(Newswire.net — December 15, 2023) — Green iguanas love Florida. The state has everything they need to not only survive but thrive. Iguanas love our warm weather, waterways, and tasty snacks. Once in an area, like someone’s yard, they destroy bushes and flowers, dig holes, and leave nasty droppings that contain bacteria.
The iguana’s presence in Florida isn’t good news for anyone but the iguana itself. Because green iguanas are non-native and considered an invasive species, it is legal and encouraged for homeowners to control the iguana population on their property. There are quite a few ways you can do so.
Iguana Control Methods
Iguanas eat certain types of plants, fruits, and leaves. This includes the shoots, leaves, blossoms, and fruits of nickerbean, firebush, jasmine, orchids, roses, Washington fan palms, hibiscuses, garden greens, squashes, and melons. You can proactively prevent iguanas from being attracted to your home’s yard by avoiding having their favorite foods growing there. It’s also a good idea to pick up any fallen fruit or other plant materials before they turn it into a snack. Experts also encourage you to cover up ornamental plants with screens, mesh, or cage enclosures to deter iguanas from eating the plant material.
You can make it harder for them to get around unnoticed by natural predators. To do so, trim overhanging tree branches, shrub or flower limbs, or overlapping branches to remove hiding places and methods of travel for iguanas. Move rock piles indoors to deter iguanas from hiding or sunbathing within them.
Fertilize ornamental landscape areas to replenish plant and soil materials and remove any holes iguanas have dug in your flower beds. Doing so is also a good way to find and destroy any eggs laid by iguanas.
Mow your grass when it reaches a height of 3 inches. This should be done to deter insects and snails from infesting your yard, tiny animals that iguanas will visit your yard to eat. Also, remove any fallen plant debris. By removing these food sources iguanas are less likely to visit your property.
If you are comfortable doing so, you can legally set humane traps from February to March to capture female iguanas laying eggs in dense vegetation areas with loose soil. Of course, once you catch the live iguana you must then decide what to do with it. While it is legal to catch iguanas in a live animal trap, it’s actually against the law to release them into the wild. This is because they’re non-native and considered a nuisance.
Hire a Professional Pest Control Company
While we encourage you to remove vegetation that is constantly visited by iguanas or replace it with another type of foliage, that may not always be enough. If these DIY methods don’t work or if you don’t want to handle the problem alone, that’s fine too. There are companies in Florida that offer professional iguana removal services. They can come and handle your iguana pests in the same way they would remove spiders, rats, or any other offending nuisance animals.