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With photo/graphic: SH07G002IGUANAINVASION, SH07G003IGUANAINVASION
By LINDSAY SMITH
Scripps Howard News Service
VERO BEACH, Fla. _ The green invaders that have munched through gardens throughout South Florida are inching northward. They are voracious, quickly can grow to 6 feet long and absolutely love most ornamental flowers and vegetable gardens.
The invader: the green iguana.
At McKee Botanical Garden in Vero Beach, sightings of the iguanas basking in the sun have gardeners keeping an eye open.
Mark Gordley, a horticultural assistant at McKee, remembers watching the reptiles slowly devour a butterfly garden he helped build in Palm Beach County before spotting them again in Vero Beach.
"I'm used to sharing with nature," he said, adding he didn't mind if the iguana munched on a few flowers from time to time at the garden. He said he'd spotted the lizard more than 12 times in the past year, but the color had been different on some occasions, indicating there could be more than one.
"They do well in our subtropical climate," said Bruce Dangerfield, animal control officer for Vero Beach. Although they may look like a natural part of Florida's wildlife, the species originated in Latin America before it was brought to the United States for the pet trade, Dangerfield said.
"People buy them when they're pretty little green lizards in pet stores," he said. The lizard, which begins at a mere eight inches long with a diet of lettuce, quickly can grow up to six feet from the nose to the tip of the tail. As it ages, its diet becomes demanding with a need for such food as squash, romaine lettuce and fresh produce to remain healthy.
"They'll eat you out of house and home," Dangerfield said, "and that's when people let them go."
As a result, colonies of hundreds of green iguanas have taken over in Miami-Dade, Broward and Palm Beach counties. Power outages have occurred in residential neighborhoods because of iguanas getting zapped on electrical lines. Homeowners do battle with the iguanas in an effort to protect their gardens, but too often the iguanas win. The lizards also can drop unexpectedly from trees, scaring residents.
The green, spiny population is spreading into the counties north of Dade and Broward known as Florida's Treasure Coast, said Donna Ashton, spokeswoman for St. Lucie County Animal Control.
"We get an average of a couple iguanas a week," she said. Usually, residents don't even know what the "really big lizard" is when they call, she said.
Even Martin County Animal Control has begun getting calls about the spiny reptile hanging around in oak trees, said Mike Ferguson, sergeant for the Martin County Sheriff's Office.
Efforts to rid South Florida of the iguanas have been futile because of the reptile's unusual intelligence and quick agility, said Ken Gioeli, natural resource agent for the St. Lucie branch of the University of Florida. With sharp claws, spiny backside and a whip-like tail, the cunning troublemakers are good at eluding traps in their quest for fresh fruit, he said.
But it's not just fruit they're after, he added. Orchids, roses and hibiscus all fall prey to the appetite of the iguana, along with melons and squash, he said. As a result, the iguana damages gardens and natural fauna, upsetting the fragile ecosystem in Florida. Since iguanas can lay up to 45 eggs at a time, the effect is devastating.
Only one thing is spared from the iguana's warpath, he noted.
"They won't eat citrus," Gioeli said. The best solution to prevent the iguana from eating its way through a garden is to replace the plants it enjoys with ones it won't eat, such as milkweed, oleanders and tough, thick leafed plants. For gardeners unwillingly to part with their hibiscus, iguana cages could also provide a solution, he said.
In the meantime, residents of the Treasure Coast are urged to not feed the iguanas and sustain the growing population.
"The iguanas are here to stay," he said.
(Contact Lindsay Smith of the Treasure Coast newspapers in Florida at www.tcpalm.com.)
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