Frozen iguanas in your yard during South Florida cold snap? FWC will take them at 5 drop-off sites

Angie DiMichele, South Florida Sun Sentinel on Jan 31, 2026

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FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. — As South Florida prepares to see some of the coldest weather since 2010, the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission is allowing for the removal and transport of cold-stunned iguanas without a permit.

The agency signed an executive order Friday, due to the coming intense cold front, setting temporary regulations that allow people to take any live-but-immobile wild lizards from their property, or from another landowner’s with permission, and drop them off at five FWC sites on Sunday and Monday during set hours.

Near-freezing temperatures or below cause the iguanas to enter a “state of torpor,” FWC says, where they can appear “frozen” and fall out of trees. They can recover their movement faster than expected and become defensive.

Iguanas can be collected “using legal and humane methods,” the order says, and must be taken to one of the five FWC locations within 24 hours of capturing them and by no later than 4 p.m. Monday.

Collected iguanas must be kept only in breathable cloth sacks or bags “that are sealed shut throughout the duration of field collection activities” and that are “escape proof,” according to the order. Traps cannot be used on any properties managed by FWC.

The lizards will be humanely killed or transferred to permittees for live animal sales, FWC said in a news release Friday.

Staff will collect iguanas at the following sites in and near South Florida on Sunday from 9 a.m. to 12 p.m. and Monday from 8 a.m. to 4 p.m.:

—FWC Office, 10052 NW 53rd St., Sunrise, FL 33351

—FWC Tequesta Field Lab, 19100 SE Federal Highway (US 1), Tequesta, FL 33469

—FWC South Florida Regional Lab, 2796 Overseas Highway 119, Marathon, FL 3305

The other two sites are in Fort Myers and Lakeland.

Anyone planning to capture the invasive species should wear protective gloves, pants and long sleeves to guard against scratches. While transporting them to an FWC office, the bags should be secured in a second locked container labeled “prohibited reptiles,” FWC says, and taken immediately to the site.

Floridians can kill the invasive green iguanas humanely year-round on their property, but the order allows the possession of them without a permit, which is at all other times required in order to possess or transport the prohibited species.

An intense arctic cold front will move through South Florida beginning Saturday morning and move into the Florida Straits by Saturday night. Temperatures will quickly drop in the region on Saturday evening into early Sunday, with temperatures in the mid-to-upper 20s west of Lake Okeechobee and between 30 to 33 degrees over rest of interior areas, according to the National Weather Service Miami’s forecast. An extreme cold warning is in place for Palm Beach County.

While odds are “extremely low,” a few models indicate that there could be the potential for “a few flurries” west of Lake Okeechobee and parts of coastal southwestern Florida, the NWS Miami forecast says.

Metro and coastal areas of Broward and Miami-Dade counties will see temperatures in the mid-to-upper 30s late Saturday night, and there’s a 30% to 50% chance of freezing temperatures in metro parts of both counties, the NWS Miami says. A cold weather advisory is in place.