Whatever it is, I'm hoping it stays outside!

Pretty colorful one. I get lizards all the time in the house when I have the back door open. They sneak in under the screen door. My dog use to chase them and try to catch them.

try raccoons! omg what a mess...

Lololol! Reminds me of the time I served as a consultant at a private residential golf community and their security was called to the home of a woman frantically screaming about the venomous snake on her front porch.

Two made a bee-line response to her house, armed with snake boots, a couple of snake catcher thingies, and a sack. They crept to her porch and not seeing it, kept having to ask, "where? where?"

She screamed again and pointed, "There!" Over their heads! A little green anole, of ALL things. She was terrified and angry at having moved to such a horrible place filled with such hideous creatures.

Suzi, your native red tailed skink is a precious animal. Yours has lost the tip of its tail, which will regrow quickly. If I were you, I'd obtain a field guide of reptile and amphibians in the Western part of the country. Maybe one for insects and spiders, too. The more you know, the less fearful you will be.

At least, do some research on the Western red-tail skink.....your is a youngster, showing its juvenile colors. They look very different as larger adults. You should know both....where you see one, there are likely to me more.

Here in the N Minnesota woods, we used to get flying squirrels in our house on occasion. Now that our tree man has cut back all the tree branches near the house & roof, don't see them anymore. They have the cutest little faces, but they're much cuter on the other side of the windows!!

rhizo, at least the skink is outside now. I'm sure there are more. We have an abundance of critters here. Scorpions get inside now and then too. DH found a tarantula in the garage sink... Plenty of rattlesnakes. I have a big respect for any creature that crawls or slithers.

We have lots of lizards around, and I love seeing them. Most are not very colorful, some have dark blue on them. To me it says my yard is a viable mini-ecosystem; there's a functioning food chain.

LOL I would have been thrilled! I don't get to see them often, and they can be quick movers.

But I understand some folks just aren't comfortable around wildlife... I imagine what it would be like for them in my high school science class. The teacher wasn't great in the usual check columns, but he was fabulous in a unique one. Our classroom had all sorts of creatures, from scorpions and tarantulas, to hamsters, mice and rats, to rosy boas and gopher snakes, to a kestrel. And we were encouraged to handle them all during class time. The students with the mice had to sit on the opposite side of the room from those with the snakes, though. ;) He once brought in a live rattlesnake so everyone could study the head shape and be able to identify one properly. I cannot imagine that happening in a public school today.

Rattlesnakes in the house is not fun, though. My MIL had a cat that would sometimes bring in snakes. Not good.

suzi sorry you're near rattlers...we were very lucky as the last house we had was in santee ca (burb of san diego ) and because the navy owned the property behind, no buildings and wild...one of the neighbors had their child bitten and it took almost an adult dose of drugs to bring the little boy thru...we became very careful of going out...

I was expecting a scorpion, or worse. We have five-lined skinks, which have brittle tails--If a predator grabs the tail it breaks off. The one in your pic looks kinda 'stubby.' ;)

Oh, we've had many scorpions, but I've never seen a skink in my life! Can't say that anymore!

I wouldn't be happy living where there was a regular presence of snakes and other reptiles, insects and large/threatening animals like scorpions. I've tended to be uncomfortable and probably too wary of such things when I've ventured into the brush or to the hot/arid inland and desert areas in the West. Out of excessive and probably irrational fear, I know.

Good luck to all of you who do deal with such things regularly, you're no doubt much better at doing so that I ever could be.

I spent a year in Tucson on the edge of what was then the Pantano Wash. After the scorpions, a turantula, rattlers and earwigs, I decided a winter in the northeast was less stress! Am still in upstate NY AND LOVING IT.

I'll take my critters over your winters any day! Do you know I get citrus in winter? Figs in fall? Vineyard harvest in fall? Did you know I can deal with rattlesnakes, but I keep my distance. Just freaks me out when some strange critter enters my home with an orange tail.

Wantoretire,

Same here. I love Vermont. You and I have it pretty good as far as weather and things go.

Out west the ground shakes, sometimes a lot. The Midwest is called Tornado Alley for a reason. The Southeast gets hurricanes. All those things can kill people. Give me a Nor'easter blizzard any day!

We get the blue tailed ones. Our cats bring them in, usually without the tail. I try to find the tails so that I can dispose of them because I don't want my cats to eat them. It does something weird to their nervous systems and it makes them act funny for a long time if they eat a blue tail. I'll take a lizard in the house over a snake any day! I think we've had just about every kind of wildlife brought in by the cats so far except for a poisonous snake, knock on wood.

He's so pretty :-) Our little skinks are different shades of grey stripes. When we get one in the house (or other inside place where a wild critter won't be happy) I catch it and gently take it outside to release it in the garden.

Catching them is tricky because as has been noted they drop their tails as a defense mechanism and then grow them back. However, this trick only works once because the replacement tail is permanent. Because I'd feel so guilty if I scared a skink into dropping its tail (and so losing its defense needlessly) I catch them very slowly and carefully so I don't frighten it.

I lived in So. Cal. For many years and had an abundant lemon tree, figs, etc., as well as a few earthquakes. I got so tired of the traffic and having to water every. single. day. Kids are here and I had lived in the area for a long time, so it was the right move for us. Looking forward to that Nor'easter and Netflix :-)

Upper Midwest here. I've never seen a skink. Our long cold winters eliminate most critters who invade houses except for the occasional bat or squirrel.

I agree about the CA traffic. And sometimes it is too hot for my liking. But Lyme disease, mosquitoes, selective memory about those winters.... enjoy! ;)

That's most thoughtful of you, Colleen. Yes, I'd pretty much freak out if one were in the house but would definitely find someone to carry it out for me.

colleenoz, I was fascinated when you wrote that the replacement tail became permanent, because I had never heard that before. Is that true just for this species or skinks? I tried searching about tail loss (caudal autotomy) online, but the study, I admittedly scanned quickly, seemed to indicate for lizards that multiple regenerations were possible. Do you know a source for your information where I could read more in depth?

As a child, I wanted to become a research scientist. Does it show much? ;)

sjerin, if you were home alone, you'd take it out ;)

One day last year I was in front of my washing machine in the laundry, nightie and bare feet and saw something moving, peripheral vision. There was a 'lizard' lurching towards me from the kitchen. I really don't see them here, just salamanders and very rarely an occasional newt. No one here but me and it, screaming would have done no good, and I couldn't leave it in my house to go who knows where. I grabbed handful of Kleenex, grabbed it, and the little drama queen went stiff as a dried up board. You'd think I'd beaten on it when I hadn't hurt it at all, it was faking curled-up dead. I tossed it out onto the lawn, still faking. Then changed my mind and put it in a box to show DH when he got home. He took it across the street to a wooded ravine and let it go, quite alive again by that time.

I just had my combination storm/screen door to my patio and the threshold replaced this month. There had been a newt sized gap at the bottom of that door since we'd bought the house, someone had installed so that it would open all the way over the cement patio, not fitted right at the threshold to stop 'things that crawl' ;)!!!

I don't know how long the newt had been inside, but it had a dust bunny stuck to it so I suspect under my refrigerator.

Here in the upper midwest, the nearest thing we have to a skink is salamanders

Hi gyr_falcon, I couldn't say where I first heard about new tails not being droppable, but I found this article which confirms it (near the end). But the whole article is worth a read because it contains a lot of info about other reasons why it isn't good to make a skink drop its tail needlessly.

Lizard Tail Loss

Bizbee (cat) brought us a big tailless skink yesterday. I looked around but never did find the tail. It got taken back outside.

I have lived in SW Arizona forever, and have had very few experiences with scorpions and snakes. Tarantulas (or any spiders) scare me, but they won't hurt you. If you live in the outlying areas you will see more of these critters. I would personally be more afraid of tornadoes.

how do you know it's a skink and not a lizard? I've got lots of little lizards running around my yard; they're probably baby whiptails (just a WAG) but can't get close enough to see really.

Haven't seen a tarantula yet, but I know they're out there (shifts eyes)

Thanks, colleen! I've been too busy to check out the link today, and tomorrow might be equally crazy. But I will check it out this weekend.

I get skinks and small gekkos in the house from time to time, but I try to catch them quickly because they are so fast that if you miss them you end up chasing them around the room as they run behind furniture etc. (which I think is more stressful than if I catch them first up). I then gently cup them in my hands which seems to keep them quiet while I carry them out. so far none have dropped their tails thankfully and I take them outside and let them go. They are usually pretty relaxed when I do this and I have to nudge them to get them off my hand. I get lots of little skinks and geckos in my garden and they do scare easily, way more afraid of us.

The first time I saw the word "skink" mentioned in a thread, I thought it was a typo. I thought it should have been skunk.

Trance, where do you live that geckos are common? I think that they are so special.

rhizo, I live in West Australia and I get so many little geckos at my place but strangely never used to get them much at other houses here. I love them, and have stumbled across little baby geckos in various places too which are super cute!(usually somewhere dark like in the garden shed) I can't remember the technical names but there are two types I usually see, some little black ones, and some flesh coloured ones (almost translucent). skinks I'll usually set down in a garden bed and the geckos I'll let them go against a wall so they can climb up to safety - they seem to always want to head upwards (really cute when they stick out their front legs to grab a hold of a wall) :)

Im not sure why there are so many here at this house and I'm always finding gecko eggs lying around in odd places too.