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Wild iguanas are calling Anna Maria home

Wild iguanas are calling Anna Maria Island home

Written by Jason Schaffer on . Posted in Environment, Outdoors.

ANNA MARIA ISLAND – They’re not escaped pets, they are wild iguanas, and they are showing up more often on the Island.

And if the Island’s lizards seem a bit larger than they used to, that’s because they are. More and more residents and tourists are spotting the green iguanas on the Island. Some think they are cute; others find them to be quite scary looking, but one thing is undeniable; they are becoming a problem in South Florida, and very little is being done about it.

Burmese pythons, whose population has exploded in the Everglades, are well known to most Floridians. Many outside the state are following the efforts to eradicate these invasive animals, due to national press coverage. There even is a television reality show that follows a group of snake hunters who capture and kill the snakes and claim a bounty offered by the state of Florida based on the snake’s length and weight. While the pythons are now being found north of the Everglades, they are not an issue on Anna Maria Island.

But the same can’t be said for the green iguana. 

“In the ’90s, a hurricane came through – kind of the same thing with the pythons – and knocked down a breeding facility,” said Kaeli Dye, head keeper at Sarasota Jungle Gardens. “Also, people have released them as pets, and unfortunately, Florida is the perfect climate for an iguana; they love it here.”

Dye said the numbers are huge in Miami and the Everglades, but they are rapidly increasing farther north due to the Florida climate, which is very reptile-friendly. A lack of natural predators is also playing a large part in the rapid expansion of iguana territory. 

Unlike pythons, iguanas are vegetarians, and pose little direct threat to native wildlife, although they have been known to eat certain bird eggs, which could be a problem here on the Island. But this also could be one reason that removing them has not become a priority statewide.

However, they are voracious eaters and do seem to love flowers, decorative plants, garden plants and just about anything else put into the landscape. Plus, their burrowing can cause infrastructure damage to sea walls, docks, and anything else that could be structurally compromised by underground disturbances. They also move around with ease in the many canals along the coast, so expanding their territory is not the least bit difficult. 

Since they are much more exotic-looking than a common rat, many people have a hard time thinking of them as pests, but according to wildlife officials, they must be dealt with and humanely dispatched just like a rat or any other nuisance animal.

A bill banning the sale, breeding, import and ownership of green iguanas recently became law in Florida, although iguanas already owned as pets can still be kept.

And while authorities say this is a beneficial step, the statistics say we are at a point where it will probably require further action to even begin to reverse the population explosion. 

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Lovebugs are back for spring mating season

They’re called lovebugs, but nobody seems to love them

Written by Jason Schaffer on . Posted in Outdoors.

ANNA MARIA – Car washes love them; most everyone else finds them to be an incredible nuisance.

Twice a year, Anna Maria Island is invaded by a tiny flying pest known to science as Plecia nearctica, but better known to Floridians as the lovebug, and it’s once again time for them to show themselves.

Sometimes called the double-headed bug or honeymoon fly, most people know these creatures simply as the lovebug. They don’t actually have two heads, although at first glance it certainly appears so. A male and a female remain attached, even in flight, for up to several days after mating. Lovebugs don’t bite or sting, and are not a health risk to humans, but their enormous numbers do cause real problems during mating season, which occurs late April into May, then again in late August into September. 

“They’re not native to here, they’re native to Central and South America. They migrated to the Gulf states to mate. The Florida heat is perfect for them,” said Kaeli Dye, the lead keeper at Sarasota Jungle Gardens. “They’re not considered an invasive species, they don’t do damage to crops, or cause damage to local wildlife, they’re just annoying,” added Dye. 

The one thing the love bugs can damage is your car. Because of the massive numbers of these flying annoyances, getting them stuck to your car is inevitable. When alive, the bugs have a neutral acidity, but once they are dead and stuck to your car, their acidity drops to around 4.5pH, making them very acidic. This means that if left on the car’s surface, they can cause paint damage, and also be difficult to remove after only a few hours. Lovebugs can also clog filters and intake systems on cars, so it’s best to wash them off as soon as you can. 

“They love white surfaces, so it may not be a great idea to wear white during mating season,” said Dye. Other things that seem to attract these pests include freshly painted surfaces, shiny metallic surfaces and hot asphalt. At the peak of mating season, it is virtually impossible to avoid them, and there isn’t much any pest control company can do to get them out of your way. The best that can be hoped for is dry weather, which can cause fewer eggs to hatch. 

Some seasons are worse than others, and some areas see higher concentrations than others. There is little that can be done to predict exactly when and where lovebugs will appear in the highest concentrations. Since they only live a few days after breeding, the only certainty is that they will be gone by summer.