Dig down about four feet throughout the garden area. Fill with cement to ground height, then level. When dry, add planters full of artificial plants.

Really, there is NOTHING iguanas will not eat, and if they aren't hungry they'll dig everything else up for the fun of it. A couple of years ago I heard someone ask a well-known exponent of backyard farming what he recommends. There was a pause, then, "They taste like chicken and that's all I'm going to say."

He did also recommend a scarecrow, though, although he admitted there are limits to how well they work with iguanas, which can approach at any height if you have any trees anywhere near the garden.

On the plus side, folks I know in areas where the coyotes are moving in tell me that they eat iguanas in addition to cats and dogs.

Are they an invasive species there? If so then heres my thought:

I know this is probably an unconventional solution but I've heard that iguana (green iguanas, specifically) are very delicious due to their vegetarian diets.

yes, I would have them on the grill in short order! kind makes me wish they were here. they are supposed to be very tasty. i wonder if a single strand of electrified fence would help to keep them off the plants. anyone tried it before. it would suck to forget it's on and get zapped.

You could probably also trap them like we do opposums and raccoons then take them to your local animal shelter.

Your location is really important to know which course of action is appropriate.

Your location is really important to know which course of action is appropriate.

Just curious as to why. They're invading all of FL as far north as the cold won't kill them. I certainly don't know any place that will take them off your hands in the areas where they are established.

As a matter of fact, during the freeze of 2010 when people were getting hit by frozen iguanas falling out of trees, one city commissioner in one municipality pretty nearly destroyed her career by suggesting that the city set up a rescue center to revive them.

Since installing an electric line across the top of my garden fence there haven't been any raccoons or cats in the garden. Haven't seen an iguana around, but would expect that the line would keep them out also. I've touched it, and while unpleasant, it doesn't give much of a shock. Also have one about a foot up from the bottom circling the fence.

Writersblock, if they live in a location where the animals are native, then eradication is not a solution. I'm not advocating rescuing them or reviving their populations where they are an invasive species.

Not all of us live in the United States. You sure seem to make a lot of assumptions based solely on your own perspective.

"Accessible Gardening" is where it came up for me.

Animal shelters have the means to euthanize animals. I don't dispatch them myself.

I have the means to euthanize animals as well ... at least ones that I eat. So you think folks should trap them and take them to a shelter to be euthanized? I suppose that would be a good solution, but I'm not aware of that being a common practice. Hell 95% of people I know kill Florida, native, snakes at the drop of a hat with a shovel or whatever is on hand ... surely an iguana could be dispatched that way. Machete would be better I suppose.

Not all of us live in the United States. You sure seem to make a lot of assumptions based solely on your own perspective.

Sorry if it offends you, but I'm such a simpleton that if someone posts in the GW Florida Gardening forum, I assume they are asking about Florida. If not, I would expect them to post in Costa Rica gardening, or Texas gardening, or whatever, not here.

It's in the "Accessible Gardening" subforum. Houzz asks you to place it in up to 3 subforums. It may be in yet another, unmentioned forum as well.

Sharon, did you read my first post in this thread? I thought i was pretty clear on my position on invasive species.

laticauda said it originated in Accessible Gardening. Not sure how i stumbled upon the post, but i just replied thinking it was florida specific. either way ... iguanas are still a problem in florida.

thanks for clearing that up. i didn't realize if you posted there had to be more than one subforum selected.

no, i only saw the one on taking them to a shelter. sorry. i see the other one now.

i didn't realize if you posted there had to be more than one subforum selected.

There doesn't. You can choose up to three if you want to, and houzz chooses for you if you don't pay attention, which is why there are posts about african violet soil mixes in the bathrooms forum and other absurdities.

FWIW, on the gardens side of things a great many people still access the site through gardenweb which doesn't do this, so they never see any of those tags.

I'm not real sure how I got here either, to be honest. I thought I was in cacti and succulents! I use gardenweb.com and ever since houzz took over, it's been kind of mess, user interface-wise.

Sharon, sorry if I was a little rough with you. It was not my intention. I wanted to apologize privately but your private messages are disabled.

I thought I was in cacti and succulents!

Yeah, it's been pretty messed up ever since Houzz took over. As far as I can see they are trying to move away from actual separate forums to just using a tag cloud to separate and locate posts (a horrible, horrible idea).

FWIW, if you sign on from GW and manage to avoid the redirect to Houzz, many forums have far fewer posts, too, since things with houzz-only tags like polls and design dilemma don't usually show up in the GW format at all. Sigh.

no, that wasn't rough at all laticauda ... it's all good. :) i will figure out how to enable my private messages asap.

i know writer ... i know i don't like the new format either. guess it's geared towards selling things, and services, and being mobile ... so it gets so dumbed down so severely it's not user friendly anymore. i miss gardenweb too. :(

oy vey! someone tell me how to enable messages ... please! i see nothing under the message tab except messages. i see no option to enable it. sorry to post this here, but thought i could get help faster. oh yeah ... the new site is wonderful! (sarc)

someone pm'd me last week ... i see it in the list.

Sharon, are you in Houzz or Garden Web? From GW, select your profile, select edit profile, select advanced settings, way down at the bottom under privacy, select allow anyone to message me. It goes through GW and no one gets your email address.

oh lord who knows! lol yup ... garden web ... thought it was houzz. i'm not jewish, but oy vey already!

It would be in your privacy settings. You may have it so people only on some list (friends or something?) Can message you. It would be under "my houzz" I believe.

____________

Sorry for all the riff raff, OP. I know you just wanted to know how to keep iguanas from eating all your food.

Make sure you check allow anyone to message me. If you select allow only someone who follows me it won't be there for everyone.

ETA: You weren't there for me before, you are now. Click on my name and you will see message under my name on my home page.

thanks sherry! guess i didn't scroll down far enough.

yeah laticauda i had it set wrong. I wasn't the original poster. i would, seriously, just kill and eat them if they were on my property ... just like i'd kill and eat a feral hog. it would suck to have those things eating your garden ... just like it sucks having hogs tear everything up. the OP was Carl.

Carl, here are some ideas for you.

http://www.iguanainvasion.com/faq.html

So no real solutions eh, guys?! We are overrun here in south Florida by non native invasive no natural predators iguanas. I have lost so many fruit and veggie plants and trees to them. I’ve killed them myself and gotten others to get as many as they can and dispatch them. I’m going for hardware cloth and tulle as my next means of trying to keep them away because they are here to stay and the most we can do is deter them somehow.