memes from my biology class #6

What's wrong with lizards?
- I dunno, people are weird.
  
  Unlike us lizards.

Maybe it's because I grew up in the north where there are no lizards, but Ive never understood squeamish reactions to them. I get it for insects, and spiders, and snakes, and even fish, but lizards have always just seemed like chill happy bros to me.
Except that one massive iguana that chased me, all the rest of have been chill.

I've never met a person in my life who thinks lizards are disgusting. They need to eat bugs constantly, which makes them better than spiders - some of which can go a year without eating - and they're cute with their little mating rituals. Geckos too.
- They need to eat bugs constantly, which makes them better than spiders
  The whole "Don't squish spiders in your house, they eats bugsssss" was just pro-spider propaganda the entire time!

Serious question: as someone who really, really hates bugs, are there any lizards I can just let roam my apartment? I feel like it'd be really chill to have a big scaly friend who could snack on the occasional spider or fly in my apt between meals.
- I know this isn't what you want to hear, but the real trick to managing pests in your home, is to allow the right predator pests to exist. The best ones are spiders and centipedes. Centipedes are especially the best because they won't ever hurt you, they mostly stay out of sight, and they don't leave webs hanging around. But when you do see one you will probably freak the fuck out. You just have to remember that they eat earwigs and mites and such and try not to kill them. Spiders are also great to keep around, but there should be a big asterisk about how I live in Illinois and most spiders are harmless here.
  
  The real trick to managing pests in your home is to use caulking to seal the entry points between the interior and the walls, and ideally also between the walls and the exterior.
  
  Yeah I know about the centipedes, I've had roommates that used some in the past.
  The big issue is that I have really bad arachnophobia, so the bug I care the most about getting rid of is spiders. just seeing one causes me to freeze and start panicking. The spiders here are harmless, but try telling that to my dumb brain. It's not even like I see them that frequently, but seeing just one ruins my week because I get paranoid that there are more I'm not seeing.
- I saw one guy on youtube that has a monitor lizard. ¯(ツ)_/¯