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Iguana Breeding Out Of Control; Trapper Captures Them To Be Euthanized
Florida Sun-Sentinel, 6/5/05 (Excerpts from original article)
The iguana population is exploding, and it's probably too late to stop the non-native lizards from moving deeper into landscaped neighborhoods in Palm Beach County.
Thousands of them are devouring expensive plantings and leaving droppings that can carry salmonella, said Kenneth Krysko, a herpetologist at the Florida Museum of Natural History at the University of Florida.
"Every year it just gets worse and worse. Ten years ago it was rare to get a complaint on an iguana. Now we get a few iguana calls every week," said Dan Szychowski, Boynton Beach animal control supervisor.
Krysko gets iguana reports from Loxahatchee and Palm Beach Gardens to the Keys.
The green iguanas reach maturity in two to three years and often live for more than 15 years, Krysko said. "Iguanas can really pump out a lot of offspring over their lifespan," he said.
Scientific literature documents the first iguanas being turned loose in Florida in the 1960s, according to Krysko. With Florida weather perfect to warm their cold-blooded systems and natural predators left behind in Central and South America, iguanas are thriving.
Boca Raton residents Rollie and Sheryl Martin are taking a defensive approach, spraying garlic-based iguana repellent around their flowers after the reptiles destroyed a Hong Kong orchid tree and ate rows of impatiens.
As a non-native species, Iguanas are not protected by state or federal laws, except the Florida law that prohibits cruelty to animals, Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission spokesman Willie Puz said. Nuisance iguanas can be humanely and privately trapped, but they have to be killed or kept as pets because it is illegal to release them.
Delray Beach homeowner David Johnson says he has captured 356 iguanas.
"Number 356 is the most gorgeous one yet," Johnson said, gently clipping fishing line from the neck of a neon green iguana he lassoed in his back yard along the C-15 Canal, on the Delray Beach and Boca Raton border.
Next stop for the iguana is Palm Beach County Animal Care and Control -- for lethal injection.
Johnson, a software engineer, spent two years researching iguanas and trying to minimize their damage in his Pelican Harbor neighborhood. He became a state-certified trapper and created a Web site, www.iguanatrapper.com.
"I've never heard of a case where iguanas have been in a neighborhood and disappeared," said Bill Kern, an assistant professor at the University of Florida's Fort Lauderdale Research and Education Center.
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Florida Sun-Sentinel, 6/5/05 (Excerpts from original article)
The iguana population is exploding, and it's probably too late to stop the non-native lizards from moving deeper into landscaped neighborhoods in Palm Beach County.
Thousands of them are devouring expensive plantings and leaving droppings that can carry salmonella, said Kenneth Krysko, a herpetologist at the Florida Museum of Natural History at the University of Florida.
"Every year it just gets worse and worse. Ten years ago it was rare to get a complaint on an iguana. Now we get a few iguana calls every week," said Dan Szychowski, Boynton Beach animal control supervisor.
Krysko gets iguana reports from Loxahatchee and Palm Beach Gardens to the Keys.
The green iguanas reach maturity in two to three years and often live for more than 15 years, Krysko said. "Iguanas can really pump out a lot of offspring over their lifespan," he said.
Scientific literature documents the first iguanas being turned loose in Florida in the 1960s, according to Krysko. With Florida weather perfect to warm their cold-blooded systems and natural predators left behind in Central and South America, iguanas are thriving.
Boca Raton residents Rollie and Sheryl Martin are taking a defensive approach, spraying garlic-based iguana repellent around their flowers after the reptiles destroyed a Hong Kong orchid tree and ate rows of impatiens.
As a non-native species, Iguanas are not protected by state or federal laws, except the Florida law that prohibits cruelty to animals, Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission spokesman Willie Puz said. Nuisance iguanas can be humanely and privately trapped, but they have to be killed or kept as pets because it is illegal to release them.
Delray Beach homeowner David Johnson says he has captured 356 iguanas.
"Number 356 is the most gorgeous one yet," Johnson said, gently clipping fishing line from the neck of a neon green iguana he lassoed in his back yard along the C-15 Canal, on the Delray Beach and Boca Raton border.
Next stop for the iguana is Palm Beach County Animal Care and Control -- for lethal injection.
Johnson, a software engineer, spent two years researching iguanas and trying to minimize their damage in his Pelican Harbor neighborhood. He became a state-certified trapper and created a Web site, www.iguanatrapper.com.
"I've never heard of a case where iguanas have been in a neighborhood and disappeared," said Bill Kern, an assistant professor at the University of Florida's Fort Lauderdale Research and Education Center.
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