Oregon Fence Lizards Fight Lyme Disease in Northern California

Guess what, folks. Fires aren’t the only things that aren’t impressed by state lines. I think I’ve got a common Oregon Fence Lizard living in my yard. I’m also pretty sure she’s female, because of the neutral coloring. Compared to males, females aren’t that fancy–no markings on the belly, no blue or green color on the upper surfaces, mostly camouflage greens and browns. Therefore, I’m deeming it female and calling it Liz, for short.

Liz is not shy like her more reclusive counterparts, such as alligator lizards. She very much enjoys hanging out in the early morning sun on a rock or a charred tree snag–one of the many reminders in these parts of destruction by fire. She darts straight for her destinations rather than undulates, again making me think she’s a fence lizard, since the alligator variety moves like a snake. If I could only see the birthing process, I’d know for sure what Liz is, ’cause fence lizards lay eggs while the alligator kind squirt their babies out alive–just like us.

Here’s a glorious tidbit: The common fence lizard performs a mighty service to humanity by controling the spread of Lyme disease. According to Robert Lane, professor of Insect Biology, “the lizard’s blood contains a substance – probably a heat sensitive protein – that kills the Lyme disease spirochete…” Hence, the reason that Lyme disease is more of a problem in states that aren’t blessed with the Western Fence Lizard.

In other words, folks, when infected ticks feed on fence-lizard blood, the evil Lyme bacterium is destroyed. Anybody got more respect for the common Western Fence Lizard? Not only do they purify the tick for life, Lane went on to say that these sweet little reptiles host more ticks than most rodents. I’m thinking, though, that Mr. Lane is not counting the big rodents, more commonly known as deer.

Some suggest that killing off deer until there are only 12 per square mile is the way to reduce Lyme Disease. I wonder if killing helps in the long run, though. Wouldn’t the ticks just catch a ride on a passing chipmunk or squirrel? Maybe there’ s just not enough natural predators– such as mountain lions and coyotes–to keep the deer population under control.

People around here killed too many wild carnivores, and it didn’t help anything except the deer and rodent population. Next thing you know, we were overrun with pesky mice varmints that took up residence in our vehicles, using engine wiring and tubing as their primary food source. Depending on the vehicle, this can set you back thousands. Sad to say, Chris and I know first-hand how mice like to put down their winter roots in warm vehicles. I guess it goes without saying that spending all that money to rewire our engine didn’t even fix the problem. The field mice were pleased that we had provided more sustenance for them. We finally got tired of setting rodent traps under our hood every night, so we (meaning Chris) made room for our car in the garage.

One almond grower by the name of Ged told me that he and his buddy sit back-to-back in their orchards for hours at a time (literally), shooting squirrels that would wolf down their whole crop of nuts, if allowed to procreate and run free. I don’t blame the farmers for protecting their nuts. I don’t even blame them for shooting the coyotes that killed the squirrels that eat the nuts. I just wish we humans would learn to look ahead.

Take our neighbors down the road, for example: They decided to raise cute, docile sheep right out in their lush meadow–without a shepherd or any barking dogs. When a mountain lion started eating one sheep every so often, they had California Fish and Game tree it and shoot it dead.

Now technically speaking, Mountain Lions are a “specially protected species” and can’t be harmed unless declared a “public threat“. I still can’t figure out why Fish and Game didn’t relocate the carnivore to a mountainous area with no pet sheep. Instead, they classified it as a public threat. I don’t know how it fit those specific guidelines–I only know it wasn’t one till somebody put tempting woolly treats in its path.

Now I’m off on a tangent and wondering how I got there.

No matter. I have a lovely picture of Liz (remember Liz), which I’m having made into a custom SendOutCard for Chris and myself as a simple reminder of how the commonest life form is often a great boon to humanity in disguise. How many ticks Liz has neutralized is anybody’s guess. The truth is, I feel much safer just knowing creatures like Liz are in this world. I hope she has many babies and lives in my yard a long long time.