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Chris Harlow, city of Naples contracted iguana hunter, catches a green iguana in the Tigertail area Wednesday.

MARCO ISLAND — Iguana hunting may sound like a new sport, but for Chris Harlow it’s just another day at work.

The city of Marco hired Christopher Harlow’s Wildlife Removal Services, based out of Cape Coral, in October after receiving council approval to seek bids on iguana removal services. Harlow’s $7,500 contract is for catching as many iguanas as possible in the next six months. He comes to the island one day each week and if city officials find the program is successful, his contract may be extended.

Harlow is sent to places where the city receives the most complaints about the non-native reptiles.

He has been out for two eight-hour days so far in November and caught about 50 green iguanas. Although he says using a pellet rifle is most efficient, Harlow has been catching the iguanas using a nylon noose at the end of an extension pole.

While Harlow says catching and trapping iguanas is easy, many might find it more difficult. The iguanas have a third eye on the top of their heads, which is not fully developed.

“It’s like a motion sensor. When their other eyes are closed, when they’re sleeping in a tree, (the third eye) detects a shadow of a bird flying over instantly,” Harlow said.

Florida law requires the iguanas are killed once captured, said Nancy Richie, the city’s environmental specialist.

Harlow does this by slowly bringing the iguanas’ body temperature down. This puts the cold blooded creatures to sleep and they die once frozen.

Richies said she thought Harlow’s first day on the job was “very successful.” Harlow caught 17 iguanas primarily near Channel Court where resident Phil Kostelnik said he has suffered significant damage from a large iguana population defecating on his boat and all over his property.

Kostelnik said it’s a “serious problem.”

“If you catch one, they taste like chicken,” Kostelnik added with a smile at a September City Council meeting. He was one of several residents who requested the city address the issue.

While Harlow maintains the green and black spiny tail iguanas are not dangerous, the non-native, highly fertile iguanas do cause negative effects on the environment.

“They erode out seawalls, eat berries from exotics such as Brazilian pepper trees and then defecate the seeds spreading the exotics. Of course birds do that too, but what are you going to do, get rid of all the birds,” Harlow asks rhetorically.

Harlow said if he were to be reincarnated he’d want to come back as an iguana because they are so hardy. They can go for weeks without eating, have few if any local predators and have up to an 80 percent egg survival rate, he added.

Harlow also catches iguanas for the City of Cape Coral and the City of Sanibel. There he is catching the monitor lizards which are more aggressive and carnivorous. He often uses live animal traps baited with fruit to capture the green iguanas, but on Marco, he said he’s found the noose to be most successful so far.

“Eradication is not possible. What we are trying to do is control the population,” Harlow said.

Richie said the exact iguana population on island is not currently known, but complaints and sightings have continued to grow over the last three years.

“There is not an area of the island I haven’t heard or seen of an iguana,” she said.

Richie explained the problem with the iguana population is they breed when two years old and have at least 10 eggs that survive each year growing the population exponentially.

Harlow said iguana mating season begins in December and hopes it is not too cold. When it is chilly as it has been the last two weeks, the iguanas bathe in the sun and are a bit slower. When it is very cold for an iguana, such as 60 degrees, the iguanas burrow in sea walls and may be harder to find.

Richie supplied a tip of how to keep iguanas out of your pool. She said she learned it from a visit to Key West.

“Floating owls in pools seem to keep iguanas out,” she said.

Kostelnik said the iguanas are a “menace” and he has personally killed many of them. He estimated 75 iguanas live on the canal near is home on Channel Court.

Harlow has at least made a dent in the population there and caught at least two dozen in the Tigertail area Wednesday.

His largest iguana was nearly five feet long, but most are one to two feet in length. Harlow supplies Richie with a summary of his catches and will supply a full report with the “body counts” and other statistics to the city by May 15.

“I thought (Harlow) would be off to a slow start, but he told me he was ‘like a kid in the candy shop’ grabbing the iguanas off the seawalls,” Richie said.

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