Florida has had a few invasions by armies, including the British, Spanish and Yankees during the Civil War, and more recently, we get invaded by half a million Canadians who spend the winter here.

But this is about another kind of invasion of Florida, by invasive species from elsewhere in the world. Florida is a semitropical peninsula and is excellent habitat for hundreds of invasive species. Some ofthem have become so acclimated that they are everywhere in the state, like the Cuban tree frog and theCuban brown anole.

One of the invaders was actually invited in, the Cane Toad. It was thought that they could help deal with pests that were affecting the sugar cane crop in South Florida. Sugar cane was once the state’s main industry after citrus. That was before Walt Disney World invaded Orlando and attracted 60 million tourists a year. The cane toad is large, 6 to 9 inches and up to three pounds. That’s a big toad, and a rather ugly one, as well. They came from Central America. They can live 10 to 15 years. Cane toads are now native to South Florida. They eat insects, small birds, lizards, frogs and
toads, and when people leave pet food out for feral cats, cane toads will happily eat it. The toads are quite dangerous to any dog or cat—or anything else—that might attack them. They secrete a poison,
bufotoxin, on the skin of their backs. A dog that bites the toad may become very sick or even die. One weird use of the toad sometimes occurs: people in prison who find a toad may lick its back, because the
poison is also a powerful hallucinogen, apparently as good as LSD.

An immigrant from Africa is the Nile Monitor Lizard, which can get up to 6 feet long and weigh 17 pounds. They have gone native, probably after some grew too large for people to keep as pets and they were released into the wild. These big fellows currently are on the loose in southwest Florida. They eat birds, lizards, frogs, snakes, spiders, small mammals, birds and about anything that doesn’t eat back. They are not a danger to people, but might eat small dogs and cats. Monitor lizards can live to 40 years.

Another immigrant from Africa is the Giant African Land Snail, which can get up to 8 inches andbe the size of an adult man’s fist. They were brought to Florida by a kid from Miami in 1966, from Hawai’i. They had gone native in those islands, and the boy thought they would be a cool pet. His
grandmother released them in the backyard. They were finally eradicated by the early 1970s at the costof millions of dollars. They can live up to 9 years.
They were rediscovered in Florida in 2011, and probably came back from being released by a pet owner. The giant snails eat about any plant and find gardens to be tasty buffets. They need to obtain calcium to build their shells, and if they can’t find it anywhere else, they eat the stucco off the sides of houses and eat the paint off cars.

Another immigrant came from Burma, probably from being released into the wild by pet ownerswho discovered their pet snake was getting too big to handle. The Burmese Python has taken toFlorida’s Everglades and there are now tens of thousands of them. These snakes are very large, up to 20
feet long and 200 pounds. They eat birds, raccoons, possums, small alligators, turtles, other snakes, even deer. They are quite capable of killing and eating a small human, although there have not yet been any
fatalities. The pythons can live 20 years in the wild. Small pythons are eaten by alligators, but the big ones have no predators.

A rather more likable immigrant creature is the Green Iguana, which is found in Central America and many of the Caribbean islands. These fellows also seem to have been kept as pets and then either
escaped or been released to the wild. They can get fairly large, up to 5 feet long and 15 pounds or so. They can live 10 years in the wild. Iguanas figure in the cuisine of the Caribbean islands, so migrants toFlorida from the Islands may have them for dinner. The iguanas eat birds, bird eggs, small mammals, and carrion. They also like garden greens,
squash, melons, fruit and ornamental plants. A few iguanas can alter a carefully landscaped Florida lawn. They do not tolerate cold well so they range as far north in Florida as where frosty weather is uncommon.
If they experience a freezing snap, they fall out of the trees like large green fruits, but they are not dead.They go into a kind of stupor and recover when the cold snap is over—and cold snaps in Floridagenerally are over in 24 to 36 hours.

There are more than 500 different species that have invaded Florida and found this to be a goodplace to live. If you visit Florida and you see a bird, toad or lizard, there’s a fairly good chance it’s sort of
a tourist, too.

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