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Reptiles & Amphibians

Do Lizards Eat Plants? Which Ones Do, and What to Do

Most backyard lizards are insect eaters and ignore plants entirely. The exceptions, how to tell lizard damage from the real culprit, and what stops it.

By Zakaria 3 min read Save to Pinterest — opens Pinterest in a new tab
A pale anole perched along the frond of a garden plant at night, tail extended behind it
Photo: anselmo7511, Pixabay Content License, via Pixabay
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Almost always no. The lizards in a backyard are insect eaters, and the one sitting on your tomato plant is hunting whatever is actually eating it.

Who eats what

Common backyard lizards and their actual diet
LizardDietPlant damage
SkinksInsects, spiders, snails, slugsNone
AnolesInsects, spidersNone
Fence and wall lizardsInsectsNone
GeckosInsects, mothsNone
Common lizard, viviparous lizardInsects, spidersNone
Some larger skinksInsects, some fruit and flowersOccasional, trivial
Bearded dragons (escaped pets)Insects and greensMinor
Green iguanasLeaves, flowers, fruitSerious, in subtropics

Every entry in the top half of that table is a net benefit to a garden. The bottom entry is a genuine problem — and it is a Florida, Hawaii, Caribbean and Gulf Coast problem rather than a general one.

What is actually eating the plant

The damage tells you, and it rarely says lizard.

  • Ragged holes, slime trails, worst after rain → slugs and snails
  • Clean semicircles cut from leaf edges → leafcutter bees. Harmless, leave them
  • Leaves skeletonised to the veins → beetles or sawfly larvae
  • Seedlings sheared off at soil level overnight → cutworms
  • Stems stripped, dark droppings alongside → caterpillars
  • Clean angled cuts, whole shoots gone → rabbits or deer
  • Fruit hollowed out → slugs, birds, mice, squirrels
  • Leaves stippled pale, fine webbing → spider mites
  • Whole leaves gone, thick-bodied lizard present, subtropical climate → iguana

The lizard is usually evidence of the problem, not the cause

A lizard spends its day where the insects are. A plant covered in aphids, a strawberry bed full of beetles, a damp bed with slugs in it — those are hunting grounds.

Finding a lizard on a chewed plant is weak evidence it did the chewing and good evidence something else did.

If you genuinely have iguanas

This is a real and expensive problem where it applies, and it is a different article from the one most people need.

  • Exclusion works, repellents do not. Wire cages over prized plants, netting over beds, sheet-metal trunk guards on fruit trees
  • Remove what they want. Fallen fruit cleared daily, hibiscus and bougainvillea protected or relocated, dense bask-and-hide cover thinned
  • Plant what they avoid — citrus, oleander, crotons, most strongly scented herbs, milkweed
  • Fill burrows once they are confirmed empty, and screen under decks and seawalls
  • Check local law before any removal. Rules differ sharply by state and country, and in several places both killing and relocating are regulated

Why you want the other lizards

  • Crickets, beetles, spiders, flies, moths, snails and slugs, in quantity, every day
  • No burrowing, no chewing, no droppings problem, no damage to the structure
  • Not venomous, and they will not bite anyone
  • They are prey for birds and snakes, so a garden with lizards is a working one

A garden that supports lizards usually needs less spraying, which is the whole argument. Put flat stones in a sunny spot, leave a log pile in a corner, and stop treating them as suspects.

Common questions

Do lizards eat plants?

Most do not. The lizards people find in a backyard — skinks, anoles, fence lizards, geckos, wall lizards — are insectivores that hunt crickets, beetles, spiders, flies and snails, and they ignore foliage entirely. The herbivorous lizards are mainly iguanas and some larger agamids, which are tropical and are a garden issue only in Florida, Hawaii, parts of the Caribbean and similar climates. A lizard in a temperate garden is almost certainly eating the pests, not the plants.

Which lizards eat plants?

Green iguanas are the serious plant eaters and will strip hibiscus, bougainvillea, orchids and leafy vegetables where they are established. Some larger agamids and a few skink species take fruit and flowers opportunistically, and many otherwise insectivorous lizards will lick nectar or take soft fruit occasionally. Geckos, anoles, fence lizards and common garden skinks are not plant eaters in any meaningful sense.

What is eating my plants if not lizards?

Look at the damage. Ragged holes with slime trails are slugs or snails; clean half-moons cut from leaf edges are leafcutter bees, which do no real harm; skeletonised leaves are beetles or sawfly larvae; whole seedlings sheared at ground level are cutworms; stripped stems with droppings are caterpillars; clean-cut stems with the piece taken away are rabbits or deer. A lizard sitting on the plant is usually there for whichever of those is eating it.

Are lizards good or bad for a garden?

Good, in almost every temperate garden. An insectivorous lizard eats large numbers of crickets, beetles, spiders, aphid-tending ants, snails and slugs, and it does no structural damage, no burrowing and no chewing. The exception is an iguana population in a subtropical climate, which is a genuine and expensive garden problem — but that is a specific animal in a specific region, not lizards in general.

How do I stop lizards eating my plants?

First confirm a lizard is doing it, because usually something else is. If you genuinely have iguanas, the methods are exclusion and removing what they want: wire cages or netting over prized plants, trunk guards on fruit trees, removal of the fallen fruit and the dense cover they bask in, and planting species they avoid such as citrus, oleander and most strongly scented herbs. No repellent spray reliably works on them.

Do lizards eat tomatoes or strawberries?

Rarely, and when they do it is usually a bite rather than the whole fruit. Soft ripe fruit attracts insects, and a lizard sitting in a strawberry bed is typically hunting those — though some will take a taste of the fruit itself. Fruit hollowed out or substantially eaten is far more likely slugs, birds, mice or squirrels. The giveaway is that lizard damage is shallow and incidental where the real fruit eaters finish what they start.

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