Posted on 01/05/2010 8:15:58 AM PST by ConservativeStatement
With this week's evening temperatures falling toward the upper 30s, strange fruit may drop from South Florida trees: non-native, invading iguanas that many residents consider more pest than pet.
"It's a big deal for me," Jessica Morgan, a Margate homeowner, said as she watched a yard-long, bright orange male iguana roam near her butterfly habitat. The reptile has a slightly smaller green girlfriend.
"They climb up on the bank and will poop on my dock," she said. "Fingers crossed that this cold snap will kill them. I don't have the heart to beat one to death. I hope the weather does it for me."
(Excerpt) Read more at sun-sentinel.com ...
When we first moved to Florida I was driving down the road one night when seemingly out of nowhere this armadillo is sitting in the middle of my lane. My wife screeched not to hit it. Not a problem, I thought, I’ll just drive over top of him. He’s not THAT big.
That’s when I got introduced to what armadillos do when they are scared - they jump. So as I drove over him, he got scared and it sounded like a basketball thumping down the underside of my vehicle.
LMAO!!!
Yes they can jump 3 feet or more into the air. People don’t realize this until they meet one unexpectedly................
Man they let anybody on MTV back in those days. LOL
My sister and her husband were both going to MSU at the time and I think I may have seen Wall Of Voodoo at a free concert during one of my visits to Lansing.
A fun game Flying Iquana, getting a little .22 and a red-dot scope.
A two man team, first man shoots under it to pop it in the air, second man hit it at the arc.
Give style points and points for hits.
I love Iguanas, do rescue when one comes my way. That said, it’s much more humane to shoot them than let them freeze to death. They shouldn’t have been imported to this country anyway. People buy them when they’re cute little green lizards not thinking that someday they’ll be 5 feet long, need a very specialized diet (they’re vegetarians), and maintain much of their wild characteristics. Why these people haven’t contacted rescue organizations, they’re in every state, I don’t know.
Cindie
My standing doctrine for treating these critters is "shoot on sight". If mother nature wants to lend a hand, more power to it.
I didn't notice that many iguanas until the real estate market collapsed and many of the illegals went home.
I saw Anthony Bourdain a while back in his Food Network series, and he tried to eat just about everything he could find on the planet, including insects. However, when he came to taste iguana, he made it clear that he would never try to eat it again!
“If somebody is looking to trap them, I guess right now would be a good time because they’re not moving,” she said.”
If they are not moving, how do they get into the trap?
That's "Tiajunna," yew phewwwl.
It will be about 74 degrees, sunny and clear in Southern California today!
Iguanas aren’t particularly harmful although they look dangerous.
But wouldn’t it be nice if all the pythons and boas that have been let loose in Florida by nutso hobbists would die. Those things are dangerous to man and beast.
Iguanas are a terror on the vegetable garden and flowering shrubs, etc. They can strip a hibiscus of 50 flowers in a couple of hours. And the droppings are particularly nasty. I doubt that it will get cold enough here in the Lower Florida Keys to kill ‘em. Heck, they swim so well, they’d probably head for the water which is 15-20 degrees warmer than the air.
It’s only been 5 years perhaps since I saw my first iguana here and now they are everywhere, some approaching 5 feet in length.
If only it worked on imported fire ants!
I have noticed many more the past couple of years too, here in Delray Beach/Boca. I have to admit, they are fun to see, but they aren’t native and they are destructive, so I’m all for getting rid of them. We are also covered up with Northern Curly Tailed lizards (from the Bahamas I think) and Cuban Anoles, which seem to outdo the native green anoles, which I rarely see now.
You’ve persuaded me. Get yourself a .22 and off the little buggers.
That and “The Walls Came Down” by the Call. Remember that one?
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