Depending on where you live, it’s possible that you might be noticing lots of chameleons in your yard lately. Chameleons are actually very cool reptiles that many people love to observe.
However, you might not want a lot of them hanging out in your yard for several reasons. These reptiles aren’t dangerous and will likely leave you alone, but that doesn’t mean that they won’t present problems.
If you’re trying to do work in your garden and stumble across one, it is possible that it could bite you if you agitate it. Chameleon bites are pretty painful, but they aren’t likely to send you to the hospital or anything like that.
These creatures can also get inside your house through the vents if you aren’t careful. If you have pets, they might wind up trying to eat the chameleons, and that could be a whole new set of problems.
What can you do to get rid of chameleons so that you can have peace on your property? Well, there are actually many options, and you can read about them all below.
1 – Remove Food Sources From Your Yard
One good idea is to attempt to remove the food sources that chameleons seek out in your yard. This means killing the insects that populate the yard so they won’t want to stick around.
This can be accomplished by using insect sprays around the yard to get rid of various types of bugs. Although this will likely work to make chameleons go elsewhere for food, it isn’t necessarily a great idea.
Why shouldn’t you do this? Well, insects are an important part of the local ecosystem, and your yard needs insects so that things can go on like normal.
If you keep a garden, you’re going to want bees to pollinate things, and killing a bunch of insects with sprays disrupts things. There are likely better ways to try to deter chameleons from hanging out in your yard.
Even so, there are people who decide that this is the most efficient method for getting rid of them. Just know that eliminating the local insect population will have consequences.
2 – Clean the Yard
Cleaning the yard can actually give chameleons fewer places that they can hide. They’ll often hide in debris or brush piles that you haven’t taken care of.
Spending a bit of time cleaning the yard will make the yard a less appealing. If they don’t have spots where they can hide and feel safe, they will want to turn elsewhere.
It shouldn’t take all that much time to clean up your yard and make it less of a safe haven for chameleons. Just do what you can to get rid of old logs, woodpiles, and other such things that they like to utilize.
3 – Try to Secure Your Home
Of course, one of the main reasons why people worry about chameleons is that they can get inside their houses. If you have them entering your home, you’ll want to try to secure the house as much as you can.
Check your vents to see if there are any rips, tears, cracks, or holes that need to be addressed. You’ll also want to check the perimeter of the house to see if they’re getting inside through gaps in the siding or other means that might not be obvious at first glance.
If you can plug holes, fix cracks, and make the house more secure, chameleons will be less likely to get in. It might be hard to completely stop them from ever getting in the house, but you can limit the likelihood that you will encounter issues.
4 – Make Pepper Spray as a Repellent
You can actually keep chameleons at bay using a type of pepper spray if you would like to. Chameleons are allergic to pepper, and this is going to make them want to stay away from areas that have lots of pepper.
The most efficient thing to do is to make a simple spray using black pepper and water. If you have an old spray bottle, you can fill it up with a black pepper and water mixture and then shake it up nicely.
Go ahead and spray this spray wherever you think that it will be useful. You can spray it in certain parts of your yard that you would like to keep chameleons away from.
Many people choose to spray this around their garden areas to try to keep them away while they’re gardening. If they’re getting into your home, you might wish to spray the pepper spray on your walls to try to deter them from coming inside.
Keeping chameleons out of the house will be easier if you utilize a spray like this. You can spray the walls, floors, and ceiling with the spray if you would like to be thorough.
The only downside is that this spray will wash away when you use it outside. That means that you’ll have to keep spraying pepper spray in the yard periodically.
5 – Tabasco Sauce Spray Works as Well
Tabasco sauce spray is another thing that can work well for you if you don’t have black pepper that you can use. Chameleons simply don’t like the smell of Tabasco sauce and this keeps them from wanting to come around.
You make this spray by just filling a spray bottle with water and then adding two teaspoons of Tabasco sauce. Shake the bottle up and then spray it wherever you think that it will be useful.
It’s ideal to spray this in spots that you know chameleons like to hang out to try to get them to go away. It should work as a pretty effective deterrent as long as you’ve used the right amount sauce.
This spray can be used defensively if you’re ever worried about a chameleon biting you or bothering you as well. Even though chameleons aren’t aggressive creatures, some people will feel afraid or threatened by them.
6 – Ultrasonic Repellers
Ultrasonic repellers will work nicely when you’re trying to keep various animals away from your yard. Chameleons aren’t the only animals that can be scared away using this method, but it works very well to keep them off of your property.
The basic idea here is that you can buy a device that emits sounds that can’t be heard by human ears. Animals will be able to hear these sounds, though, and this means that they will want to stay away.
These sounds are unpleasant to animals and it makes them not want to come near them. They will assume that there is a threat nearby or that the area just isn’t safe.
Buying an ultrasonic repeller is a good idea because it doesn’t cost all that much money. This is something that can keep many different animals at bay, and you’ll be able to hang onto most of your hard-earned cash.
Conveniently, you’re able to buy ultrasonic repellers that are solar-powered now. This means that you won’t even have to concern yourself with batteries.
Just place a device like this somewhere outside and ensure that the sun will hit it for a good portion of the day. It should work to keep animals from coming around, and you can try to find devices like this that are specifically meant for chameleons if you’d like.
The only real problem is that a device like this could also bother your pets. You might want to consider whether this is the best step to take if you’re a pet owner.
7 – Try to Catch the Chameleons
You could attempt to catch the chameleons if you would like to go that route. Some people just want to catch them and relocate them so that they can get them away from their properties.
If you have chameleons in your home, this might be the best option. It’s just going to be tough for you to catch them at first since you might not have an easy time cornering them.
You have to remember that chameleons will bite humans when they feel threatened as well. This means that you might be careful when trying to pick one up or you could get slightly hurt.
Some people choose to make simple traps that can catch creatures such as chameleons. For example, you could make a cardboard box trap that can get pretty good results.
Another idea is to spray them with cold water so that they will slow down. Chameleons are cold-blooded creatures, and spraying cold water on them will make it even tougher for them to function like normal.
A bit of cold water is often enough to make it simple to catch a chameleon and place it in some type of container. Once you’ve caught it, you’ll then be able to take it somewhere far away from your house.
It’s probably a good idea to drive them a fair distance from your property before releasing them back into the wilderness. You can do this with multiple chameleons and hopefully, it’ll help you to solve your issues.
8 – Let Your Cat Take Care of Things
Weirdly enough, it’s possible that your cat could take care of things for you, assuming that you have one. Chameleons aren’t going to stand much of a chance against a common housecat, and cats seem to enjoy hunting various types of lizards.
A chameleon that enters a home that has a cat is going to be in for a terrible time. This is one of the reasons why homeowners wish to keep them out of their homes.
Chances are you don’t want anything bad to happen to the chameleons. If you don’t want your cat to kill them, you’ll want to do what you can to keep them away.
If you don’t care what happens to the chameleons, your cat will likely kill any that enter your home. It’s up to you to decide how to handle the situation.
What If You Get Bitten by the Chameleon?
If you’ve been trying to catch the chameleons on your property, there is a chance that you might get bitten at some point. Chameleon bites will hurt, but they shouldn’t seriously injure you.
However, it is possible that you could get ill if you do not treat a bite properly. Chameleons are known to carry salmonella bacteria, and this could infect your body.
After being bitten, it’s going to be important to clean the wound thoroughly. You’ll want to use antiseptic to sterilize the wound and then you should place a bandage on it.
If the bite wound starts to swell, it’s going to be best to get checked out by a doctor. You want to ensure that your wound doesn’t get badly infected, and this might require some type of treatment.
Most minor bites will be okay so long as you use antiseptic and bandage the wound properly. It just depends on how bad the bite is and other bacterial factors.
Is it Legal to Exterminate Chameleons?
Whether or not it is legal to exterminate chameleons will depend on where you live. In many places, it’s going to be illegal to kill creatures such as chameleons, but you’ll have to look up local laws to be sure.
Generally, there is no reason to want to kill one since they’re not going to pose a threat to humans. They’re potentially annoying creatures that can get in your way, but they’re not so pesky that you should want to eliminate them completely.
If your cat happens to kill one, you aren’t going to get into trouble for it. Even so, people generally want to keep their cats away from them since they don’t wish the creatures harm.
If you have a severe chameleon problem in your home, local pest control companies might be able to assist you. They can give you advice about what to do to keep them out of the house, and they should be able to safely remove them from your home as well.
Ben has a bachelor’s degree in construction engineering. When not constructing or remodeling X-Ray Rooms, Cardiovascular Labs, and Pharmacies, you can find him at home with wife and two daughters. Outside of family, He loves grilling and barbequing on his Big Green Egg and Blackstone Griddle, as well as working on projects around the house.
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