Shingle Back Lizards

Question
Dear Pam, I live in Coastal Western Australia and have many Shingle back lizards in our back yard. NOT pets they just wander through. I have heard that if you have shingle backs permanently around they will keep snakes (poisonous or not) away as they eat the eggs or small snakes. Is this true?
Thanks for your time,
Regards Chantelle.

Answer
 Ooooh, I'm so jealous!  The Shingleback has to be one of the coolest critters going!  Not many have made it here to the US but I happen to have a friend in Florida who is the happy owner of one of these wonderful skinks, and such a sweet boy (we think it's male).  
 These guys are omnivores, they can eat pretty much anything they can forage or catch.  Greens, vegetables, fruits, flowers, insects, snails, small critters and carrion.  So enjoy your clean-up crew, they probably live very close by if not in your yard, unlike beardies, they are very social and mate for life, producing live young and the young stick around.  So there's a nice sized colony there.  And they are pretty shy and not aggressive.