IN THE SPOTLIGHT: No chum of the noxious Boca Grande iguana, Brian Ambrose
As one story goes, sometime in the 1980s, a man and his children grew weary of caring for their pet iguanas. They decided to visit the Range Light in Boca Grande and deposit the no-longer-loved pets in the sandy bushes there. Those iguanas have gotten their revenge – but on the wrong people. It has been generations of residents and visitors to the island that have had to pay for the unfortunate decision to release the iguanas into the wild.
Those three iguanas got busy, and were likely joined by other iguanas who heard Gasparilla Island was a great place to live. Today, the island is overrun by black spiny-tailed iguanas, causing costly destruction to local ecosystems, structures, biodiversity and landscaping.
They are voracious herbivores, feeding on a wide variety of plants, including native and ornamental species. Moreover, iguanas often outcompete native species for food resources, leading to a decline in biodiversity. Their burrowing habits can also undermine the structural integrity of sidewalks, seawalls and foundations, causing costly damage to infrastructure.
Enter Brian Ambrose. He is the primary iguana hunter on Gasparilla Island, working five days a week to rid the island of the critters and restore the island’s beauty and stability.
The story of how iguanas came to be a problem on the island comes from a study done by the University of Florida’s Institute of Food and Agricultural Science from December 2023. Iguanas are labeled as an “invasive species,” with the potential to cause illness and destruction. Their droppings contaminate docks, moored boats, seawalls, porches, decks, pool platforms and swimming pools. They not only smell incredibly bad and look terrible, but they can spread disease as well.
“I love this job,” Brian said – a surprising response, and not what most people would expect. It is a dirty job; he is in the heat all day and he is dealing with a creature that most islanders despise. “The stars aligned when I got this job!” He declared.
Brian sees his job as helping people. The result of his efforts is that the island stays beautiful. He dislikes the iguanas’ destruction, but even more, he likes being able to solve this problem.
“I moved here [Southwest Florida] about two years ago, just ‘cause I was sick of the cold, and was ready to move down here,” Brian said. He came here from the Chicago area. “I started doing boat detailing for the first two years I was here. Then I did some general contracting for a little bit, and then I found Iguana Control and I absolutely love it.”
He has been doing iguana control for about six months and he has already euthanized or removed some 1,400 iguanas, he said (yes, bragged). He noted that means he is getting 15 to 20 every day!
“I’ve only been here about six months, now I can’t see myself doing anything else. I love this job so much. It felt like I was here at a perfect time. The boss was looking for somebody; I was looking for a job … and the stars aligned. It’s really great.”
Brian is the only official person doing this work on the island – and the only Iguana Control representative on the entire West Coast of the state.
“People will sometimes do their own iguana control,” he said, and he has heard that there is a S.W.A.T. team that does some training on the island and uses iguanas for target practice.
“So I do get a little help here and there,” he conceded, but no one else is paid to be the “Iguana Guy” on Gasparilla Island. The contract for this work is with the Lee County Commission, under the auspices of the special taxing district, or Municipal Service Benefit Unit, known fondly on the island as the Iguana Board. Nevertheless, Iguana Control’s contract covers both Lee and Charlotte county territory on the island.
There are two aspects to Brian’s work. One is to respond to phone calls from private citizens. The other is self-directed, with Brian knowing where “hot spots” exist on the island.
“People call and sign up for me to go in their back yard, looking for signs of iguana problems. If I see any iguanas, I take them out,” he said. “Taking them out” means shooting them in the head with a pellet from an air gun. He explained this is the most humane way to eradicate these pests.
It is illegal to move the unwanted iguanas to another area in the state. He said moving them would only cause or worsen an infestation in another place. He is happy to educate residents and visitors on the problems iguanas cause and the way he works to free the area from their destruction.
Routinely, Brian spends the first part of his day visiting all the properties people have requested him to service. Once they call Iguana Control and make the request for help, Brian receives the details on an app on his phone. This is what he uses as the list of locations to visit. He visits those locations first, typically walks the grounds looking for evidence of iguana activity, eliminates iguanas he can find and sets traps where necessary.
By the way, bananas make the best bait to trap an iguana, Brian said. Other sweet fruits can be used, as well, but bananas are the best.
Once he has visited each property on his list, he is free to go to areas he knows are “hot spots” for iguana breeding. These could be on public land or open fields, for example. He is usually on the island every weekday, from 8:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. It can be a long, hot, busy day, but he is excited to do it.
“I just come out here and I’m in paradise all day,” he said. “It’s great.”
Asked if hunting iguanas on the island will ever eradicate the problem creatures, Brian said: “There are so many out there, we’ll never be able to get them all. But we’re going to be able to manage the population, and you’ll start to see fewer.”
Has he ever had a scare or a funny incident in his hunting the iguanas? “I had a couple charge at me after I shot at them,” he said, “I see a lot of black racers (snakes) out here, but no pythons or alligators so far,” he said. He mentioned that he has encountered lots of armadillos, but that’s about all.
Brian is 25 and believes this is the perfect job for him.
“I was just doing boring stuff in Illinois before I came here. I finished high school and was kind of coasting, trying to find my path, what I wanted to do,” he admitted. Finally, he decided to join his mother in North Port. She had lived here about four years before he joined her.
“Florida – I always wanted to live here,” he said. “I always wanted to be here. It just always seemed like paradise to me – it really is! I love it. I packed everything I owned and I drove down here, and that was it! I love fishing, and I have a Jeep, so I go out on the trails as much as I can – hunting and doing anything outdoors. Anything outside. I love being outside.”
He discovered that the Jeep community is very big in this area. This has led him to make lots of new friends, who have introduced him to new trails to explore. Many of them also like doing other things he enjoys, such as fishing, kayaking, hunting and other outdoor activities.
He lives on a canal, so he spends a good deal of his free time fishing there. He does not own his own boat, but he does have a kayak, which gets him out on the water a good deal. He sometimes carries his kayak when he comes to the island, so he can launch it off 19th Street and do some kayaking when he is done working. “See the dolphins and stuff,” he smiles.
Brian’s girlfriend, Cassidy Povazan, is also from the North Port area, and enjoys all of these outdoor adventures as well. She is a welder, by trade, and sort of specializes in making electronic bulls. Brian said she really likes the Jeep, and she is always buying things for him to make it more comfortable and fun.
“It’s a stick shift,” he adds, “so I taught her how to drive a stick. She loves that. It’s pretty cool. It’s awesome. She grew up here, so she’s lived here almost all her life. She’s from Pennsylvania, but moved here when she was seven.”
Having a big enough heart for many loves, Boca Grande already holds a big part of Brian’s affection.
“Even before I worked here, this is where I was coming on the weekends … every weekend, pretty much … I’m out here. I love it; it’s great. In town, the food’s awesome. The beaches are great. The shells, shark teeth – I love looking for sharks’ teeth. I have a giant collection of sharks’ teeth. This beach is awesome for it, there are so many miles of beach, so it’s great,” he enthused.
He went on: “I love this island. I love the community out here. Everybody’s so cool. I’ve never run into anybody who has a problem with what we’re doing out here. They hate the fact the iguanas are eating their flowers and digging up their sea walls and underneath their pool decks and all. They’re really happy I’m out here doing this. I love everybody here; they’re so cool. I enjoy it. I’m a people person, too, so I enjoy helping people, seeing the change. Some of those houses can go from having no flowers at all, to now it’s beautiful again. It’s just great.”
Another part of the job that is satisfying to Brian is what the company does with the dead iguanas. Disposing of so many carcasses can be a problem, in itself. The owner and founder of the company, Tom Portuallo, came up with a creative, positive and practical solution. He has created a secondary company called Iguana Chum. He transforms the iguana remains into a product that can be used by fishermen to attract fish. It is sold wholesale to bait shops, marinas and such. It is the only company that is making this product.
“It’s the whole circle of life … and gives it balance,” suggested Brian, feeling satisfied that he is part of a process of transforming a destructive situation into a positive benefit to many people. While Brian is contributing a lot of iguana remains to the process, his numbers would not be sufficient to support a business of this sort. But Brian is not the only “iguana guy” working for Iguana Control.
He is the only one in Southwest Florida, but Florida’s East Coast has a bigger team of iguana hunters on staff. He makes the trek over to Pompano Beach, where the company is headquartered, about once a month to meet with the other guys and turn in his catch.
The process of exterminating the iguanas and making them into chum was interesting enough to attract the producers of Mike Rowe’s broadcast program, “Dirty Jobs.”
Mike Rowe himself came to South Florida and hunted a few iguanas. He also toured the Iguana Chum production floor to learn more about how the chum is made. The show made it clear that iguana control is, indeed, a dirty job, but someone has to do it. There are copies of the program featuring Iguana Control and Iguana Chum on YouTube.
