The teeth of a green iguana are designed to shear plant material, but can deliver a painful bite to people and pets.
https://edis.ifas.ufl.edu/publication/IN528
Posted on 03/05/2022 5:04:11 AM PST by DUMBGRUNT
Standing in a boat in suburban Fort Lauderdale, Chris Whitaker aimed a .25-caliber air rifle at a large green iguana on a canal bank and squeezed the trigger.
Whitaker and his girlfriend, Krissy Garcia, had paid $500 to Hunting Iguanas LLC for four hours of iguana hunting in Broward County, where the nonnative reptiles have found a congenial home along canals lined with a lush variety of trees.
Hated in many neighborhoods for consuming flowers, fruit trees and vegetable gardens, green iguanas have become a business opportunity for several companies that lead guided hunts along South Florida canals. While many residents cheered on the iguana hunters on a recent excursion, the air rifles required several shots for a kill, subjecting many iguanas to lingering deaths.
Whitaker, 29, an experienced hunter, had flown to Fort Lauderdale from Tyler, Texas, with his girlfriend just to try his hand at shooting iguanas. “I saw it on Facebook, and I thought, ‘Man, I gotta do this,’” he said.
They shot 26 iguanas off trees and off the canal banks, moving slowly through the network of canals that have kept the neighborhood dry in what used to be the Everglades. Krissy Garcia brought down a couple of large ones, their skin a combination of orange, brown and green.
Along the canals, residents cheered on the hunters for taking down reptiles who consumed their gardens and fruit trees. The iguanas’ industrious digging also damages power lines, sidewalks and seawalls.
“Thank you for doing this, man!” James Mathew shouted from his backyard on the canal bank. “I was happy when I see you guys doing this.”
He said the iguanas have devoured all his attempts to grow things.
(Excerpt) Read more at union-bulletin.com ...
Probably, but they also have jobs.
In Louisiana that would be called gumbo…
Family member used to catch them by hand for entertainment and give them to the Sandblas Indians when posted there. They were very good to said family member while there in gratitude.
Maybe most people regard it as a pest control problem and want someone else to do the job?
Feral pigs are a huge problem in Texas, too, and the season on them is open year-round. No limit. Kill as many as you can! You’d think Texas would be a destination for anyone wanting to shoot elusive game year-round or there’d be a thriving business in eradicating them. Some people do go after them. But not nearly enough.
Eating all your crops and fruits is harmless? Damaging powerlines?
Eventually an invasive species eats all the food sources and becomes dangerous, or all starve to death.
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I would be the neighbor with house completely covered in iguanas. I would have to sweep iguanas off the driveway to get the car out. They would all have little name tags and sweaters for when it’s cold.
They are NOT harmless.
About 30 years ago I was renting a house with 3 roommates,
and one of them had a 'pet' iguana - about 3 1/2 feet long the
thing was. He (the roommate) frequently let it out it's cage, and it would
have free run of the house. Granted, it was a large house, but....
Until one day it lunged out from behind a couch and bit someone,
totally unprovoked, on the leg as he was walking by.
It stayed locked in it's cage after that.
Nasty, ill-tempered beasts with a nasty disposition, and sharp pointy teeth.
Not suitable 'pet' material - not at all.
In my opinion they should NOT have 'pampered' invasive
species status. They should remain in their native habitat.
Whatever hell-hole that is.
https://www.airgunsofarizona.com/Daystate/RegalXL.htm
When I first arrived in Panama back in Nov. 69, I was stationed on Flamenco Island and that was the first time I had ever seen an iguana
—” They would all have little name tags and sweaters for when it’s cold.”
Would you crochet or knit the little sweaters?
With so many scaly friends, repurposed socks or sweater sleeves might help speed the process?
The teeth of a green iguana are designed to shear plant material, but can deliver a painful bite to people and pets.
https://edis.ifas.ufl.edu/publication/IN528
They are invasive just like the Burmese python is invasive in the Everglades.
Another invasive is the African snail, which are sizable, they get up on these Adobe structures and cinder block structures and they suck the minerals out of the material which weakens the wall.
There’s no problem in that these invasive species are all edible including the lionfish which now inhabit a lot of reefs around Florida and down into the Caribbean.
They don’t belong here and as I said the good news is they’re all edible. I wouldn’t eat any of it but still a lot of people do.
Other invasives are:
Praying Mantis
Ladybug
Stink bug
Nutria
A female Burmese python can mate and that sperm can fertilize her eggs for 10 years!
It has been said that the Burmese python could be in GAMAL within 75 to 100 years.
Where is GAMAL?
Georgia Alabama Mississippi Arkansas and Louisiana
You have had them in DuPage? I’m in Winnebago County. I thought it would be too cold in these parts for something like that. I know we have snakes…
Well, they are cold blooded…
Well, every iguana has his or her own set of color tones. Mr Wigglesworth, here, is more of an “autumn” while Ms Lashtail is definitely springtime. Some don’t like scratchy wool, preferring satins and polyesters, while others revel in it.
A big iguana with a healthy diet leaves fecal piles the size dogs’ eliminations but looser. The big ones in my yard have never bothered my pet fowl. But I am not opposed to reducing the population.
A few years back a 3’long falling iguana broke my employee’s windshield at work. The debate was, did the tree trimmer make him jump or did he jump on his own? That would determine who would pay the bill.
The big ones on canal banks turn orange with striped tails and resemble scenes from Jurassic Park.
[[Whitaker and his girlfriend, Krissy Garcia, had paid $500 to Hunting Iguanas LLC for four hours]]
Suckered born every minute I guess. Iguanas are everywhere, it’s not like needs a special guide to find them, and the guide certainky,certainly, have to work Hard to find them either. You can buy a pellet rifle yourself for under $500 and hunt them year round if one wants I guess. (I don’t think you need a license to hunt them especially with a pellet rifle
There isman infestation of them there. They are totally out of control there.
I’ve seen people,try it for first time and they were not impressed.
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