COVER STORY
Marco Eagle - 04/20/2021
Alfredo Fermin returns an iguana to a cage on Marco Island on April 8. PHOTOS BY ALEX DRIEHAUS/STAFF
Marco Island grapples with
invasive green iguanas
Omar Rodríguez Ortiz
Marco Eagle
USA TODAY NETWORK – FLORIDA
Holding an extended pole with a
noose at the end, Alfredo Fermin gently
places it around the neck of a juvenile
green iguana that is hiding underneath
a residential dock on Marco Island.
The iguana instantly squirms to try
to set itself free but in seconds it is al-
ready on Fermin's hands and put in a
cage with other similar sized iguanas.
"The key is you can't look the iguanas
in the eyes," Fermin said.
Fermin traps hundreds every year as
part of a plan of the city of Marco Island
to control the iguana's population, but
he said it is too late to eradicate them
completely.
"If you remove five, 10 more are just
going to show up," Fermin said.
Fermin drives to dozens of properties
on the island almost every Thursday,
spending six to eight hours each day
trapping from three to 30 iguanas. They
are later euthanized because they can-
not be relocated and released in other
locations in Florida.
He said nearly 450 properties are
registered in the city's iguana removal
program and that he can't get to all of
them on a single day.
In fiscal 2020, the city spent a little
more than $23,000 on the program,
trapping 741 green iguanas of all sizes,
and in fiscal 2019 it spent $20,000, trap-
ping 634, according to Tonia Selmeski,
the city's environmental planner.
For fiscal 2021, the city allocated
$20,000 to the iguana removal pro-
gram, trapping 308 iguanas from Oct. 1,
2020, to April 8, according to data pro-
April 21, 2021 10:55 am (GMT -4:00)
Alfredo Fermin points to locations where he has caught iguanas on Marco Island
during the past year on April 8. Fermin marks each iguana he catches on the map
to keep track of them.
vided by the city. No trapping activities
were conducted in three of those weeks.
"There are a lot of factors that will af-
fect how many iguanas Alfredo (Fermin)
can remove on any given day – weather,
accessibility of iguanas, etc.," Selmeski
wrote in an email earlier this month.
Green iguanas are more than a
nuisance
Native to Central America, South
America and some eastern Caribbean
islands, green iguanas are large and
typically green but also brown and are
considered invasive species in Florida,
according to the Florida Fish and Wild-
life Conservation Commission's website
. the island's tidal canals and that about
They have a row of spikes in the back
and have dark black rings on the tail, ac-
cording to FWC. Mature males have a
"throat fan" that is larger than that of
females, and they can grow to more than
5 feet in length and weigh up to 17
pounds. Females can be as long but usu-
ally do not weight more than seven
pounds and reach reproductive maturi-
ty at two to four years of age.
Fermin said green iguanas in South-
west Florida typically mate in December
and that female iguanas dig holes or
Page : A08
HOW TO DETER IGUANAS
h Remove plants that act as attractants
h Fill holes to discourage burrowing
h Hang wind chimes or other items that
make noises
h Hang CDs that have shiny surfaces
h Spray the animals with water
Source: Florida Fish and Wildlife
Conservation Commission
burrows in March and April, laying be-
tween 40 and 80 eggs each. He said
most of these eggs hatch successfully in
June and July.
"Females are laying eggs right now,"
Fermin said earlier this month.
Green iguanas can live up to 10 years
on the ground, in shrubs or in trees in a
variety of habitats such as suburbs, cit-
ies, small towns and agricultural areas,
according to FWC. They are great swim-
mers, tolerating both saltwater and
freshwater, and can stay underwater for
up to four consecutive hours.
Fermin said iguanas like to live near
95% of the houses registered in the
city's program are near the water.
"I do have a couple of houses that are
inland. That's when you know it is bad,"
Fermin said.
At a house on Tarpon Court, which
has a system of tunnels built by iguanas,
Fermin was unable to catch iguanas
with his pole because they hid under the
house. Two iguana carcasses could be
seen behind the house likely because
See IGUANAS, Page 11A
Powered by TECNAVIA
 Marco Eagle - 04/20/2021
Iguanas
Continued from Page 8A
someone shot them with a pellet gun, Fermin said.
Green iguanas cause damage to landscape vegeta-
tion and are often considered a nuisance by property
owners, according to FWC. They feed on a wide variety
of vegetation such as shoots, leaves, blossoms and
fruits of plants such as nickerbean, firebush, jasmine,
orchids, roses, Washington fan palms, hibiscuses, gar-
den greens, squashes and melons.
Adult green iguanas can also feed on bird eggs and
dead animals, and juveniles eat vegetation, insects
and tree snails.
In February, FWC voted for a set of rules that would
ban owning or breeding 16 reptiles, including the green
iguana, Florida Today reported.
But being the worst nightmare to homeowners and
landscapers is not the only negative impact green
iguanas can have in a small city like Marco Island.
They also can cause considerable damage to struc-
tures, such as seawalls and sidewalks, when they dig
burrows.
Green iguanas also leave droppings on docks, boats
and seawalls across the city, which can transmit sal-
monella to humans through contact with water or sur-
faces contaminated by their feces, according to FWC.
Theresa Vitta, a resident on Kendall Drive, said
green iguanas poop on her seawall, dock and kayaks
and she does not know exactly how to keep them away.
There is an empty lot next to her house that is con-
stantly frequented by the iguanas.
"They also dig very bad holes on the seawall, the
seawall starts to cave in, so it is very expensive to keep
your seawall in good condition," Vitta said.
Vitta stays upbeat, though, saying the only thing
she feels she can do is chase the iguanas with a kayak
paddle in an effort to scare them, sometimes causing
the neighbors to laugh at her expense.
"I actually have to (gently) push them and they go
into the water," Vitta said.
Vitta said she supports the city's iguana removal
program but would like the program to grow, allowing
Fermin to come to Marco Island more than once a week
or to allow him to hire another trapper.
"I think it is really important to make sure that the
invasive species are not destroying the properties and
the property values on Marco Island," Vitta said.
Brittany Piersma, field biologist with Audubon of
the Western Everglades, said the organization has re-
cently found that green iguanas have invaded several
burrowing owl and gopher tortoise burrows.
Burrowing owls and gopher tortoises dig burrows to
shelter and lay eggs and are considered threatened
species in Florida. The burrowing owl nesting season
is typically from February to July, and gopher tortoise
nesting season is typically from May to July.
"The iguanas appear to be increasing on the island
at the highest number that has ever been present,"
Piersma said April 9. "We are still learning if the owls
will abandon all of their burrows due to iguanas, if the
iguanas would eat owl eggs, and what can we do to
assist in the control of this invasive species."
April 21, 2021 10:55 am (GMT -4:00)
MARCONEWS.COM | TUESDAY, APRIL 20, 2021 | 11A
Alfredo Fermin catches an iguana on Marco Island on
April 8. ALEX DRIEHAUS/STAFF
Piersma also said the city needs more trappers to
assist with the control of this invasive species and that
Marco Island residents can contract private trapping
companies to remove iguanas from their properties.
Will Marco Island ever get rid of all green
iguanas?
First reported in Florida in the 1960s in Hialeah,
Coral Gables and Key Biscayne, green iguana popula-
tions now stretch along the Atlantic Coast in Broward,
Martin, Miami-Dade, Monroe and Palm Beach coun-
ties and along the Gulf Coast in Collier and Lee coun-
ties, according to FWC's website.
Christopher Harlow, the city of Marco Island's first
iguana trapper from 2008 to 2010, said cities in South-
west Florida will never get rid of all invasive iguanas
and other invasive lizards. He works with the city of
Sanibel hunting invasive species such as Nile monitor
lizards.
"The iguanas aren't going anywhere. They are there
to stay," Harlow said.
Marco Island City Councilor Erik Brechnitz said
Wednesday he is not prepared to continue spending
city funds on an iguana removal program that is seem-
ingly not resolving the problem.
In 2019, Brechnitz was one of two councilors who
voted against spending additional money on the pro-
gram.
"I would like to find a more effective way in dealing
with them," Brechnitz said.
FWC does not have a current population estimate
for iguanas in Florida, but more than 5,000 green
iguanas have been reported in Florida since 2000, ac-
cording to a database of the Center for Invasive Spe-
cies and Ecosystem Health at the University of Geor-
gia.
"This data is not representative of the population as
a whole, but representative of the public who has tak-
en the initiative to report the sighting," Carol Lyn Par-
PARADISE FOUND
Page : A11
rish, public information director with FWC, wrote in an
email April 9.
Harlow, who taught Fermin how to hunt iguanas be-
fore Fermin started his own business, said iguanas
were not causing big problems on Marco Island in the
early 2000s.
"It really started kicking in when people started
seeing them," Harlow said. "They were on people's
docks and seawalls, pooping all over the place."
Harlow said he can hunt 60 to 70 iguanas each day
on Sanibel, double the amount that Fermin traps on
Marco, because the city of Sanibel allows him to use a
pellet gun while the city of Marco Island does not allow
Fermin to use one.
He said it is easier to use a pellet gun to hunt igua-
nas in Sanibel because he hunts them in a wooded
area, far away from people's houses.
The city of Sanibel suspended its $40,000-a-year
eradication program in March of last year because of
COVID-19's impact on its budget, The News-Press in
Fort Myers reported. The program was reinstated in
September.
Lee County set aside $25,000 in 2019 to combat a
growing green iguana problem on the island of Capti-
va, The News-Press reported.
"I don't blame them (city of Marco Island) because
they are looking out for their city, but if they really
want to get a hold of the iguanas, you got to use a pellet
gun," Harlow said.
Selmeski, the city's environmental planner, said
April 12 that the city doesn't allow their iguana trap-
pers to use pellet guns because of safety concerns.
"We just don't have a lot of space," Selmeski said.
Fermin said he safely uses his pellet gun to hunt
green iguanas in other cities like Cape Coral only when
he is absolutely sure there are not people nearby or
property that could be damaged by a ricochet. He said
the most effective way to hunt iguanas is to shoot them
in the head.
The first thing Fermin does when he arrives at a
property in Cape Coral is to call the non-emergency
police line to tell them his name, his location, what he
does, what car he is driving and how he is dressed, he
said.
He said calling the police before hunting iguanas
saved his life when someone called 911 to say there was
a man with a gun looking into people's houses,
prompting a police response. Officers suspected the 911
caller was referring to Fermin, he said.
"I could have gotten killed," Fermin said.
Fermin also said frustrated and untrained residents
many times use cheaper pellet guns, hurting the igua-
nas instead of killing them and causing them great suf-
fering.
FWC prohibits people from capturing or killing
iguanas by using leg-hold or body gripping steel traps
or by using gasoline, smoke, poison or other chemi-
cals.
"With the pellet gun that I have, I would never miss,"
Fermin said.
If you are a resident of the city of Marco Island and
would like to register your property in the city's iguana
removal program, go to https://www.cityofmarcois-
land.com/growth-management/webform/iguana-re-
moval-web-form.
PIONEER MARCO
Powered by TECNAVIA
MODERN MARCO