Hannah Chin

So this is Daniel Sollenberger, and he's a herpetologist and senior wildlife biologist with the Georgia Department of Natural Resources.

Basically everywhere.

Okay, so these are not invasive lizards and frogs.

It appears not.

No, they're just super common.

Things like not mowing your grasses often or planting more native plants, maybe putting in a water feature like a fountain or a pond.

Oh, duh.

Right, because amphibians love water.

Right.

And other local experts told me this, too, like Mara Dudley.

She's a biology professor at Oglethorpe University, and she's also the urban ecologist for the Amphibian Foundation in Atlanta.

Daniel and Myra told me there's two different ways to kind of go about it.

There's the full eradication approach, basically making your yard as inhospitable as possible to any animal.

Yeah.

Which, Daniel does say, comes with tradeoffs.

So that's the eradication approach.

And then there's the sharing is caring approach.

Because, Emily, these reptiles and the amphibians, they want to hide.

So Mara suggested build a spot for them to do that rather than tearing rocks and native plants out completely.

Just put them in a separate part of a garden.