Originally heard in the context of folks (like plumbers) who work in the crawl spaces under houses... Lizards are great! If you have many lizards you are unlikely to have either lots of snakes or lots of spiders. [The rationale here is that lots of snakes would have eaten the lizards, and spiders would be eaten by the lizards. Either snakes or spiders are worse in dark, close quarters than lizards.] I also find that lizards, like frogs/toads, serve as a pretty good indicator of the health of my "range". If they're happy, things are in pretty good balance.

Then I'd say you're very new at having seen bearded dragons or have poor eyesight, haha. The animal in the photograph is a bearded dragon. I think with as much research as you did, you'd see that desert spiny lizards have highly keeled scales which are quite reflective in the sunlight as well - neither of which that lizard exhibits. Also, just typing in "desert spiny lizard" to a google search engine brings up a lot more species than just desert spinies... Check out your pictures further - the animal is most definitely a bearded dragon... ~Mike

While I think it's laudable that you don't just kick the lizard off your porch, that's probably the reason he isn't scared of you. The lizards in my yard all run when I get close, as long as they think they have been spotted (or don't want to be spotted). So we may not easily be able to control what lizard families are in our yard, but we can certainly chase them away from places we want to sit. The funny thing is, my parents have those kinds of lizards at their place. I think they look less scary than the pink geckos, but at my place, I have the anoles and geckos. They seem to live in harmony, as far as one is seen in daytime and one is seen at night. I had never really thought they would compete for the same food sources or even one eating the other, though I suppose that could be what keeps each group in check around my house. I don't see any birds actively chasing them, even when they are out sunning themselves.

I live in Phoenix, AZ. I have lots of geckos. This lizard dwarfs the geckos. In fact, I imagine he might eat the geckos. I have found dead geckos and I think they starve as there are not enough small bugs for them to eat. I caught another large lizard in my house last fri. night. I believe it was a Clarks spiny lizard. He was HUGE. He used to live outside in my storage room across from the carport door. We were like neighbors and I would see him coming and going and vice versa. I believe he got through the door into the house when I returned late at night from work. I was able to catch him in a box and get him outside. He took off and right away a new lizard moved into the storage room. I believe this is the new lizard that moved into the storage room. I think he came in when my mother was leaving out the carport door at 5 AM Tues. with luggage. I came home that night to a large lizard dropping in the living room. I have been searching for him and finally saw him today. I think he is a Clark's or desert spiny lizard. The problem is that I started spraying for crickets. I only sprayed a little bit, but it is amazing how effective it is. I am not finding any crickets or ANYTHING but small geckos and lizards in the house. I cant even find crickets outside to feed the lizard. I bought mealworms at Petsmart and I think he ate one today...or it got away. Do you have any suggestions? Here is a pic of the big one from last week: