Arizona backyard visitor (Paging Steph!)

[rob banzai]

They live SE of Phoenix, SE of Queen Creek, so they're pretty far out of town. I'm hoping this booger just wanders off tonight and does not return. Unless they find him eating a scorpion. That might be a good selling point if they had to choose, because those scorpions are pretty freaky and have been sneaking into the garage.

[Stephanie]

Given the choice between a gila monster and a scorpion, I'd definitely welcome the gila monster. They're really not that dangerous. Scorpions, on the other hand, are just so hard to see! We supposedly have them here in NM too but I've NEVER seen one.

[PeterB]

Well I'm late to this particular party, but yes -- that's a gila monster.

What I didn't know: gila monsters eat lots of rodents, which might be a good thing if that's a problem in their area -- might be, if they have a lot of desert mice, etc. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gila_monster

[Robert M]

Peter,

I was thinking the same thing... The gila might be nice to have around to help out with rodent control. That and he'd be very easy to avoid when present. My parents had a mouse problem at one time. Fortunately, it seems to have vanished shortly after a family of feral kitties adopted them. I can definitely vouch for how adept Smudgie is at catching unwelcome visitors. She's left a number of presents for my mom by the door near the back porch. (I'm the official "Ack! It's a dead animal!" remover for the family.

Robert