BarbaraRose wrote:Last year when I moved here there were lots of lizards, squirrels, rabbits, etc around my yard. Now there are no squirrels, only an occasional rabbit and I rarely ever see a lizard anymore. I wonder what happened to them all?
I don't know if you do this or not, but if you spray (or scatter "granules") of any kind of herbicide (weed killer) or insecticide (bug killer) or rodenticide (rat and mouse killer) on the ground around the outside your house where local fauna can come in contact with it, that will generally do the trick.
Even if you use the "safe for pets" kind. Years ago a friend recommended that I use a granular-type herbicide to take care of the weeds in my flower garden. I did so. Even though it was labeled as safe for pets, I failed to take into consideration that my cat sometimes used my flower garden as her litter box. Of course, cats use their feet to cover their excrement, which gets dirt on their feet. And, of course, cats lick their feet to get the dirt off.
And, of course, a short time after applying the herbicide, my cat died.
It also appears that reptiles are particularly susceptible to herbicides and rodenticides, even more so than are mammals. Squirrels, like mice and rats, are also rodents. Thus they are also eliminated by rodenticide.
Anne