Although Floridians have to watch out for lurking alligators in their neighborhoods, there’s now a new threat: monitor lizards. Recently, one Florida resident was greeted by an uninvited guest when they discovered a monitor lizard trying to sneak in through a window.
Like something from Godzilla, the clip, posted by Facebook user Joycelyn Penson, shows the monitor lizard trying to enter through the window and peeping through it while sticking its tongue out. Cue the screams.
The lizard stays on one side for a moment and stares inside the house, all while keeping its tongue out. Then, the lizard crawls to the other side and tries to find a way in. However, it falls after trying to come inside after a while.
Afterward, Penson shared a clip of the incident and wrote on Facebook that she would not be visiting her son, who lives in the house.
“OMG! LOOK AT THIS,” she began the post. “Look at what came to pay him a visit today! It’s a Tegu lizard! Looks like Godzilla to me! Needless to say I won’t be visiting him any time soon! And it’s on the front porch!”
After she made the post, many users seemed to be both shocked and horrified by the creepy-crawly intruder. Users flooded the comments saying that the clip terrified them.
A user commented, “Nooooo, I’m scared just watching it….I would have had a fit…” Another user added, “He seems like he was determined to get in. That’s even scarier.”
A third user chimed in, writing, “Oh this is not good! And he looks like he’s looking for some food! No thank you will not be visiting Florida soon!”
Monitor lizards extremely rare in the US
Although it’s not rare, reptiles making their way into human areas never gets any less frightening. In another similar incident, someone discovered a gray rat snake inside someone’s toilet in Alabama.
The resident called the Eufaula Alabama Police Department, which later recovered the snake. Then, the department also shared a cheeky post on social media, writing that finding a snake in the toilet was not expected for their work day.
However, we have some good news for you if you’re considering canceling your upcoming trip to Florida after watching the clip. According to wildlife experts, monitor lizards are extremely rare in the US. In fact, they’re most commonly found around the world in Singapore.
Currently, there are three different species of monitor lizards. However, the most common one is the Malayan water monitor. This species can grow up to nearly ten feet in length. The other two species, the clouded monitor lizard and the rarest Dumeril’s monitor can grow up to five feet long.