Are iguanas plauging your backyard and your pool? You’re not alone. Iguanas are a huge nuisance here in Florida and other subtropical areas of the United States. As a non-native, invasive species, they have no natural predators to keep their populations in check and, surprise surprise, they love swimming in swimming pools!
What could be worse than iguana’s swimming in your pool you ask? How about Iguanas defecating in your pool? Well apparently they love to do that! They love crapping in pools. Oh, and many of them carry the salmonella virus.
So besides the obviously grossness of having Iguanas swimming in your pool, there are also serious health and safety issues to worry about.
Read on to see how you can keep your pool, yard, and sanity safe from the epidemic of freeloading lizards.
Ways To Keep Iguanas From Invading Your Pool and Yard
1. Fill Iguana Holes As Soon As You Find Them
Iguanas are diggers and also nest underground. They particularly love digging around sea walls and can do major damage to them over time. Whenever you see a hole fill it up with rocks so they can’t dig it back out. The last few inches can then be covered with soil and sod. Iguanas won’t be able to dig through the rocks and will have to make a new hole (ideally in your least favorite neighbors yard).
2. Pick Up Any Fallen Fruits In Your Yard
If you have a fruit tree in your yard, make sure you pick up any fruit that falls as soon as you can. Iguanas absolutely love the smell of ripe fruit like mangos and avocados. It’s like frickin’ catnip for iguanas. The easier the fruits are to get to the more likely the iguanas are to stake a claim on your yard and take a nice swim in your pool. They’ll happily climb trees to get ripe fruit to, which is why you should also…
3. Install Sheet Metal Around Trees
Iguanas love to chill out in trees during the day, and particularly love fruit trees. You’ll know they’re up there by the delightful gifts they drop down into your yard after they eat all your fresh fruit.
To prevent them from climbing, wrap your tree trunks in a section of sheet metal that’s about 12 inches tall and placed about 18 inches from the base. Because they won’t be able to dig their claws into this they won’t be able to climb past the slippery metal.
4. Landscape Using Plants That Iguanas Don’t Eat
One of the main reasons why you’ll find iguanas in you yard is the plants you use for your landscaping. Iguana’s absolutely love certain types of decorative tropical plants such as bougainvillea, hibiscus, and many others. Getting rid of your beautiful hibiscus flowers may be painful, but it’s a good way to make your yard less inviting to iguanas. Our family has a number of papaya and moringa trees in our yard that have been absolutely devastated by Iguanas.
5. Put Toy Iguanas In Your Neighbors Yard
This will lure them into their yard instead of yours. Ok you shouldn’t really do this. Unless you really don’t like your neighbors. In which case you totally should do this.
6. Use Iguana Repellant Spray
Want to get ride of iguanas naturally? There are many products on the market now that claim to deter iguanas. Although users report very mixed results from sprays, they do have the potential to be an easy low-cost method of keeping iguanas away. Since these only repel iguanas and don’t actually poison them, you won’t have to worry about finding smelly dead iguanas after you use it.
It’s best to spray the repellent in areas iguanas frequent most, such as around your pool or around plants they tend to eat. Try not to get the spray directly on plants though, as it can be harmful to some of them. Naturally, you should also keep it away from dogs and cats since it often contains things like hot pepper extracts..
One of the most popular iguana repellant sprays available is Iguana Gone. It’s an easy to apply, all-natural iguana repellent that’s safe since it has no harmful chemicals or pesticides. You can buy Iguana Gone on Amazon.
- It really works and is completely safe
If you click this link and make a purchase, we earn a commission at no additional cost to you. Last update on 2023-09-09
7. Scare Them Away With Loud Noises Or Music
Your neighbors may not love this idea, but iguanas tend to not like loud noises. You might want to consider leaving your stereo playing outside if you’ve got a persistent iguana that won’t stay away.
8. Keep The Yard Clean
Thick, overgrown vegetation is an excellent place for iguanas to hide during the heat of the day. Likewise, any dead plant life such as fallen palm fronds should be removed as soon as possible. Anything that will provide shade could be a nice hiding place. Try to keep your yard as tidy as possible so iguanas have nowhere to hide out.
9. Hang Wind Chimes
You might love the sound of wind chimes, but apparently Iguanas don’t so many people have found them helpful for keeping the lizards away.
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10. Baiting & Trapping Them
Trapping iguanas and relocating them is one sure way to get them out of your area.
Iguanas are active during the day, so you’ll want to set the traps during the day and close them up at night time. If you don’t close them, you’ll wind up accidentally catching raccoons, cats, and other nocturnal animals.
Check the traps at least every 12 hours to avoid trapping and animal and letting it suffer in the high temperatures. You can also cover the traps with branches or something else to make the trap less conspicuous to the animals. For bait, use ripe fruit such as bananas, mangoes, strawberries, grapes, or papayas. Don’t use citrus as it seems to be one of the only fruits they don’t like.
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Once you’ve caught one, you can call animal control to have it picked up and relocated or euthanized. In Florida, it’s also permissible to kill the animals as long as you do so in a way that isn’t considered cruel if they animal isn’t killed quickly and humanely you can absolutely be arrested and put in jail.
Don’t have the stomach to trap and possibly kill iguanas? You can also…
11. Hire A Wildlife Trapper
The proliferation of iguanas has brought with it a huge market for iguana removal services. If you search google you will find TONS of companies that have been started to help get trap and remove iguanas.
If you live in Florida like our family does, you can also find trappers on MyFWC.com and searching “trappers by county” and clicking “Nuisance Wildlife Trappers”.
12. Spray Them With The Hose
When you see iguanas in your yard, a good way to get them away (at least for the moment) is to give them a good strong spray with the hose or a water bottle with a sprayer on it.
They’re persistent animals, so they’ll likely be back soon – but if you consistently annoy them enough like this they may eventually find another yard to hang out in.
13. Don’t Leave Food Outside Unattended
Don’t ever leave food outside where a curious iguana can find it. If you leave your delicious fruit salad by the poolside while you run inside a few minutes, you might come out to find an iguana chowing down on your food.
Iguanas are mostly herbivores, but it’s best not to leave any food out since the scent might draw them in to check it out. After eating make sure that no food has been dropped and also, pick up food that may have fallen on the ground due to pets or children.
14. Don’t Leave Cat or Dog Food Outside
If you leave food out for your pet, there’s an excellent chance you’re also luring iguanas to your yard for a buffet. Instead, feed your dog or cat inside the house.
15. Use Cages, Wire, Netting and Screen Around Plants
Use cages, chicken wire, or screen enclosures to protect valuable plants that iguanas like to eat. Wire netting, screens, or cages will all deter iguanas from eating your plants and shrubs and will make your yard less inviting overall. The screens and netting will become less noticeable as the plants grow but it will continue to deter the buggers.
16. Keep Your Trash Can Covered
Just like raccoons, iguanas are opportunists and will dig into your garbage for food if you leave them open. Always keep a tight fitting lid on your garbage can. Some iguanas have even been known to remove trash can covers, so if you suspect this is happening it may be a good idea to put something heavy on top as well.
17. Use Motion-Activated Sprinklers To Pester Them
As with the hose, motion activated sprinklers are an excellent way to annoy iguanas and keep them out of your yard.
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If you click this link and make a purchase, we earn a commission at no additional cost to you. Last update on 2023-09-08
18. Don’t Feed The Iguanas
This probably doesn’t need to be said, but you should never feed the iguanas. Not even the cute baby ones. They will absolutely come back and you will eventually regret it. Iguanas are not your friend, they just want to eat your food and crap all over your yard.
19. Keep Your Pool Covered When it’s Not Being Used
While this method may not be the easiest, keeping your pool covered when you aren’t using it is definitely a sure fire way to keep iguanas from swimming in it.
Wrapping Up
Iguana’s are hardy creatures and can be difficult (but not impossible) to keep away from your precious pool and yard.
You may find that you have to try several of these methods together before iguanas finally get the hint that they’re not welcome to freeload at your place.
Now go get those scaly invaders! You can do this!
*BONUS* Can Iguanas Swim In Pools?
Yes, they absolutely can and they love doing it.
In case you need any more proof that Iguana’s like swimming, here’s a video of Iguanas fighting and swimming and totally freaking some people out.