How to Stop Lizards from Eating Plants

Before taking any measures to keep lizards from eating your plants, be aware that most chemicals and homemade detergents can damage the leaves. Ensure that whatever you spray on the plants will deter the lizards while the plants will remain healthy.

Do lizards eat plants? It is true that lizards can eat plants and the answer is yes. As much as most of them feed on insects, sometimes they can be found nibbling on plant leaves. In fact, there are lizards like the iguana that feed on plants alone.

Lizards that only eat plants (herbivorous lizards): The Rhinoceros iguana, Uromastyx, Green Iguana, and the Giant skink. Those herbivorous lizards are likely to develop digestion problems if they eat insects or meat in large quantities.

How to stop lizards from eating plants (5 steps that work)

Caution: If you are not sure of what you want to spray on the plants to repel lizards, do a sample test on a few leaves (like 2-4) and let it settle for a week. If the leaves do not turn in color, then it is okay to proceed. Always spray lizard repellents in small quantities since lizards are sensitive.

Since many have started keeping herbivorous lizards as pets, some of them have managed to escape. They have multiplied in the fields and any garden around makes a good habitat.

They will crawl to your backyard and firms to find their favorite plants. Here are some safe ways that can keep lizards from eating plants without destroying the leaves:

1. Garlic lizard repellent

The strong concentrated smell of garlic is a great natural way of repelling lizards. To stop lizards from eating indoor plants, cut garlic into pieces and spread them on the pot right at the base. This will keep them from climbing and destroying the plants.

To keep lizards from eating plants in the garden, make a garlic spray and spread it on the plants. Here is how to make garlic spray for lizards in the garden:

1. Slice 2 garlic bulbs into pieces
2. Pour 6 ounces of hot water in a container
3. Drop the sliced garlic pieces into the container and lat is cool for 3 hours
4. Sprinkle the solution on the plants using a bottle spray to deter lizards

2. Onions for lizards in plants

To keep lizards out of flower pots, chop an onion into small pieces and place them in the pot. Lizards will not come near the pot because of the strong onion smell will irritate their eyes and nose. Ensure that you replace the onions after every 3 days for them to remain effective.

However, sliced onions will be temporarily effective when it comes to repelling lizards in outdoor plants. The strong smell that onions produce will be neutralized by air very fast. The best way to stop lizards from eating plants in the garden is to make an onion spray.

Cut 3 onion bulbs into pieces and blend them in a cup of warm water. Ensure they are well mixed and let the water cool. Spray this on the leaves to keep lizards away. Just little drops are enough for the job. Do not overspray to soak leaves.

Lizards hate raw onions and garlic and using those two against them will work. If lizards happen to eat onions, they will become thirty and nauseated. Onions can also cause diarrhea in lizards and this can kill them within a day. You can also plant onions and garlic around the garden to deter and keep those critters away.

3. Hot sauce spray (Tobasco)

Tobasco hot sauce spray will not harm your plants but will irritate and repel lizards. This is a good way to stop lizards from destroying your plantation. Simply mix 6 table spoons of Tobasco with 8 ounces of water and spray it on the plants.

Lizards are sensitive and the smell alone will keep them off. If they try eating the leaves, the bitter taste will not sit well with them. Chance of relocation will be high since they will be convinced that the area is not a good habitat for them.  

4. Cayenne pepper mixture

Lizards that eat plants do not like any foreign taste. Spraying the plants with cayenne pepper pepper mixture is a sure way of keeping them from eating the leaves. Here is how to make the solution:

1. Put 1 teaspoon of cayenne pepper in a container
2. Add 1/2 teaspoon of ginger and 1/4 teaspoon of apple cider vinegar
3. Pour 1/2 cup of warm water and stir it to mix well
4. Let it sit for 2 hours until it cools off
5. Pour it in a hand spray and sprinkle it on the plants

5. Naphthalene balls

Naphthalene balls are strong and toxic to all types of lizards. They can not remain near them because the fumes will damage their sense of breathing and cause blockage.

Place some naphthalene balls around the fence to keep lizards from eating garden plants. To keep lizards and other bugs like roaches from potted plants, simply place naphthalene balls in the pot just on top of the sand.

This will keep them from crawling in on the plants. Lizards eat cockroaches and other insects on plants and that is one of the reasons why they will crawl on them. However, be careful how you use those balls because they can be harmful.  

Here is a table of plants that lizards eat and those that they don’t like:

How to keep lizards from grass

If you have want to grows grass in a lizard infested area, keep it in mind that some lizards like the bearded dragon can feed on them. However, it has been observed that lizards hate the St. Augustine grass.

To deter lizards and other insects from destroying your newly planted grass, simply spread some coffee, chili, or tobacco powder around the plantations to make a fence. You can also sprinkle them on the grass.

However,you need to identify their favourite spots since it will not be economical to cover a large area using these powdered repellents. It sound crazy when you want to spread coffee in a field just to deter lizards. As much as it works, it is only good to be reasonable and make sense out of what you do.

The good news is that it will take hundreds of lizards to destroy your grass, They will not cause a lot of damage when eating grass so you do not have to worry about them. However, the large ones in your backyard can damage your grass especially if the plantation is still fresh and growing.

Calina Mabel

Calina Mabel has over 15 years of experience in the field of journalism and communications. Currently, Calina Mabel is the Content Writer for categories such as Cockroach, Ants, Bed Bugs, Mosquito, Rodent, Termite, and Flies on Pestweek.com. She aims to build content for these categories with a focus on providing valuable and accessible information to readers, in order to create the world’s largest knowledge community about Pests.

All content written by Calina Mabel has been reviewed by Emily Carter.