Thanks for the idea; a crowbar sounds much easier than a shovel!

I didn’t see her ? Perhaps she hid.

I have tried several things for mealybugs, none of them worked well: Isopropyl alcohol, neem oil, even systemic granules (on my non-flowering plants). Right now I use undiluted methylated spirits in a spray bottle (good for garden tool sterilizing too), wet the plant all over with that, then about five minutes later rinse it off with plain water so it doesn't burn the leaves. Repeat every few days until all the eggs hatch and die. And even after all that, I'm still not sure it really works (my most infested potted plant they just kept coming back and I gave up). Sorry, I haven't found a tried-and-true method yet. Mealybugs do seem to prefer thirsty plants, so I can give them a soak and a bit of seaweed solution to help survive the mealies.

I only used cardboard I got free from work, except beside the house I used an old roll of plumbing root guard fabric we had leftover from an old project. The gravel has sunken into the dirt over time since the cardboard decomposed, but that doesn't worry me.

We usually get 3 or so nights with frosts per year, but it mostly stays above freezing during daytime unless wind chill is a factor. Looking at weather records, the lowest recorded temp was around -4C (25F), tho usually it only gets down to 1C (34F).

They are a family of Cunningham's skinks, and also at least 3 young Eastern water dragons we see every day. Sometimes a big Eastern blue-tongued skink we see about once per month basking with the Cunningham's. We've witnessed the Cunningham's adults quickly chase off larger water dragons.