Help needed with lizard identification

Have u heard it at all? Diurnal or nocturnal? How big are the poops? White and dark colored or just dark? Does it poop in one spot or just everywhere. You've ruled out bats I assume? The Jamaican fruit bat lives in the VI. They poop tar looking droppings but usually in one place.

I haven't heard any sounds. It might be diurnal, as the poop I found today was still wet. It looked like bird poo, sort of. The line of droppings is right under the roof rafters.

Does STX have some sort of lizard that's bigger than a gecko, more like a baby iguana?

Wood slave?

Yea a baby iggy but u would hear them. There's a few skinks that it could be, their much quieter. Im still thinking its not a lizard if u haven't see. It. They are usually pretty active hunting and running around.

If its a lizard, the poop will have white in it, usually almost half and half. White is urate. If its all brown I don't think its a lizard.

I have cats, and they would go nuts if it were something they could hear. This lizard thingy is in the sewing room, where I am not always in.
But the cats hang out in there, and they would definitely take aim if they saw it.

Maybe a ground lizard (Ameiva exsul)? IDK I would look at bats and tarantulas first. Poop looks similar and larger than the anoles/geckos but smaller than a iggy.

Why not call Fish and Wildlife to help with the ID.
In STT, we have a reptile biologist with F&W, Dr, Renata Platenberg and she is always helpful about answering questions.
Maybe, she can help with yours. Send a pic of the poop and she may be able to identify.
Much prefer having lizard or bat poop to tarantula poop, any day!
Good Luck!

Hope its not a rat!

What many of you are referring to as geckos are anoles (genus Anolis). They are the green to brown lizards you see in your garden, on your porch or occasionally on your windshield. What the original poster has is a Common House Gecko or Woodslave (hemidactylus mabouia). They can be quite a bit larger than anoles, and they are the only ones which like to live indoors, especially in ceiling rafters as described. The larger ones can leave behind poop more prolifically than anoles, but they feed exclusively on insects which would otherwise be harassing you or eating your house or possessions, so consider them the blessing that they are.

Ameiva exsul is larger still but is exclusively a ground lizard, and so far is confined to the Lagrande princesse and surrounding areas where they were introduced several years ago.

The only way you would have an iguana living indoors is if you lived in a terrarium with a grow light and lots of hibiscus plants. They require lots of sunlight, they eat greens, especially hibiscus flowers, and they need soil to lay eggs in.

If it is a fairly large nocturnal lizard, then it is a wood slave. which are common here. I don't think I have ever seen one on the ground, always on walls. Adults are typically around 10 inches long. Here is a link to a blog that has some good photos of them:

http://barcann.livejournal.com/96856.html

Thank you SunnyCaribe & JE!

Now I know what I am looking for...it's doing a great job of hiding, hope I can find it.

OK. The lizard is now in my bedroom. NOT good. I saw it, it is a Wood Slave. I am not going to get the really long barbecue tongs and pick up the glue trap with them, then put the glue trap over the lizard. What else can I do???????

OK. The lizard is now in my bedroom. NOT good. I saw it, it is a Wood Slave. I am not going to get the really long barbecue tongs and pick up the glue trap with them, then put the glue trap over the lizard. What else can I do???????

Lizards are your friend. Over the years we watched lizards climb our walls and eat bad bugs. They never bothered us or intruded in our lives. In both Maui and St Croix we discovered that lizards on the wall were good. My advice to you is try to accept your lizard, clean up it's poop and thank him/her for keeping your bad bugs at bay.

Have to agree. Please dont harm the lizzard.He/she wants nothing to do with you and will not harm you. If you don't want him in your house, can you gently capture him and release him outdoors?

STXER, I like most of the lizards, and have gotten very used to their poo all over the place. This one is TOO big to be over my bed! It's got to go. I have used my butterfly net in the past to move lizards, but this one is too big for the net! Any critter-friendly ideas are welcomed, but it MUST go outside, down the road, to a neighbors house...:)

Get a pair of gloves and pick it up and put it outside if you are too squeamish to pick it up in your bare hands.
These lizards eat all kinds of bugs, roaches, spiders, mosquitoes, flies, etc.
I have several in my house around my plants and just vacuum up whatever poop they create.
It's not like they are huge smelly poops.

You can also trap it with a large pasta strainer and then slide a dust pan under the strainer and carry the poor thing outside.
I use this means to capture birds that fly into the house. Works well and does them no harm.

Please don't use a glue trap. They are terrible and should be banned.
Having a poor struggling creature stuck to a surface to die a slow death by starvation and dehydration is beyond cruel.

Not to make light of your poo situation but Is it bad that I am looking forward to having random critters in my house? 😀

Move back to the states. You will be miserable here until you do. I won't get teary-eyed about one magnificent gecko but I've watched countless people come and go who were unwilling to adjust themselves to life in the Caribbean. It is these little details, like benevolent and industrious housemates, that make life here so magical. People who cannot separate themselves from their baggage, whether it's about "icky lizards" or haphazard infrastructure or the abundance of people with different skin colors, burn out quickly and damage both themselves and our community.

I'm not quite sure that's what the OP meant, SunnyCaribe. I think I understand her. I am pretty sure I would not really want him living above my BED. In the bedroom, fine, but I'd probably freak myself out thinking about how he might fall off the wall somehow, while I was sleeping, and I'd wake up and end up squashing him in my confusion about what the heck just landed on me and woke me up! Anyway, maybe that's just me. Mine is definitely a gecko, but his house is in my living room, close to the front door.

I think there is a difference between a gecko in the house and a wood slave, at least in regards to the poop aspect. The waste left by a wood slave can be quite large whereas a gecko's is insignificant. I would not tolerate a wood slave living inside my house, although I would not harm it to get rid of it. Of course, it seems to reason that if the wood slave did not have an adequate food source inside the house then he would not be living there to start with...

With an epidemic of Dengue fever in the VI right now you should all be welcoming the geckos into your homes, especially in your bedrooms.

I.was unfamiliar with a wood slave so I looked up. I found a great website called "the smiling lizard".....a website that covers the animal, insect and plant life common and specific to st Croix.

Sheiba, you likely read, as I did, that this 8"-10" long lizard likes to live indoors. Picking it up & putting in outside would not solve the issue. Geckos are welcomed, they do a great job of eating the spiders, moths, & mosquitoes. A 10" lizard looming over the bed is not.

SunnyCaribe, your 'move back to the states' comment was ugly.

I get it poodle. I bdont mind lizards however if it was a spider I would not be able to sleep until the spider was out or dead. Even though the. Spiders are eating the insects as well. Good luck, let us know what you end up doing.