Check out these lizards in Toms River, NJ

While performing one of my routine exterior treatments of one of my commercial properties today in Toms River, NJ, I found northern fence lizards all over the outside of the building. These grayish-brown lizards with wavy crossbones on their back can grow to a little over six inches. They prefer to live in isolated regions in the south and northeast.  You’ll commonly see them around fences, rotting logs, tree trucks, and rock piles and rock walls where they can bask in the sun. Sometimes, you’ll hear them scurrying through dry leaf litter. Around us, you’ll find them right here in New Jersey as well as in neighboring New York and Pennsylvania. They are very fast and difficult to catch (although I’m not sure why you’d want to!).

In New Jersey, if you come across one of these Northern Fence lizards, it will likely be in the Pine Barrens (where they’re also known as Pine lizards). Their diet consists of crickets, ants, beetles and other insects. 

During this exterior treatment, I saw a hungry Pine lizard that still had an earwig stuffed in its mouth. The best way to control the lizard populations is by controlling their food source. Without bugs to eat, they’ll move on elsewhere.