Where Do Anoles Lay Their Eggs?

Anole eggs found in a tomato pot. Photo by Karen Cusick.

The egg-laying habits of anoles are surprisingly little known. On Daffodil’s Photo Blog, Karen Cusick recently reported on the discovery of eight–count ’em, eight!–anole eggs in a tomato plant pot. Readers, where else have you found anole eggs?

Also, whose eggs are these? Both green and brown’s occur in Karen’s backyard. In Anolis Newsletter V, Todd Vincent provided tips on how to tell them apart.

Brown and green anole eggs. Photo by Todd Vincent.

Brown and green anole eggs. Photo by Todd Vincent.

And for some delightful footage on baby anoles, let’s not forget this old post.

Jonathan Losos

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78 Comments

  1. Ellen Anderson

    My husband and I moved a hollow statue made of some kind of fake stone material and found old eggs in the bottom.

    • janya

      really!!!!!!!!!!! wow

      • SmartiMarti

        I just found a total of 6 eggs in a succulent pot.. 4 have hatched.. one unhatched is much. Larger than the other unhatched. The larger unhatched egg is even larger than the hatched eggs..

        • Louise Svadeba

          Did they ever hatch and/or what was the outcome of the two unhatched eggs?

    • Lin Amendt

      I found 6 anole eggs on top of the soil in the shade of our palm tree. One had hatched. A week later I went back, picked one up, and it hatched in my hand! Two hours later I went to check again, and another hatching was emerging.

      • Debby

        Wow! Aren’t you lucky!? What city and state do you live in? I would love for that to happen to me! I raise anoles and I’m watching them mate as I type this.

        • Wiley Mitchem

          We found them in the shed inside of some empty flower pot we had stored and also found some in a cooler

        • Tina

          I need help! I accidentally disturbed an anole while she was laying eggs. She was like in between the bricks on my porch with her butt I’m the crack and looked distressed. When I got close to her she didn’t move much or run or anything so I thought maybe she had gotten herself stuck, so I moved the brick a bit so she could get out and then she jumped out but I realized there was an egg! Now I feel bad because I bothered her while she was laying eggs! Should I do something like try and put her back lol or just leave her.. will she go back on her own? I don’t want to leave her just out in the sun or anything. Idk if laying eggs is painful like giving birth but if it was me having a baby I’d be pretty pissed!

          • Jonathan Losos

            Probably best to leave things as they are. If you have the female, let her go and she will be fine. She’ll lay plenty more eggs; even if this one doesn’t make, there will be more.

    • memyselfandi

      Wow, everyone is an expert, lmao 🤣 Just funny to read all the comments about anoles and people actually get riled up over it! Lol

  2. I suspect that they’re brown anole eggs, since I see brown anoles in and around the tomato pots all the time, but there are green anoles in the yard too so it’s possible some could be green anole eggs. This pot is pretty big, about 2 feet across, and I found the eggs scattered all around the pot. I gathered them up so they’d be safe while I was moving a tomato plant into the pot, and then put them back where I found them when I was finished.

    • Vic

      Brown and green anoles are the same animal. They change colors.

      • Jonathan Losos

        Vic, I’m afraid you’re mistaken. The green anole (Anolis carolinensis) can turn brown, but the brown anole (Anolis sagrei) cannot turn green.

      • Ria

        No they aren’t…yes anoles change colors & yes green anoles can look brown…but brown anoles have tons of markings that green anoles do not have…green anoles are native to Florida (& possibly other parts of the US, I don’t know), brown anoles are not.

        • John Salvanelli

          No not true Green Anoles are native to the Carolinas and the brown who can turn darker almost black aren’t native. Came from Cuba and can’t turn green.

        • Caleb

          I catch GREEN anoles in my yard in northern texas

      • Addy

        This is not true, green anoles have the ability to change brown and are endemic to SE US, other anole species like the brown ones, reddish ones, and black ones are in fact invasive and came to Florida with cargo ships from the Caribbean during the mid 20th century – its a serious problem, as green anoles have been out competed by the brown anoles and are subsequently now an endangered species

        • Caleb

          They are NOT endangered

        • Camden

          Not true! If they were endangered I would not have 2 GREEN anoles.

          • lizzythelizard

            Yeah, green anoles aren’t endangered it’s just that you don’t see them that often because they usually like to live on the tops of trees. However, the brown anoles like to live on tree trunks and the ground so you see them more often.

        • Tara

          They were also introduced to Hawaii and are now plentiful there. I did some research because I lived in Hawaii and now live in SC. They are frequently called Geckos. And look the same in both places. I was surprised to learn they are native to the Carolinas and introduced to Hawaii

      • Talif Vazacov

        No, Brown and Green anoles are different animals. The green anoles are Anolis Carolinensis. The brown anoles are Anolis Sagrei.

        It is thought that the green anoles evolved from the Anolis Equestris

      • Susan Teston

        No no no no…

      • K Kiele

        Nope. Too separate creatures. Do your research.

      • Lisa Wyant

        They are 2 different species.

  3. When we lived in Orlando, Florida an anole laid eggs in the tiny drawers of my husband’s fastener storage chest on his garage workbench. He’d left the drawers open when he was done looking for what he needed.

  4. Armando Pou

    I suspect that eggs that are laid on bare, dry, surfaces such as drawers and empty vessels are actually hard shelled house house gecko eggs. Anoles do seem to have a preference for laying in planted pots. I mean why wouldn’t they? They contain well drained aerated soil which is watered regularly.

  5. Anolelover

    I did some research of my own yesterday and found that anoles like to lay their eggs usually underneath of a plant, most likely low lying, they like their eggs to be deep in the plant, they like loose substrate, moist, dirt mixed in, not just plain leaves. Usually the eggs are slightly under the surface.

    • michelle houghton

      we are doing landscaping and under the bricks we found 15 little eggs with the Mother laying on them. Can these be moved to a different location within the vicinity? I don’t want to harm them but we are in the middle of landscaping and I have put a stop to it until I can get a response on what to do. Please help.

      • Jonathan Losos

        What kind of animal? Do you have a picture? Anole mothers don’t lie on top of their eggs.

  6. ben

    I found 6 eggs this morning in a bag of potting soil. It had been sitting for a few months, loosely closed, on my back porch. When I scooped some soil into a new pot, I kept noticing these perfect little pebbles that my kids carefully collected in another pot of dirt. The wife suggested anole eggs and Internet agreed. We were going to try to hatch them in a tank for the kids to watch but Internet says babies are difficult to keep alive, so we’re just putting them in the other dirt pot on the porch and keeping an eye on it.

    • Ha! I found 2 anole eggs in a bag of potting soil too! I assume they came from our resident anoles that live on our front patio. We put them in a shallow bowl with the same potting soil. Nothing has happened yet. Crossing our fingers and hoping for the best. We live in Ft. Lauderdale.

  7. John

    I discovered four eggs in the rear area of our car, but had no idea where they came from. Then several days later, while moving a cardboard box that I had picked up from my son’s shed, I found the rest of them, another 16. I have seen the eggs like this before but had no idea what they were.

  8. Daniella Blanda

    Two weeks ago I was walking outside when my daughter found this soft white perfect pebble. I quickly analized it as an anole egg. After that I asked her to take me to where she found it ans saw there was 60! She found them while digging under plants so that is where I recomened to look. I then later bought a lizard incubator and they have ALL succesfuly hatched and are all well.

  9. Karen L.

    There is a green anole living in my umbrella! I left the umbrella standing on end in a pot on the corner of my porch and have seen the lizard in it several times. I’m afraid to move the umbrella in case she has eggs in there. It is April now. How long should I wait before moving the umbrella so I won’t disturb her eggs? And will those tiny little things be able to get out safely? I love all my yard lizards and want them to be happy, lol.

    • Karen L.

      PS. I’m in Central Texas.

    • Look around the umbrella for eggs.

    • Do not incourage the brown anoles. They are non-native and very invasive.
      There is a drastic decline of the native green anole due to the introduction
      Of the brown Cuban anole. In some areas of Texas they are so numerous.
      that they are consuming the larva of the Monarch butterfly in amounts
      more than would naturally occur with the native anole.

    • Eric

      I feel the same way about our yard lizards, and even try to protect them from predators such as hawks and snakes.

  10. Evan Warren

    I know I would l would love to find some Anole eggs. I live in Alabama, and there are mainly Green Anoles and Brown Anoles here. They are at my dad’s house. My mom’s house is, for the most part, populated by five lined skinks. They often get in our house but it’s fine. But back on to my original topic, finding some anole eggs would be quite grand. Also, I have seen some green anoles and Bahaman anoles at petsmart. Would they be housed well together? And can they crossbreed?

  11. Evan Warren

    Pardon my ignorance on Anoles, but I would like to correct my previous comment. Turns out the Bahamian anole is also called the brown anole, and after looking at the pictures of them, I can say there are none at my dad’s house, only green anoles.

  12. Stitch

    I was lefting bricks and I accidentally squashed a brown anole egg I took it inside and put it under the heat lamp what now

  13. Todd dewey

    Found six behind our patio wall light fixture when I was replacing it

  14. Steph

    We found what we think are lizard eggs in porch light we replaced. What do I do with them now???? I live in tx.

  15. The Anole lizard changes from green to brown as their camo they’re not 2 different kinds -it’s the same lizard- I see them just about everyday of my life I would know.

    • Sandra

      There are two different kinds. I have a brown Bahamian and he goes from brown to almost black. He lives with my green Anoles quite nicely.

    • Talif Vazacov

      Nope. They are two different lizards

      https://backwaterreptilesblog.com/green-anole-vs-brown-anole/

    • Yevonne P.

      Clearly you do not! Two completely different anoles. Not only the difference in ability to turn green (which the Cuban can NOT DO), but their bodies are completely different-looking from their snout to their toes. I raise native green anoles in Florida. I actually do know.

  16. Dion

    Inside the door frame by the skid plate.

  17. Richard White

    My daughter has two green anole’s (one male, one female) and today we found a baby lizard in their tank. We never saw any eggs and last week cleaned the tank. Where was the egg hidden and is it normal to hatch baby lizards in captivity?

    • Jonathan Losos

      They bury their eggs in loose soil.

    • Sandra

      I’ve had eggs but they’ve all died. I have nine males and eight females and they get along just fine. I wish I could hatch the eggs though.

      • Dom

        Get rid of 7 of your males or they’ll start over mating your females and they’ll surely end up dying

  18. Corrine

    Oh my, I just moved to Florida 2 weeks ago. After reading all of these clips, I looked in a potted plant that the prior owner left and inside a baby anole came out!

  19. Meredith Swartwout

    The link to the article on telling the difference between Anolis eggs does not seem to be working. I would like to read that article.

    In Neotropical rainforest, small anole species seem to prefer laying their eggs in buttresses and fallen logs relative to leaf litter areas with minimal structure.

  20. Sandy Leinonen

    I found anole eggs in the insulation of my RV trailer. Most had hatched and hopefully found their way outside.

  21. Niki

    Brown and green anoles are not the same lizard. They are different lizards. My lizard is 5 days old today, born on 9/11. They need to be sprayed with water and have water droplets on their plants. Super moist dirt is good, not mud.

  22. Steven Street

    I found one of these eggs when I was cleaning the rain gutters on my house today. Searched on Google which lead me to your page. Thanks for the info. Steven Street, Palm Bay, FL :^J

  23. Nancy Harrington

    I found at least 20 eggs as we were cleaning out our garage in Miami. There were among dishes wrapped in newspaper in cardboard boxes. We have a lot of lizards here, much much fewer green chameleons that we used to see in the 1950’s.

  24. J. Sexton

    I live in North Georgia where I teach fourth grade. One of my students brought in a half dead little green anole back in December. So I got an aquarium for him and started getting him small crickets to eat. He is doing very well. He shed his skin 4 times.
    Then I found another little anole inside my friend’s basement. I took it in planning to wait til spring and release them both.
    Now the smaller anole is extremely fat, has turned dark brown, and stays on the bottom of the aquarium.I wonder if it pregnant. If so, I have no idea what to do now! Help.

    • Jonathan Losos

      If it is gravid (the technical term for “with egg”), then providing some slightly damp (i.e., not bone dry, but not dripping with water) soil for her to lay the egg in is the trick. If you can send a picture, we can take a look and see what she thinks. Dark coloration can be an indication that the animal is subordinate to the other lizard in the cage.

      • Teresa Hooker

        My Anole laid an egg in one of her water dishes. Has some water no soil in it. I saved her from freezing in January and brought her in. So she hasn’t been with a male since then. However I read they can hold sperm for 7 mos. so maybe a maybe maybe not. Any way is it ok for me to pick it up and do a light test or is that impossible? Also should I move it from the water and put it in soil?

      • Teresa Hooker

        Help anyone,

        My Anole laid an egg in her water bowl. Some water in there, no soil. Should I move it?

  25. Wow! Aren’t you lucky!? What city and state do you live in? I would love for that to happen to me! I raise anoles and I’m watching them mate as I type this.

  26. Larnel Brown

    Debby, mines mated on April 10th 2019, and I now have seven eggs that looks like there are about to hatch any day.. how about you?

  27. Sammie

    I live in a New Orleans suburb. We have so many green anoles here it tickles me that people are so interested in breeding them. No need to fear, green anoles are not endangered. I see them all day everyday, even in the city. They seem to be extremely common all across Louisiana. If they didn’t eat bugs they would be pests.
    If I find anole eggs I just put them in a flower bed and they seem to do just fine.
    We have some of those shiny brown skinks here and those nasty pink geckos as well, though not as numerous as the green anoles. I have on occasion seen the patterned brown anoles though they seem to be active at different times of the day and move different than the green ones.

    Just 10 minutes ago I saw the smallest anole I have ever seen and that is how I found this site. Thanks!

  28. Teresa

    I live in Roanoke, VA. To my delight and surprise, I found a green anole on the plants in my flower pot today! FullSizeRender.jpg Aren’t we too far north?

  29. Karen B

    I live in Tampa and yes, green anoles can turn brown if stressed but brown (Bahamian) anoles do not turn green. Here we have very few green anoles. I have only one and 15-20 brown ones of varied ages. Many young mostly females outside now. I just watched the green female dig a hole in my above ground garden for the second week in a row. She used her snout and was in to her shoulders. Turned around and laid an egg next to the hole. Pushed it in to the hole and filled it in using her front legs and nose. The egg was a while oval. I am hoping for more green anoles this summer. I am buying mealworms and many will eat from my hand. The green one included.

  30. SH

    When I was a kid living in Safety Harbor, FL I found 12 anole eggs in a box of nails long forgotten in our backyard shed. Just laid out on all that spiky metal!

  31. Sharon carter

    While cutting out some bromeliads from my yard, several….5 or so…anole eggs rolled out from the leaves.

  32. Robbie

    I just found ten anole eggs in a pot plant outside by the front door. We have several anoles that live in the plants on the porch. Hoping they hatch and survive. (Northeast Texas)

  33. Margianne Shepetis

    Hi! I’ve had the luck of finding a total of 7 eggs,(which 6 have hatched as of this post, the last one is still incubating) with of the 6 that have hatched i’ve had 5 brown anoles and 1 green anole. While it didn’t occur to me to record much about the eggs i found during that time, I do recall quite a bit, and I feel that with the lack of research (that i at least can’t seem to find) the details I do remember could be of (if barely) help with future research.

    7 eggs total found
    Locations:
    1 on surface (no dirt needed to be removed to see/expose)
    6 under leaf litter or dirt

    On the 6 under stuff:
    ( Note: All but one were located under leaf litter in general,)

    2 lightly buried under leaf litter (thin layer of dirt under leaf litter had to be removed for eggs to be exposed)
    4 buried (digging required to expose eggs)

    The four that were buried are where i noticed an observation- in all cases, even the one that was not near leaf litter, the eggs were always laid at the roots of plants. in all spots where the eggs were buried the dirt, despite being moist, wasn’t very soft, as well as often in bare spots with weeds. the eggs seemed to always be laid along the base of the plant next to the roots.

  34. I found a baby anoles and i put a light on it after 7 seconds of the light in the egg it moved and that was so hard warming its a lil hard because it hasent fully developed but i have 2 geckos that looked at the egg funny i love it😂

  35. Gloria

    I found two nests while moving plants this evening. One was an anole nest with five eggs, buried pretty deep in loose, moist, mulch-like soil. Discovered accidentally digging a hole between landscaping bricks surrounded by hostas. And very near it was a blue tailed skink nest with the mama! I replaced the soil as best as possible and I’m keeping fingers crossed that they’ll all be okay. Located in central North Carolina. I think it’s weird because this is a garden bed that is heavily watered on a daily basis beginning around the last frost. But these lizards chose this area for some reason, even though their nests are flooded on a regular basis. 🤷🏻‍♀️

  36. Olivia

    I think I found one in my cilantro pot outside today!

  37. Georgina Bush

    I have befriended a brown Anole, she loves music and turns her head to hear better. She has jumped onto my feet 3 times, I managed to get a photo of her once (she moves so fast) with her hand right on my toes. She comes when I call (within some minutes), hops around me. My neighbors are amazed,. She also looked at me through the screen door and copied me when I closed my eyes and opened them again. She seems to be able to close her eyes both from the top and bottom of the eye. I will miss her when I leave in a month (have been here almost a year and started to see her in mid April). for obvious reasons I cannot move her. She belongs in her home yard. wonderful creatures.

  38. Dette

    An anole used to sleep beside me on cold winter nights in my beach cottage. She loved the source of heat. In the mornings, I’d leave her bits of plum, which she relished. That was decades ago. With all the development around this resort town, the anoles at the cottage got scarce. I wanted the wildlife to return, so I created a wee garden with fruit, flowers, hiding places, and little ponds. Now, I once more hear the tree frogs, the narrow-mouthed toads, the Carolina wren, the cicadas… My ponds have tadpoles, and I see green Carolina anoles, male and female, in just about every phase of life. Tonight, I was out there clipping spent flowers, and I saw what looked like a wrinkled bit of leaf at the end of a crocosmia dancing in the wind. When I looked closer, the leaf unfolded into the tiniest baby anole I have ever seen, and she opened her eyes and looked right back at me. Every time I’m out there, some little miracle like that surprises me. From these comments, I’ve learned that I need to be extra-careful moving my plants and pots, lest I disrupt the beautiful little lives all around me.

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