happened to see a dark little nugget on a leaf this afternoon, which I knocked off into the medium.

[terrestrial_man]

You can get flies from a biological supply house on the net
Here is the link to the reptile page:
copy this link> https://www2.carolina.com/webapp/wcs/stores/servlet/CategoryDisplay?catalogId=10101&storeId=10151&cate goryId=1014&langId=-1&parent_category_rn=83|1009&pageNum=1&catLevel=1& bottom=Y&top=N

for food wingless fruit flies copy this link> https://www2.carolina.com/webapp/wcs/stores/servlet/ProductDisplay?jdeAddressId=&catalogId=10101&store Id=10151&productId=1800&langId=-1&parent_category_rn=83|1009|1013

[Tindomul]

I agree. Wingless fruit flies. You don't want crickets walking around the house.
Oh, but uhm... hide the fruit.