Common lizards, slow worms, and other reptiles face significant threats in urban gardens from cats, strimmers, and habitat loss, but can be significantly helped by garden management changes.
Urban and suburban reptiles face multiple welfare threats from intensive garden management. Strimmer and mower injuries are common and cause severe lacerations that are rarely survivable. Cat predation is significant and most reptiles caught by cats die even if released due to bacterial infections from cat bites. Reptiles are cold-blooded and require specific basking sites and temperature gradients that tidy gardens do not provide. Use of pesticides reduces the invertebrate prey base. Chemical slug control reduces slow worm food sources. Composting areas provide vital thermal refuges for slow worms and grass snakes to bask and lay eggs. Provision of log piles, rock heaps, and south-facing banks significantly increases reptile habitat quality in gardens.