Lizards in collection

Thatayaone Segaetsho <segaetshot [at] mopipi__ub__bw> writes

>I have just discovered habitation  of small lizards within  my
>collection. ...

The lizards are in your collection are because they find sufficient
insects to eat inside the building, so the lizards are doing you a
favor by eating insects that may damage your collection.  The
lizards will not eat your collection (the lizards you describe will
all be insect eaters) but they may damage the collection with their
fecal matter, and if the lizards die in the building their bodies
will attract other pests that may damage the collection.

Although reptiles generally prefer heat, the temperature inside your
building still provides a good habitat for small lizards.

The best long-term strategy for coping with the lizards is to
institute an integrated pest management program to get rid of the
arthropods in the building that the lizards eat.

Do not use any chemical sprays for the lizards, as anything strong
enough to kill lizards may harm people (there are no recommended
pesticides that are effective for reptiles).  There are pesticides
that you can use for the insects that the lizards feed on, however.

The lizards may also be caught using sticky traps.  You will either
have to kill the lizards while they are stuck to the traps (you can
drown them) or remove the lizards from the sticky traps humanely by
using mineral oil.

John E. Simmons
Museologica
128 E. Burnside Street
Bellefonte, Pennsylvania 16823-2010
303-681-5708
and
Adjunct Curator of Collections
Earth and Mineral Science Museum and Art Gallery
Penn State University
University Park, Pennsylvania


                                  ***
                  Conservation DistList Instance 23:39
                   Distributed: Friday, April 9, 2010
                       Message Id: cdl-23-39-003
                                  ***