Tips on Uninviting Iguanas to your Garden

I have a big, wooded backyard and have never really had an iguana issue. I know they are around, and I often see them crossing the road or climbing up the trunk of a palm tree.  According to Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission (FWC), iguanas spend their time in open areas such as sidewalks, seawalls and docks and leave feces scattered around, which may also be a source of salmonella bacteria. 

The green iguana (Iguana iguana) is one of the three members of the iguana family that is present in the South Florida landscape. Other iguanas are the Mexican spiny-tailed iguana and the black spiny-tailed iguana. The green iguana was a favorite of the pet trade in the late 1960s, but pet owners began releasing unwanted iguanas into the wild, where they quickly multiplied. 

This year, the iguanas have become very bold and are quickly advancing toward the vegetation closer to my house and pool deck. They are huge, some over five feet long from nose to the tip of the tail, and have a voracious appetite for anything green. It’s not just the adults as I discovered newborn bright green iguanas the size of a pencil defoliating a mature 10-foot Christmas cassia till there was nothing green left. 

Here are some of the tips, according to FWC, on how to discourage iguanas from your landscape.

• Protect valued plants or gardens with cages or screened enclosures. (I find this very impractical, costly and unattractive).

• Haze basking iguanas by spraying with a water hose until they leave the area or install a motion-activated water scarecrow sprinkler. (I did try this but wait, they love water!)  

• Create a wire fence barrier along seawalls or other sensitive areas on your property to prevent digging.  

• Make loud noises to startle iguanas and create an unwelcome atmosphere around your property. (Tried this – the iguana briefly left the vicinity only to come back once I left the backyard.)

Another tip is the use of a homemade spray of cayenne pepper, lemon juice and dish soap you put on the leaves of their favorite plants. The concoction may damage your plant.

From my observation, with so many choices in the typical South Florida landscape, iguanas have become very bold. Modifying your garden might work. Through trial and error, here are some of the plants in my landscape that I’ve removed to deter iguanas: hibiscus, ixora, pentas, periwinkles, herbs and garden vegetables.

In my backyard, iguanas have added the following to their list of favorites: Cassia plants and Hong Kong Orchid trees – they have nibbled both trees from the top down till there was nothing left. I planted passion vines, the host plant for the Gulf Fritillary butterfly, but this year the iguanas have decided to sun themselves stretched across the vine while chomping on the young leaves.

But you have choices. Here are some of the iguana-resistant plants in my landscape: crotons, jasmine-related plants, red and pink powder puffs, sweet almond, allamandas, plumerias, dune sunflower, bromeliads, yucca plants, panama rose, thryallis, chenille plants, copper leaf, dwarf Royal Poinciana, magnolia, pagoda plant, succulents such as prickly pears and herbs in the mint family. Luckily, they have not bothered the orchids and have stayed away from the mango, avocado and citrus plants.  

Be flexible with your choices of plants and be prepared to remove and replace vegetation. From trial and error, you are going to enjoy amazing colors and attract pollinators to your garden. Iguanas will visit but they will not do damage to your landscape.