I agree to what you're saying, the real thing works best, but if you live in an area where lizards are hard to come by you have no other choice than to try whatever substitute there is.

Where I live, in the central part of Sweden, there are just two species of lizards; Lacerta vivipara and Anguis fragilis. All reptiles are protected and even if I wanted to break the law and find one, I most likely would not succeed since they are not abundant.