A garden lizard is a fascinating creature to have around — and a genuinely useful one. These reptiles (Calotes versicolor), also known as oriental garden lizards, are native to warm regions of Asia and now found in gardens worldwide. You’ll spot them in grass, trees, and bushes, quietly observing their surroundings from the sidelines. So what does a garden lizard actually eat?
In short: garden lizards eat snails, caterpillars, insects, small crickets, and some fruit and greens. They eat in small portions, feeding frequently rather than gorging. The oriental garden lizard’s main diet is insects — ants, cockroaches, and grasshoppers — along with the occasional small vertebrate like a young rat or even another lizard.
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What does a garden lizard eat?
Garden lizards have teeth built for gripping prey, not tearing it — they swallow food whole. Young, inexperienced lizards will sometimes choke if they misjudge and go after prey too large for them. Their diet is broader than most people expect:
- Baby snakes — surprisingly, garden lizards will eat newly hatched non-venomous snakes, and some even eat snake eggs.
- Butterflies — a favorite. A garden full of butterflies is essentially a buffet to a garden lizard.
- Cockroaches — treated as an easy, everyday snack.
- Their own eggs — under food pressure, a lizard will sometimes eat its own eggs.
- Slugs — gripped with their teeth and swallowed despite the mucus coating.
- Smaller lizards — males competing for mates will sometimes eat smaller lizards as a show of dominance.
- Fruit — especially berries and bananas, which double as a water source.
What do small garden lizards eat?
Prey size scales with lizard size. Smaller lizards stick to smaller prey like flies and crickets, working up to spiders, snails, and caterpillars as they grow and need more substantial meals.
Do garden lizards need water?
Yes — they need water to survive and to maintain healthy skin moisture. That said, they can’t tolerate excessive water either; too much and they risk drowning, so a shallow, moderate water source works best.
Do garden lizards eat vegetables and plants?
Occasionally, though they’re primarily insectivores. In some cases they’ll eat greens alongside their usual insect-heavy diet.
Do garden lizards eat flying termites?
Yes. Flying termites are drawn to light and tend to fall to the ground nearby, making them easy, low-effort prey for a lizard waiting close by.
Where do garden lizards live naturally?
Garden lizards favor warm climates, which is why they’re so common in tropical and subtropical regions. They live primarily in grass and trees, and need reliable access to water to avoid dehydration. When temperatures drop, they retreat and hide under rocks until conditions warm back up.
Are they poisonous? Do they bite?
Garden lizards are harmless. While they’re distantly related to venomous reptile families, they themselves are venom-free. They can bite, but it typically looks like a minor scratch that a basic dressing handles fine. They’re not aggressive and only bite when they feel genuinely threatened.
How to make your garden lizard-friendly
The main benefit of having lizards around is pest control — they’ll happily eat the insects, larvae, and even mosquitoes that would otherwise be bothering you. To encourage them to stick around:
- Plant native grasses
- Leave some leaf cover or light mulching in place
- Plant berries as a food source
- Keep a shallow water dish available in the garden
- Keep cats indoors if possible — they’re a real threat to garden lizards
- Consider a small pond to also attract insects and frogs, with a ramp or stick so anything that falls in can climb back out
What to avoid
- Pesticides or other chemical treatments — these remove the insects lizards need to eat and can harm the lizards directly
- Raking away all the leaves — leaf cover provides shelter
- Capturing lizards from parks or the wild to relocate them — let them find their own habitat naturally
- Feeding them directly — they need to forage on their own
A few more things to know
Lizards can’t regulate their own body temperature, so running sprinklers during extreme summer heat can help. If you notice a lizard’s tail drooping, that’s often a sign of stress or injury from another animal — and again, keeping cats away from them matters, since cats will readily prey on garden lizards.
Conclusion
Garden lizards are quiet, low-maintenance creatures that do genuine pest control work in exchange for very little. Understanding what they eat — and what to avoid doing in your garden — is the first step toward coexisting with them in a way that benefits both your yard and the lizard.