The Great Cincinnati Lizard Legend

As a “recent” (within the past five years) import to the Cincinnati area, one of my first memories of this fantastic city was being down in Smale Riverfront Park prior to a Reds game.

My wife and I had received tickets to the Reds game and decided to park in Covington and walk across the river because it was a beautiful day and let’s face it, I am cheap. We crossed the bridge earlier than we needed to so we went for a walk through Smale Riverfront Park. It was while walking through the park that I saw something out of the corner of my eye on the landscaped retaining wall. I blew it off at first as an emboldened rodent. We walked a bit further and I saw something again and I spun my head to try and catch a peak and could not believe what I saw. A 5 inch lizard staring at me from a crevice between the wall stones.

I told my wife to “quick look” but by the time she had turned, the lizard had retreated back into the safety of the stone wall. Kandace didn't believe Cincinnati had lizards, so I had to go to the Googles to ensure I was not going crazy. It was there that I learned the rich history/mythology behind the European Wall Lizards that fellow Queen City residents colloquially refer to as “Lazarus Lizards”.

The fable goes that in 1951 the young son, George Rau, of the family that owned the Lazarus Department Store, was vacationing with the family in Italy when he became enthralled with the affable reptiles and stowed ten of them away in a sock for the trip back to Cincinnati. When back home, little George released his smuggled treasures into the backyard of his family’s Torrence Court home, an area of town now known by the locals as “Lizard Hill”.

Since their first introduction in 1951, these adaptable lizards have made themselves comfortable at home here in Cincinnati and the surrounding areas. If you can find a south facing limestone wall with a flat area for foraging, you will likely find a few of these skittish pixies sunning themselves on a warm day.

Their diet consists mainly of small invertebrate pests such as crickets, roaches, and other insects, these lizards are a great natural exterminator, but can be unsettling when they happen to come into your home. Under duress, their quick staccato movements are hard to predict, making them difficult to catch by hand. The lizards are also capable of shedding part of their tail to survive a predator's attack; a defense mechanism known as autotomy.  The detached tail will continue to whip back and forth to further distract (bewilder?) a predator and can definitely be alarming to someone not familiar with these lizards . As a protected species under the Ohio Department of Natural Resources, removing or harming a lizard in its environment carries stiff penalties. However, removing them from the interior of a structure is allowable by licensed professionals. 

That being said, it is still unnerving for us “northerners” to be inundated with reptiles in our home or business the same way our southern neighbors are accustomed to. Many times I receive calls from panicked clients worried they will get bit or be harmed by these lizards. My first job in that situation is to work with the client in quelling their fears and educating them on the biology and habits of these jovil little creatures. From that point we start talking about getting them out of their home.

Huntsman Wildlife is one of the few wildlife management organizations in the Cincinnati area that is expertly trained and experienced to deal with the unique protocols and methods needed to safely capture and remove these infrequent squatters and other reptiles and amphibians that may inadvertently end up in your homes or businesses. We can also perform a full exclusion inspection to help you understand how and why the lizards made it inside your home, and work with you to create a plan to prevent further access.