Carolina Anoles Green and Brown Color Morphs

Are There Lizards in Myrtle Beach?

As a real estate broker in the Myrtle Beach area I often receive routine questions from prospective home owners regarding housing, neighborhoods, schools, weather, etc,. However this question from a lady in France caught me off guard.

Q: Are there lizards in Myrtle Beach?

A: Myrtle Beach is known worldwide for sun, sand, surf, fun, dining, nightlife, golf, and entertainment but not for it’s lizards.

Yes, Myrtle Beach does indeed have lizards. A lot of “lounge lizards”, but also a healthy population of green anoles and other small harmless lizard species. We do not have the large iguanadids found in Southern Florida.

Myrtle Beach has a moderate seasonal climate that supports a wide range of plants and animals including lizards.

The green anoles or Carolina Anoles (Anolis Carolinensis) are very common in Myrtle Beach, so common in fact, that after a while you hardly notice them. Anoles are cold-blooded reptiles and can often be seen basking in the warm Myrtle Beach sun.

They rarely grow over 5-7″ and can morph colors from a brownish gray to a bright lime green. They seem to go from one color to the other quickly with no in between shades. They’re really very pretty in the bright green state and the males like to show off for the lady lizards by extending their bright vermilion throat fans.

Because they change colors, many people think they are Chameleons. They’re not. They are related to iguanas.

Most Grand Strand locals consider it good luck to have an anole or two hanging around their deck or back door. They earn their welcome by consuming massive quantities of flies, mosquitoes and other bugs and creepy crawlies. They’re really quite harmless and a very beneficial part of our environment.

When we were kids, we used to catch them and let them bite onto our earlobes. No, it doesn’t hurt, and they don’t break the skin as they don’t have teeth, just rough sand papery jaws. Then we’d go inside wearing 5″ lizard earrings and “freak” our mothers out.(We didn’t have video games or internet back then, so we had to entertain ourselves.)

Myrtle Beach is also host to a few other lizard species, including the speedy 6-line race runner, (very hard to catch) and North America’s largest lizard, the American Alligator. WARNING! Do Not try to dangle baby alligators from your earlobes.

Are there lizards in Myrtle Beach? Yes, someone really did ask this question. They were severely affected by Scoliodentosaurophobia (fear of lizards, I had to look it up) and did not want to live in an area that had lizards.

By the way, the only state in the U.S. that does not have lizards is Alaska. They do have a few Newts and Salamanders but no lizards.

So, if you suffer from Scoliodentosaurophobia, Myrtle Beach might not be the best place for you. However, if you can tolerate a few green anoles, an obnoxious lounge lizard or two, and an occasional gator, Myrtle Beach is a wonderful place to live, vacation, retire to, and invest in.