SAULT STE. MARIE — Some Saultites who recently purchased plants at a local supermarket chain got more than they bargained for when small lizards were reported to have hatched from beneath the soil.
Sandra Turgeon was watching television with her boyfriend when she noticed her cat chasing something in the corner of the room.
“Sometimes there will be a spider and she will chase after it, so I thought that’s what it was,” said Turgeon. “I got up to look and no, it was not a spider. It was strange looking. I said, ‘That looks like a lizard'.”
“I was lucky I found it because my cat could have destroyed it before I even noticed it,” she said. “I was very very shocked.”
Turgeon was able to coax the Loonie-sized lizard into a container and began researching what it was. She was able to piece together that it was a brown anole lizard, which sometimes hatches from eggs in house plants.
She had just purchased a rubber plant from the Metro supermarket in the beginning of July.
“That’s where it came from, in that corner where I had that plant,” said Turgeon.
Ernie Rowntree is the manager of Eden’s Reptiles in Sault Ste. Marie. He said he received calls from the manager of the floral department from Metro about the reptiles, as well as from people who have found them and want help to keep them as pets.
“We put a post out that if anyone has any trouble or has one we can try to tell them how to catch it, but they are very hard to catch and very small,” said Rowntree. “If they do manage to get them — and a few people have — we can either rehome them or help them to house them and they can become a pet.”
He said the situation of finding reptiles in house plants bought in Sault Ste. Marie is out of the ordinary.
“Most of the plants that come in are treated with chemical fertilizers and that will usually kill off any insects or pests, so it’s very odd these eggs were laid in the soil,” he said.
In a statement emailed to SooToday, Metro spokesperson Stephanie Bonk said while instances of finding reptiles in house plants is rare, it does happen.
“The tropical plants are imported from Florida, and even though they are inspected prior to leaving the state, these instances sometimes occur,” said Bonk.
One challenge in keeping anole as pets, said Rowntree, is finding appropriate food for the reptile because of its small size.
“We have had two customers come to buy fruit fly cultures from me so they can feed them and they are going to try to raise them up as pets and we are going to try to help them along and give them information,” he said.
Turgeon bought a tank and has decided to keep the anole she found.
“I don’t know if it’s a he or a she, but for now I am calling it Larry the lizard and it’s a he until I find out differently,” she said. “Maybe Lara if it’s a she.”
