Anton from No Country for Old Men would be proud. Here is the story:

They canvass southern Florida at night, in teams of two, armed with flashlights and bolt guns to stun and smash the brains of intruders.

Invasive iguanas tearing across properties and destroying local infrastructure have been put on notice by a team of marine biologists from the University of Florida, deputized by the state to kill them using methods as humane as possible.

"Most of what we're doing is blunt force trauma," Jenny Ketterlin, a wildlife biologist and research coordinator with the university, told the Sun Sentinel. "Hitting their head very hard against a solid object."

That means, when available, the scientists use guns that discharge a fast-moving bolt, commonly used in the cattle industry and the weapon wielded by villain Anton Chigurh in the 2007 film "No Country for Old Men."

But it also means using deadly blows against vehicles and boats used to hunt down the lizards. Ketterlin explained that the methods are in line with the state's anti-cruelty laws.

The count after one month: 249 iguanas, found and killed on the spot. The teams operate along a canal on the northeastern edge of the sprawling Everglades preserve in Davie, north of Miami. The iguanas tend to colonize the man-made canals, the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission says, an accidental proliferation aid for the lizards traversing the watery veins of Floridian suburbia.

The university's work is underwritten by the commission, which provided $63,000 for the research project running through May that also includes weighing and measuring carcasses before they are properly disposed of at an authorized landfill, Ketterlin told the paper.

Iguanas should not be there, the commission said.

It's so cold in Florida, iguanas are falling from trees
It's so cold in Florida, iguanas are falling from trees


The natural habitat of the common green iguana stretches from Mexico through Central America and throughout the entire Amazon region in South America, including islands in the Caribbean and off the Brazilian coast, a map on the commission website shows.

According to the Sun Sentinel, iguanas arrived in Florida as pets, first appearing in Miami-Dade County in 1966, then in the Keys in 1995 before making a home of Broward County in 2001 and in Palm Beach in 2003. The total population is difficult to pin down, but the southern portion of the state has reeled from proliferating numbers. Iguanas can lay dozens of eggs at once.

Iguanas are attracted to dense trees and fruit - kind of what Florida is known for. They destroy landscape vegetation and their burrowing speeds erosion, leading to the collapse of sidewalks, foundations and canal banks, the commission says.

And if that isn't enough, they can also transmit salmonella to humans that come into contact with water tainted by their feces - in swimming pools, for instance.

The commission carefully spells out how they can be captured and killed. They recommend using nets, cage traps and noose poles for the famously agile, spiky-tailed creatures. But then it gets complicated.

You can kill one with a single blow from say, a shovel, but you must strike true. More than one blow could be animal cruelty punishable by prison time and up to $5,000, Ron Magill, an animal ambassador for Zoo Miami, told the Sun Sentinel.

Link:http://www.nola.com/pets/index.ssf/2018/03/iguana_florida_killing.html

I found this hard to believe, only 249 in one month. I could kill that many within 2 days and 10 miles of my house. They are everywhere here. Each draw bridge will have 2 dozen of them on the wood side walls where the boats go through, every single day.

I wish I was in Tiajuana
Eating barbequed iguana

It's only a few miles from here. Do you think they'd like some help with someone with a silenced .22 with a RMR?

quote:

Originally posted by terma-nator:
It's only a few miles from here. Do you think they'd like some help with someone with a silenced .22 with a RMR?

That would be too effective for their tastes.

quote:

Originally posted by sigmonkey:
I wish I was in Tiajuana
Eating barbequed iguana

In Belize they called it "bamboo chicken" on the menu's of some restaurants that carried it. As they'd find them in bamboo trees. I've eaten iguana.....only the legs have meat and the tail.....the body is all bones. It tastes like chicken and is nothing I would ever go out of my way for again.

Stupid article with click-bait, worrisome title, no doubt written to elicit a response from the sheeple.

Who cares. Kill them. All. With fire if you have to. This includes the huge boa constrictors in the Everglades that are eating deer (Oh deer) and that spiny poisonous invasive fish too.

I recently read an article in a hunting magazine about hunters traveling to Puerto Rico to hunt Iguanas with high power airguns.
Sounded fun!
But this was before the hurricane turned PR into an even bigger toilet than it was pre-hurricane.

Was leaving a canal in Islamorada last year when a pellet whizzed past my head. Guy was hunting iguana and didn't notice our boat approaching.

quote:

high power airguns

BINGO!!!

Well, spring piston airguns kinda say "BINGO!!!"

quote:

Originally posted by RichardC:

quote:

high power airguns

BINGO!!!

Well, spring piston airguns kinda say "BINGO!!!" BOING!!!

FIFY...

Tony.

I have a .22 pump and have used that to take out the Iguanas in our yard. My neighbor was told by the city to trap them then kick the trap into the canal to drown them - and she definitely is more efficient than shooting them. Even with a .22 pellet at 600 fps, you have to hit them in the skull just right.

They are an incredible nuisance, they killed my hong kong orchid tree by eating the flowers, then leaves then the buds from the leaves. They make a mess, and anything you want to grow that flowers is a snack. My dog does a good job keeping them mostly out of the yard - but once they get in a tree not much he can do.

Smash away.

quote:

Originally posted by FlyingScot:...My dog does a good job keeping them mostly out of the yard - but once they get in a tree not much he can do.

...

You need an "Iguanarator".

quote:

Originally posted by FlyingScot:
I have a .22 pump and have used that to take out the Iguanas in our yard. My neighbor was told by the city to trap them then kick the trap into the canal to drown them - and she definitely is more efficient than shooting them. Even with a .22 pellet at 600 fps, you have to hit them in the skull just right.

They are an incredible nuisance, they killed my hong kong orchid tree by eating the flowers, then leaves then the buds from the leaves. They make a mess, and anything you want to grow that flowers is a snack. My dog does a good job keeping them mostly out of the yard - but once they get in a tree not much he can do.

Smash away.

I agree they're a terrible nuisance and they breed like wildfire. I remember several years back we had that really cold winter in South Florida and it killed 90% of them. Within a year or so, they were right back to the population they were.

Try shooting them in the body right behind the front legs. That's where their organs are. Their heads are pretty damn hard and you have to hit them just right there.

When my Dad retired, he moved down there (2000). Nice place, right on the inner-coastal, just north of Miami. ALL of the neighbors complained about those "damned lizards", eating flowers, crapping all over... They built a den under the jacuzzi of one of the neighbors, costing a decent amount to repair, another got under the canvas cover of a boat, tore up the seat cushions on a boat then died under the canvas, again, $$$ to fix, and the fun of getting the smell out.

Dad couldn't figure out how to get rid of them... I went down there to visit, and gave him an early birthday present, a "pith" helmet and a high end Beaman .177cal pellet rifle. "Here you go, Bwana, you're the great white hunter!" At first, he looked at me like I was crazy and muttered something about "what the hell do I need with a BB gun?", but after the 2nd lizard, he was all in!

Sitting on the deck with a cup of coffee, the crossword puzzle, and his trusty toy, with a huge smile on his face. IIRC, something like 250+ met their fate at the hand of Dad & the pellet gun.
After you nail them, just kick 'em in the inner-coastal; crabs got to eat too...