They get to be five feet long? Yowza. I have seen quite a few of the anoles running round here.
And a few weeks ago I saw a turtle crosing the road at my apartment complex.
You’re too funny, UncleBill.
The Nile monitor page of the Florida Fish & Wildlife Comission.
The exotics (of all varieties) home page.
There are 46 exotic reptiles in Florida in various states of becoming established.
I think we need a top-shelf recipe book for “invading species.” Encourage folks to help control 'em, and all.
(Of course, I’ve also idly considered the use of tactical nukes on fire-ants, so I may not be the best person to expound on this.)
I’ve eaten reptile (alligator, rattlesnake), it tasted like bland chicken.
On fire ants, I use hand-to-hand combat now. Just use a long rod or wire to poke the nest until you kill the queen, and seriously piss off the nest (heh heh). When you start turning up eggs, you’re on the right track. Then drown the nest with water just to be sure. Rinse, repeat. The chemicals sometimes work, sometimes don’t.
How many bites do you get in the process? Are you protected with metal armor?
Open up a hunting season on them as a ‘varmint’, year long… no limit. I bet you there’d be plenty of folks who’d go out with .22s and plink lizards all weekend. Do they make nice boots?
Depends… For them thar big ass monitors? You could prob’ly git a decent set o’ boots from one o’ them.
Now, them little brown anoles, on t’other hand… Ye’d need to bag ‘n’ skin about eighty or ninety o’ the little buggers f’r a pair o’ boots.
And that’s only provided ye hunt ‘em with a toothpick, or mebbe a sewin’ needle. Puttin’ big holes in ‘em with, oh, a .22, let’s say, ‘n’ ye’d need to harvest somewheres in the neighborhood o’ two or three thousand.
Yes, the biting. That is the drawback inherent to my cunning plan. No matter, as during the hotter months (What’s that, nine months a year?) I get bitten by about four fire ants a day just gardening. If you use a long rod and stand a few feet away you probably won’t get bitten until they climb all the way up the rod. I like to let them get right up to my hand before I tap the rod and watch them plunge the equivalent distance of a human falling hundreds of stories, whereupon they get back up and continue attacking like little zombies. Anyway, it’s common knowledge ants are tough little bastards.
Don’t use anything the ants can get a good grip on, and use something at least three feet long. Smooth metal is good. Don’t underestimate the effect of step two: the Great Flood Technique. That one also helps get the soil back into place.
detop Florida does have the spectacled caiman, alligator, and crocodile. Komodos would be shot in droves, I’m afraid. Aquatic reptiles thrive in Florida moreso than land based ones.
Y’all, I reckon a .22 is a bit too much gun for one ah them a-noles. Do they make .22 snake shot? 
Quoth Jay Leno:
The good news is the lizards can only move at 2 mph. The bad news is most Florida residents can’t get over 1 mph.
I don’t know. According to old Irwin Allen movies and TV shows, monitors seems to have a 50-50 chance against crocodilians
Only if the Croc’s handicapped by a big ole fin on his back.
[A serious interlude]
Beagle, I don’t have a handy cite, but .22 snake shot is indeed available, somewhere. Buddy of mine used to live in CA, and he used it when he went out to goof off with his ATV.
[/interlude]
OT: When I was living in Orlando, I used gasoline as my “final solution” for fire ants. Poured it down the mound, stood back, and threw a match. Generous servings of Andro kept them from returning.
My backyard was filled with little geckos, which would occasionally make their way into the house. I didn’t mind, because they’d eat creepy crawlies, and my dogs were kept busy watching them.
See, this is all the reason we need to put Cape Coral out of its misery.
Actually, let’s just take care of all of Lee County while we’re at it. (Excepting my home, of course. See screenname.)
Hey, I have friends in Lee County. Let’s evacuate them and then put Lee County out of it’s misery.
Aren’t we going to have any Australians checking in, saying “Pah, you call that a giant lizard?, now back in Oz we have something called the byu-byu-gwai-gwai…”
??
Would piranha fish (from the Amazon River) find comfortableliving conditions in Florida?
Now THAT would make headlines! “12-year old killed, eaten by fish in Florida pond”
Next time, try alcohol. Hot enough fire + less environmental hazard.