Does Dead Lizard Smell?

There are various species of lizards, and the most common one is a home gecko. We encounter them daily, and there is usually more than one gecko in a house. So, if they die, they can become a nuisance.

So, does dead lizard smell? Yes, they emit a horrible smell when they are dead. This smell just keeps on increasing every passing day unless removed. Every Lizard smells after they die.

Table of Contents

How The Smell Increases

It smells mildly on day one after the Lizard is dead, but from day two, the smell starts increasing, and by day three or four, it becomes unbearable.

If you don’t remove the carcase, then it becomes intolerable. It’s difficult to spot where the smell is coming from because these home gecko can hide anywhere and can die at any corner. The bigger the size of Lizard, the easier it is to spot.

After about 12 days, the smell starts decreasing, but unless you remove the carcass, the scent remains.

The worst part is if the Lizard dies by getting crushed by sofa, the chair, table then the smell stays on that object for a long time, and that smell is difficult to remove.

You need to use strong chemicals to get rid of the smell.

How To Remove A Dead Lizard?

Here are some steps by which you can remove the carcass of the Lizard.

First and foremost, you need to spot where the smell is coming. This can sometimes get confusing because it feels like the odour is coming from everywhere.
After locating where the smell is coming from then gradually remove the surface.
After finding the carcass use a cleaning tool to get rid of the body. Don’t forget to wear a mask.

These steps apply to most of the lizards except bigger lizards. Bigger lizards need bigger tools to remove.

Issues With Garden Lizard

Garden lizard can be challenging to remove because they can camouflage themselves.

The smell can fill up a significant portion of the garden, and it can become ugly. So, it essential to get rid of them as fast as possible.

Also, remember to wear gloves and use the proper tools to remove them. Don’t use your bare hands as these dead animals contains various kind of bacterias and germs.

After removing the dead lizard use water to get rid of the remaining smells.

Dead Lizards Can Attract Other Animals And Insects

Animals like snakes, rats, various kind ants may try to consume them. So be careful to look around before trying to remove the dead Lizard.

Generally, for the home gecko, this is not an issue because apart from some ants and flies, there won’t be any animals that will try to consume the dead body of the Lizard.

How To Avoid Killing Lizards

If you have an infestation of lizards in your house, then you need to be extra careful. These lizards usually like to hide around the edge of doors, at the side of your sofa leg in dark corners. of your room, behind your almirah etc.

So, before shutting the door or moving the sofa or other related object, check these places properly.

If you see lizards in any of these locations shoo the Lizard away. Doing so will keep them away from these difficult to reach places, and if they die, they will die in a spot where you can see.

You can also use Lizard repellants to keep them away from these spots.

A lizard can also die of natural causes like age and by fighting with each other.

If this happens, there is nothing you can do to stop them from dying. The only thing you can do is get rid of the dead Lizard.

Baby Lizards Are Problem

Baby lizards are a big problem as they are tough to spot, and they are the one who dies the most because of lack of experience.

Baby lizards die because of going into adult lizard territories, getting squashed by a human, get eaten by predators. They stink like adult lizards but are challenging to spot.

Few Ways To Stop Baby Lizards From Dying

Step 1: Remove Their Eggs

Usually, lizards lay eggs around mid to late March. They typically lay their eggs around dark places where it’s difficult to reach like inside wardrobe which is not opened in quite some time, below your bed, inside a drawer etc.

They are whitish and are soft, so you need to handle them carefully or else when you are trying to remove them, they can break in your hands.

Removing the eggs before they hatch can be very useful. Once you find those eggs throw them away from your house.

Step 2: Use Naphthalene Balls

White naphthalene balls on white wooden background — White Naphthalene Balls

Naphthalene balls can be very useful in keeping lizards away from a specific spot. If you want to keep lizards away from getting below your furniture, then keep few naphthalene balls below that furniture, and that will keep them away.

This step is also useful to stop lizards from laying eggs in a specific spot; for example, you can keep naphthalene balls inside a drawer to prevent lizards from laying eggs over there.

However, you need to keep on changing those naphthalene balls every three months as these naphthalene balls keep losing its effectiveness.

Step 3: Use Phenyl Tablets

Phenyl tablets are also very effective against lizards. The strong smell from these phenyl tablets repels various kinds of pests and also repels lizards.

Keep a few phenyl tablets in all those places where you don’t want lizards to come, and you’ll be fine.

Lizards Are Difficult To Catch

Lizards are fast and trying to chase them can be futile. They can immediately climb the walls, hide inside crack and crevices of your house, hide below your furniture etc.

Baby lizards are even difficult to handle, and they are so little that once they hide under something you won’t be able to get them out.

They may not be a good climber, but they can hide better than the adult lizards. So chasing after them won’t be helpful.

My Experiences

Experience 1:

One fine day, I was coming out of the washroom, and I smelt something awful.

At first, I couldn’t figure out where the smell was coming from, so I ignored. Then after two days, the smell intensified so much that I couldn’t sleep.

As a result, I was determined to find the source of the smell, but it was tough to find. I was able to identify the smell but still couldn’t see the dead Lizard.

I kept looking for the whole day but couldn’t find it. Next day the smell intensified even more, and at that point, I was able to find the carcass of the Lizard.

My washroom’s door squashed it, and that’s why I couldn’t find it. The door was high, and so I couldn’t see it.

I had a flashback that a few days ago, I had to struggle to close the washroom’s door. I guess that’s when this Lizard died.

Experience 2:

One day, I was sitting on my folding sofa, and a strong odour started coming.

At first, I ignored the smell and thought it might be coming from some object; however, the smell intensified, and that’s when I realised a lizard had died somewhere around the sofa.

After that, I started looking for the Lizard carcass but couldn’t find it for days, so I gave up. The intensity kept on increasing, and it became unbearable. As a result, I couldn’t sit on the sofa.

After about a month, I decided to search again, so I opened up the folding sofa and found that the dead body was right on the folded couch.

I planned to sell that sofa to a customer, and the customer agreed to buy, but this smell was there and was not going away regardless of whatever I tried.

I used perfume, detergent everything but the smell didn’t subside. However, after three days of repeated efforts, the smell reduced to some extent, and it wasn’t wholly detectable.

The customer came on the selected date and decided to buy the sofa. I told him about the lizard incident.

Fortunately, he said to us that it’s not a problem as he will be changing everything on the sofa so this smell won’t be there anyway.

What Did I Learn

I learned that lizards could die anywhere, especially in all of those places where you least expect them.

They do it to hide from other lizards or to hide from us. They can also go to these places in search of food. They can crawl, climb and run so; no place is unreachable for them inside a house.

If a lizard dies, I need to consider all the possibilities and need to look into places which are not easily reachable. Also, deodorant or perfume doesn’t help in getting rid of the dead lizard smell.

Instead, it makes the smell even worse because it gets combined with the scent of the dead Lizard and smells awful.

Strong detergent, bleach works well to get rid of the smell. Other chemicals can also work to get rid of the smell, but I used these two chemicals, so I prefer to recommend these products only.