Iguanas

[Altrexy]

Something is eating the flowers on my Barbados cherry. Pretty sure it’s iguanas. What do you guys do to keep them under control?

[Rice-N-Beans]

My work buddy who is now retired calls them tree chickens, he said back in the islands they ate them and they were delicious, I bet I'd like it too since I like gator meat. If you are okay with dispatching them legally and as humane as possible go for it, they are an intrusive non native pest that does more damage than good here.  Other than dispatching them with a scoped pellet rifle, I got nothing.

[MadFarm]

Air rifle, long poles with chokestring, or traps with fruit. My Acerola flowers are disappearing also but it's not Iguanas. I have not had fruit set in over a year and the flowers just seem to vanish.

[Daintree]

Ah yes, "chicken of the trees".
When we were in the Caribbean, we had some mighty tasty iguana soup. The tail meat is tough. I recommend using a pressure cooker.

The best iguana repellant I have seen was a trifoliate citrus hedge.
Metal trunk protectors that are a couple feet high work well, putting cages around your smaller trees, having a dog that loves to chase things, and planting a lot of milkweed also helps.

Glue traps work fairly well but are horribly inhumane, and you are left with having to kill the iguana up close and personal. Plus, if you have tenderhearted neighbors, glue traps can start nighborhood wars...

Carolyn

[Cookie Monster]

22 cal air rifle. Just make sure it's permitted to use them in your city (City of Ft Lauderdale has a prohibition on them). Hit them right behind the eye for instant kill. Break barrels are the most affordable and easiest to use, just need to practice how to hold them cause the kickback can cause inaccurate shots.

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCbtpvE3wMmfVjmpW5yO1YMQ

[johnb51]

Iguanas LOVE young papaya leaves.  I set up the mirrors a month ago.  This is working.  The mirrors are $7 each at Target, but they are backed with paper so you have to cover the entire backs with duct tape to make them more or less waterproof.

[roblack]

If you're not into Huntin and Killin ("It's coming right for us!"), call an iguana specialist.

Did a Google search and found several companies in the area.

I chase them off whenever they come around. There is a giant one high up in a tree that eats all the p. laurifolia flowers. Bastard. Saw it one day flying the drone, nearly crashed when the 5-6 foot beast came into view. Godzilla moment.

[achetadomestica]

Iguanas are not going anywhere
You can kill a few but they are established just like
the pythons in the Everglades. They decided to get rid
of the Spiney tail iguanas in Boca Grande a few years
ago and were paying trappers $250 a piece for each one.
Guess what? Boca Grande still has Spiney tail iguanas.
I would try to find an alternative for them to eat like Hibiscus?
Even a hard freeze wouldn't kill them all, the adult iguanas and
adult pythons live under ground and a freeze would only set them back

[Galatians522]

I'm not sure about iguanas, but pythons are native to areas of Burma that get frost. I don't know of anything stopping them from invading any area where alligators currently live.

[fliptop]

As a huge herptile fan, I appreciate achetadomestica's advice to plant alternatives for them to eat. I've read that they'll eat papaya leaves and I'm guessing papayas too, but for all the iguanas I've seen at my girlfriend's place in Bonita Springs, they haven't done any damage to her papaya plants or fruits?

[roblack]

At least my monster lives high in the trees and just messes up one fruiting vine. I still chase the young ones off when they poop by the pool or get comfortable around the garden.

I love animals and reptiles too. We have agamas, Tokay geckos, Cuban knight anoles, and other non-native anoles running around in the yard. Not a problem. The agamas eat superworms and mealworms out of our hands, and then some mocking birds caught on and started doing the same. Lots of entertainment. Saw a basilisk down the road, looking forward to them joining in some day too. Have gone herping, looking for colonies of chameleons that have established themselves in SoFL, no luck yet.

[Cookie Monster]

It's like rats (and tree rats aka squirrels): while they are firmly established, it is possible to maintain a localized area of very low population density using appropriate control methods (traps, air rifles, etc).

I don't mind the iguanas chewing on leaves. What I do mind is them creating extensive burrows just behind my seawall and the eventual 5 figure cost to replace it.

It's absolutely incredible how proficient they are at digging through the toughest of soil conditions. Those little claws can dig out a trench in limestone rubble / builder's fill faster and easier than I can with a plethora of digging tools at my disposal.

For those who don't have concrete structures (pool decks, seawalls, etc) at risk of being destroyed, it's really quite cool to see those dinosaur looking creatures in the landscape.