Living in a beautiful waterfront community has its advantages, but it’s not without problems.
Iguanas were not a problem when I moved here 35 years ago. Now, these reptilian neighbors drop stool wherever they see fit, eat all the flowers in our back and front yards, dig destructive borrows, and spread Salmonella. I think it’s time the neighborhood pulls together so we can gain some ground on these noxious critters.
According to The University of Florida’s Institute of Food and Agricultural Services, iguanas are considered “exotic unprotected wildlife” that may be caught and removed from private property or euthanized without any special permit.
The problem is catching them.
Iguanas can stay underwater for up to 30 minutes, making them difficult to catch because they are such good swimmers.
You may be wondering why we have to catch them to begin with. Iguanas are native to Central and South America, where their native wildlife keeps them in check. And, in our urban environment, the only predators iguanas face are domesticated cats and dogs, snakes, raccoons, and birds of prey (including crows). Even then, once they grow to two feet, it becomes up to us. This is where I get to talk about gardening, because I love gardening and Clint’s Corner is supposed to be about just that.
We often forget that our yards have the potential to serve as habitats to encourage wildlife and pollinators. But, in steering them to be merely pretty, we cause environmental waste.
Luckily, gardening plays a role in iguana hunting. Note that some of the plants to stay away from are Hibiscus, Orchids, Impatiens, Pentas, Bougainvillea, Roses, most vegetable plants, lots of fruiting trees and about anything with flowers. This is a hefty list and not an easy task, which is all the more reason to band together to attack the iguana problem.
The first order of business is to explore your yard looking for burrows. Find them and fill them in with gravel. Look again a couple of weeks later, and repeat. Hopefully your neighbor will do the same thing, and her neighbor too. Shooting iguanas with a pellet gun is legal, but only if you hit them in the head. I am conscious that if I miss I won’t hit Fred or Eric’s boat.
I attended a seminar put on by the Florida Department of Wildlife a few years ago. The ranger said, “this is no joke, shooting them through the brain or using a baseball bat to the head,” were the two forms of acceptable euthanasia.
Unfortunately, I’m a poor aim and I stink at baseball, so I resorted to a live trap.
You’ve seen those wire boxes for sale at hardware stores. Put some Hibiscus flowers, grapes or sliced melon in the far end of the box and when the animal goes in to eat, they trip a lever that slams the door down. This is exactly what I did.
Well, the live trap worked! I had two iguanas racing around a cage. But there’s no way I could shoot at something that fast, even at point range. My solution? I put the cage in a huge plastic bag and attached it to the tailpipe of my truck. I had the iguanas sluggish enough so that I could shoot them in the head and bury them after. A good, effective method.
But, my favorite iguana story happened on an iguana hunting trip on the El Rio Canal Bike Path here in Boca. It was nighttime, and the temperature had dropped to the forties. The ideal climate for cold blooded iguanas. So much so, they were falling out of the trees and moping around. We collected about eight. As the day warmed, some newcomers came to the hunt late and wanted to know what we were going to do with them. They were glad to take them off our hands for their meat (Yes, some markets sell iguana meat for only $14.99 per pound), and I was glad to have helped to remove more invasive iguanas from the grounds.
If we ever get one again, we all have a job the morning after the cold snap: to help one another in bringing this iguana plague under control.