Greg, yes! The critters I mentioned above are all ones I've seen in our yard. The anoles are something you see every day when it's not cold. The geckos are Mediterranean house geckos and are nocturnal. Skinks live at the soil surface and in leaf litter, so only usually seen "by accident" if you uncover one messing/digging around, or scare it into making a run for safety across open ground. The first time I saw one I thought we had baby snakes and was freaking out about how to get rid of them, find the mama, etc, I didn't even see the legs, just the scales and snake-looking head... LOL! They couldn't be more harmless, and eat pill bugs, beetles, ants whatever will fit in their mouth that they can catch. Someday I hope to catch one so I can see what it feels like.
Karen, it sounds like you know a lot more about that stuff than I do. When I first started gardening, I could barely afford plants, let alone packages of stuff. By the time I could afford stuff like that, I was so used to doing without any of it, I've just never done things any other way. I'm not averse to using some kind of 'cide if a pest problem was threatening a prized plant and other methods of control weren't working. Glad that stuff exists if I need it, you bet your bippy! There have been times when some kind of stuff might have saved a plant of mine, but by the time I realized what was going on, the plant was beyond redemption.
Hopefully my learning experiences and new vigilance about inspecting and manually removing buggies, as well as learning about and implementing better care for the plants, will continue to be a successful recipe for not having "bug problems." A little luck probably wouldn't hurt either. You never know what nasties can show up when putting plants outside.
Well it's been a week, how's the battle going, Koiguy? Are you getting rid of them or looking for recipes to use that extra protein?
