I was living with a little green lizard for 2 days. Don't know how he got in the house. Couldn't catch him. He is very fast. He was near the window, so I left it cracked open hoping he'd find his way out. Haven't seen him for 2 days. I'll never know for sure what happened, unless I find him dried up in some corner somewhere {sniff}. Green Anole .
That a sign of a healthy ecosystem. The first thing I noticed when I was house-hunting here was an abundance of skinks: I know they got lots of critters in Florida, but I guess that other states south of me might also have a larger variety of critters that we do here.
Where I grew up (NE Ohio) I never saw a lizard in real life. Assumed they were only in South and Central America. Shocked to see the first one in Georgia. Now they are routine. They stayed on the (very high, thank you) ceilings and walls of the guest house where I stayed once in India. They never bothered you. Just ate mosquitoes. The place was full of mosquitoes, who didn't bother you either as long as the ceiling fans were operating full blast. But they would bite your legs under the dining room table (the mosquitoes, not the lizards).
I was about to close my 'critter window' when I noticed a tree frog tucked into the frame. I could not reach it after I took out the screen (window is above the sink) so I got a big spoon thinking to flick him outside. He jumped inside instead and got away. fearing dried frog in a couple of days, I actually found him when wiping down the counter, moving things. I grabbed him. He tried to escape. And then he peed--before I could get him out the door. : (
My dad managed GC Murphy stores, and they sold all sorts of pets. When we lived in Indiana, I got a chameleon. I saw my first lizard in the wild when we moved to Virginia in the 60s. An older sister got married and moved to Jacksonville FL. That's about as sub-tropical as you're gonna get in the states. I've never seen such large insects and creepy-crawlers going *PING!* in the window fan. Regarding mosquitoes...I once read that the best defense is to put a slow fan blowing on you (under or above the table.) Apparently it doesn't take much of a breeze to negate their ability to fly.