Skip to content
Grow In Backyard
Reptiles & Amphibians

Do Lizards Keep Snakes Away? And Do Frogs Attract Them?

Lizards do not repel snakes — they are prey. Frogs do not summon them either. What a yard's small animals actually tell you about its snakes.

By Zakaria 4 min read Save to Pinterest — opens Pinterest in a new tab
A brown anole resting on a fallen log among green undergrowth
Photo: ALAN SCHMIERER, CC0, via Wikimedia Commons
On this page

No — and it is close to backwards. Lizards do not repel snakes. Lizards are on the menu for a long list of them, and a yard that supports skinks is a yard that supports the snakes that eat skinks.

Where the myth comes from

There is a real observation underneath it, misread. In some yards you see plenty of lizards and few snakes, and it is tempting to read one as causing the other.

What is usually going on is habitat: open, sunny, tidy ground with hard surfaces suits lizards well and suits most snakes poorly, because snakes want continuous cover to move under. The lizards are not driving the snakes out — the same layout that invites lizards happens to discourage snakes.

The second source is the mongoose story, generalised. Mongooses do kill snakes; lizards do not.

What lizards actually do when a snake arrives

They freeze, then they run. A skink’s defences are camouflage, speed, and a detachable tail — all escape tools, none of them deterrents.

Snakes that routinely eat lizards include racers, coachwhips, whipsnakes, many rat snakes, and most juvenile snakes of species that switch to rodents as adults. For a young snake, a skink is close to an ideal meal.

Do frogs attract snakes?

Yes, in the narrow sense that frogs are prey for garter snakes, water snakes, cottonmouths and others, so a well-populated pond is a reason for those species to pass through.

But put it in proportion:

What draws snakes to a yard, in rough order
DrawWeightNotes
RodentsVery highThe main reason for nearly every snake in a yard
Cover — woodpiles, rock piles, deep mulchVery highSafe movement and shelter
Basking surfaces near coverHighFlat stone, paving, decking edges
Frogs and toadsModerateMatters mostly near water
LizardsModerateMatters most for juvenile and lizard-specialist snakes
Birds and eggsLow to moderateFeeders draw rodents first
WaterModeratePonds, drips, standing water

A yard with mice in the shed and a woodpile against the wall will hold snakes whether or not a single frog lives there. Removing the frogs costs you the slug and mosquito control and changes the snake situation very little.

The one animal that does reduce snakes

Kingsnakes. They are ophiophagous — they eat other snakes — and they are resistant to the venom of the pit vipers in their range, which means a kingsnake will take a copperhead or a rattlesnake.

Whether a resident kingsnake measurably lowers the venomous-snake count in one specific yard is much harder to claim; territories are large and the effect is diffuse. The practical part is not in doubt though: if you identify a kingsnake on your property, leave it alone.

Other snake-eaters with the same logic include indigo snakes and, opportunistically, black racers.

Identify before you act on any of this

Kingsnakes and coral snakes overlap in range and in colour scheme, and the rhymes about red and yellow bands are unreliable outside a narrow part of the US. If you are not certain, do not approach, and do not kill it — most bites happen during attempts to handle or kill a snake.

What to change instead

If the goal is fewer snakes, work on the three things that actually decide it:

Food

  • Sealed metal or hard plastic bins for birdseed, pet food and grass seed
  • Clean up under bird feeders, or pause them
  • No kitchen scraps in an open compost heap
  • Trap rodents in sheds, garages and crawl spaces

Cover

  • Move woodpiles and rock piles away from the house and raise them off the ground
  • Mow short within a few feet of the foundation
  • Clear leaf litter and dense groundcover along walls
  • Keep mulch shallow near the house

Buildings

  • Quarter-inch hardware cloth over foundation and crawl space vents
  • Seal pipe and cable penetrations
  • A door sweep on the garage door

None of that requires removing a single lizard or frog — which is the point. The animals people suspect are not the variable. The woodpile is.

And do lizards eat each other?

Sometimes, yes. Larger lizards take smaller ones opportunistically, and several species will eat hatchlings — including their own — when the size difference makes it worthwhile.

It is ordinary opportunistic feeding rather than a sign that something is wrong, and it is one of several reasons a lizard population in a yard regulates itself without any help.

Common questions

Do lizards keep snakes away?

No — it works the other way round. Lizards and skinks are prey for a long list of snakes, so a yard with a healthy lizard population is a yard with a reliable food supply for snakes. Lizards have no ability to repel a snake and no interest in trying; when one detects a snake it freezes or runs. The only animal that genuinely reduces snakes in an area by being there is another snake, specifically a kingsnake, which eats other snakes including venomous ones.

Do frogs attract snakes?

Indirectly, yes. Frogs are prey for garter snakes, water snakes and cottonmouths among others, so a pond full of frogs is a reason for those species to visit. But frogs are rarely the main draw in a yard — rodents are, by a wide margin, and a yard with mice will hold snakes whether or not there is a single frog in it. Removing frogs to deter snakes trades away effective slug and mosquito control for very little.

What actually attracts snakes to a yard?

Food, cover and temperature, in that order. Food mostly means rodents, which means spilled birdseed, accessible pet food, compost with kitchen scraps and untidy sheds. Cover means woodpiles, rock piles, deep mulch, dense groundcover against walls and stacked debris. Temperature means sun-warmed flat surfaces to bask on and cool shelter to retreat into. Fix those and the yard becomes much less attractive regardless of what else lives in it.

Is having lizards in the yard a bad sign?

No. Lizards indicate a yard with plenty of insects and enough cover, and they eat mosquitoes, crickets, roaches, ants and spiders in quantity. They do mean there is prey available for snakes, but so does every healthy yard — a yard with nothing a snake would eat is usually a yard that has been heavily treated with pesticide. Judge snake risk by the woodpile and the rodent situation, not by the skinks.

Do lizards eat each other?

Some do. Larger lizards will take smaller ones opportunistically, and several species eat hatchlings of their own kind when food is scarce or when a hatchling is small enough to be worth the effort. It is normal opportunistic feeding rather than a sign of anything wrong. It is also one reason lizard populations regulate themselves without any intervention from you.

Do kingsnakes really keep other snakes away?

Kingsnakes genuinely do eat other snakes, including copperheads and rattlesnakes, and they have resistance to those venoms. Whether a resident kingsnake measurably reduces venomous snakes in a particular yard is much less certain — territories are large and the effect is diffuse. The practical advice is simple though: if you identify a kingsnake on your property, leave it alone. It is doing more good than anything sold in a bottle.

Backyard Weekly

Know what to plant, week by week

Join the weekly email for seasonal jobs, fixes for what is going wrong, and gear worth buying.

Not ready to subscribe? The planting calendar is free and needs no email.

By subscribing you agree to our privacy policy. Grow In Backyard will never sell your address.

Keep reading

A brown anole lizard resting on a garden marker among leaf litter
Backyard Animals ·

What Do Backyard Lizards Actually Eat?

Wild lizards in a garden are almost entirely insect-eaters, not the varied diet pet-care sites describe. What they hunt, and what draws more of them to your yard.