Posted on 06/22/2018 1:11:41 PM PDT by Red Badger
South Florida’s not quite Jurassic Park, but it’s getting close.
Packs of green iguanas are swarming seawalls, roaming yards and parks, and leaving a path of destruction and filth in their wake. Like a shot of espresso, the hot summer sun has stoked activity in the cold-blooded creatures, which experts say may be at record numbers.
“This year is the most iguanas I’ve seen and I’ve been in business for nine years,” says Thomas Portuallo, owner of Fort Lauderdale-based Iguana Control. He says the invasive lizards are out of control with “many hundreds of thousands” creeping around Broward, Miami-Dade and Palm Beach counties.
The prehistoric populations are multiplying like rabbits, and causing internet, phone and power outages (barbecued lizard, anyone?), damaging landscapes, levees, seawalls, roofs and patios, and contaminating pools with poop.
“There’s no real way to come up with a valid estimate of the number of green iguanas in Florida. But the number would be gigantic,” says Richard Engeman, a biologist for the National Wildlife Research Center. “You could put any number of zeros behind a number, and I would believe it.”
And the critters have residents steamed up — literally.
About 8 percent of power outages, or 9,200 a year, are caused by animals and birds, says Richard Beltran, a Florida Power and Light spokesman. In South Florida, iguanas are the second leading cause of power outages, behind squirrels. But that’s well behind power failures caused by vegetation, Beltran points out. FPL uses raptor guards and bird diverters to cover 75,000 miles of power lines, switches and conductors at 600 substations, he says. If an animal touches two of the three power lines attached to a pole, that's when current zaps them, Beltran says.
(Excerpt) Read more at sun-sentinel.com ...
I was golfing on St. Thomas and hit my drive up against a log down the course. I was figuring out my drop when the six foot long thick log began to move. Now there was a huge iguana.
Bring in more boa constrictors. Problem solved.
OR
http://www.browardpalmbeach.com/restaurants/six-ways-to-cook-iguana-6392248
A bounty would be even better.
Wish I was in Tijuana -
maybe the out of control pythons can take care of the out of control iguanas. winner can take care of the out of control dim lefties and GOPes in FL?
I was in Key West last month. They’re all over the place.
This is why I LOVE the Northeast.
.
And pig roast?
Taste like chicken.
Cold weather doesn’t kill them, just puts them to sleep.
It does make it easier to catch them because they start falling out of the trees.
The Costa Ricans blame the Nicaraguans for decimating their native iguanas, but truth be told, the CR’s enjoy a spit-roasted Tree Chicken too.
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