Iguana Control

Hi everyone,
Is anyone else having issues with these invasive dinosaurs?!?! Im in the Florida Keys and Im able to deal with the heat, salt, poor soil and hurricanes, but these things are decimating almost everything thats not a fruit tree. I have a bunch of seedlings of different veggies and herbs that are itching to get into the ground, but Im reluctant to lose another large group of plants. They've even been marauding my aquaponic beds!

I dont know of any deterants or repellent plants, and they dont have any natural enemies as adults down here. Before i turn to an air riffle and try iguana soup for the first time, I thought I'd check with y'all.

Thanks in advance!

J, have you seen any of this?

http://edis.ifas.ufl.edu/in528

Some good stuff.

"The meat of adult iguanas and the eggs are eaten and considered a delicacy throughout their native range, especially during Easter week. As of 2004, the price of iguana meat was $14/pound in Maryland. Large adults, too dangerous to be kept as pets, may have value as meat in ethnic markets that cater to immigrants from Central and South America. However, make arrangements with the market manager before showing up with a sack of iguanas."

Thanks for the link. $14/lb?! Maybe Im in the wrong business!

I think culling for the meat might be the only viable option at this point. Ive just found several baby iggies in and around my unfinished hugel bed, which is perfect nesting area. As my permie garden matures, Im finding more and more of them. I guess i should be happy that im creating good habitat! Unfortunately, because the iggies are an innvasive species, finding a natural balance with them doesnt seem likely.

Im surprised that more tropical permies havent posted about similar issues. As a herpetologist I hate do it, but Im thinking an air rifle is in order.

While recently in Mexico, I thought hundred of these things all over the place. They seemed to really like sun. Would a mature food forest in the keys be able to block (store) enough sun to keep the critters from basking in the garden /eating your goods?

I do have to say that using them as a food source or income stream might be a great place for them. Maybe even hire / contract with a teen to do the killing \ selling for you?

How about Igauana taco.
A friend of mine was stationed in Panama.
He said the Iguana taco that they made was not bad.

If you can't beat them, EAT them

Joe Moore wrote:. Would a mature food forest in the keys be able to block (store) enough sun to keep the critters from basking in the garden /eating your goods?

Joe,
Although I see your point, I doubt it. In Panama where I used to live, the iguanas were known as "gallinas de palos" or chickens of the trees. I rarely saw them on the ground while I was there so your idea makes sense in their natural range. However, in Florida where there are few natural enemies to mature lizards, iguanas will roost in the trees at night, but then descend to the ground to bask/feed. They're not afraid of much. Even if I could keep them regulated to the canopy, they're known to eat mangoes, sugar apples, and basically all of the various tropical fruits that my trees produce.

The only other option I see to culling is to utilize a guard dog. Anyone know any reputable iguana-hound breeders?

Don't they have a smell sensing tounge, like snakes ?

I would try a 3 area test.

Chili powder in one, spray cinnamon oil in another , and get a mosquito candle and harvest the citronella in the last.

Citronella will repel most snakes, so may work on Iguanas to...

Maybe ill try the cinnamon and the pepper methods. They've eaten all my citronella plants already...

Thanks for the suggestion.

Raccoons eat Iguana
My neighbors caught 62 raccoons in live traps last year.
The love meat and kill any small critter to eat it.
Chicken or Iguana, it is all just tasty meat to a raccoon

I know this is an old post but I finally did it....

I officially have a taste for Green Iguana! More importantly, I have eaten the lizard and Im still well enough to update this post.

So, I first collected some poor man's pepper grass, Spanish needle, mustard greens and Ethiopian kale (complete with aphids) and boiled them as a side dish (sauteed would have been much better).


Next, cleaned the tail and limbs outside at my wife's "request", and then par boiled them to make the skin easy to remove.



Boiling..


I then removed the skin by hand, which had become very frail after the boiling. I then made a quick marinade of olive oil, garlic, salt, pepper and fresh rosemary.


After a few minutes, into the frying pan. I added some more oil to the pan.


Not the best pic, but here was the final product. I intentionally overcooked it to play it safe...


I took it all outside to enjoy on the patio. And...


Really tasty! I just wish I had gotten a bigger iguana! The reports of a chicken/crab taste were right on. Highly recommended!

At the prices stated, this would seem a good crop. As you harvest, a new crop will migrate in. It'd be a good job for a teenager, to charge individuals or neighborhood associations for removing them, then sell the bounty.

Hi
I just spent two months on bonaire(dutch cribbean) there is an iguana problem there too. The locals make iguana soup, legs, feets and all.woe to the unprepared tourist eating soup.

Even though i knew i would be there a short time i planted 5000 papaya seeds in pots,10-15 per pot, it would be a survival of the fittest event.

Neem tree seeds got mixed into some pots and those pots i set aside to be planted esewhere, i'm crazy about neems.
Iguana discovered my greenhouse and ate swaths of papaya seedlings,,,except the neems.

That got me to thinking that next time the seeds will only get water infused with neem leaf water.
Not neem seeds, just the leaf into a blender.

I also used blended neem leaf to pour over the sides of a basil plant pot to deter lizards. It seemed to work for that plant but i would need a larger test base to be really sure.

Ten years ago at the same nursery the lizards were eating the flowers off of several hundred potted plants.
I made a habanero spray that was so potent that i could not breath after i sprayed it right onto the morning flowers.
The lizards never noticed.

Just in case you start on a neem kick i also used neem leaf water to get the ticks off a friends dog and after a hot bonaire day i used neem water instead of soap or shampoo.
I smelled quite green.

It is a heartbreak that NE arizona is no good for neems.
Looking for neem? Check neem tree farm online.

Iguana problem? No natural predators. Then taking from Sepp Holzer's logic. Then you must assume the predators job.

Actally some domestic dogs love to hunt iguanas.
The dog stands under a tree with an iguana and barks at it till a nervous iguana lets go.
It happens enough that the dogs will keep at it for an hour.

One dog i knew of ate the iguana, another dog just walked around all day with his trophy. I'd have to collect it before it was a stinky problem.

I had a meal of them in Mexico and it was really good. It was on the menu. It tasted like.......................................
chicken, with curved bones and a slight aftertaste. You don't have a problem. You've got free food.
John S
PDX OR