Michael Ronquillo: Inside Florida's Invasive Iguana Problem

Tom Rowland Podcast — Episode 897: Michael Ronquillo

In this episode: iguanas that arrived "in the nineteen sixties through the pet trade market," burrows that "could reach up to 70 feet long," "$1,800,000 in damages" to a West Palm Beach dam, hunting at night with pellet rifles, and an offer of scrambled iguana eggs — in the exact words spoken.

00:00 · Cold Open

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Michael Ronquillo: That's when they when they get to a point that they they can't hold anymore and they can't find a good spot, they just pretty much just blow up and just let them all out. Gotcha. My name is Michael Ronquillo from Mini one and Control, and this is a Tom Norton podcast. Hey, Michael. What's happening? Nothing much, man.

Tom Rowland: Alright.

Michael Ronquillo: I'm glad

Tom Rowland: to have you here.

Michael Ronquillo: Thank you, man. I'm great to be here. Happy to be here.

03:04 · An Iguana Invasion in South Florida

Tom Rowland: Busy busy. So you have kind of a an invasion in South Florida of iguanas. Yeah. And that's your specialty?

Michael Ronquillo: Yeah. They're pretty much everywhere.

Tom Rowland: Yeah. Tell me about iguanas. What, so everybody knows pretty much it that that lives in Florida, but we've got we've got people from all around the world that listen to this podcast. And so give us a little background about iguanas. They're invasive to South Florida. Where are they from? Where do they come from?

Michael Ronquillo: So iguanas are originally from, Central And South America. You know, they came here, like, in the nineteen sixties through the pet trade market. You know, they, they would sell them as pets, and people buy them, you know, nice and small. And when they got too big, people will release them, into the wilds. You know? And ever since then, they've just been reproducing like crazy and just pretty much taking over South Florida.

03:49 · Mating Season, Dozens of Eggs, and 70-Foot Burrows

Tom Rowland: Wow. And so reproducing like crazy, like, tell me about their their, they lay eggs. Right? An iguana?

Michael Ronquillo: Yeah. Yeah. Typically, the mating season's between October to, December roughly, and they start breeding January, February, March, April, maybe sometimes even up to May to lay their eggs. And female iguanas will lay anywhere between, you know, five, ten, up to 70 eggs at one time Wow. You know, in their burrows.

Tom Rowland: Wow. And so they they always dig to lay their eggs in a in a hole?

Michael Ronquillo: Yeah. Typically, they'll they'll they'll find, like, soft areas to dig their burrows, which could reach up to 70 feet long to lay their eggs, you know. But sometimes you might get a rare occasion of, you know, you want us laying eggs in random places. Like, we've had situations of, you want us laying eggs on their on their cars or on or behind an AC unit. You know, I guess that's that's when they when they get to a point that they they can't hold anymore and they can't find a good spot, they just pretty much just blow up and just let them all out. Gotcha. Yeah.

Tom Rowland: And so, these, like, what you're doing is you're you're getting calls from a homeowner or a resort or someplace that they don't want iguanas, and they call you to come in there and get them. And you're doing it in a way where you're trapping them. Is that what's what the main method you're using?

Michael Ronquillo: Yeah. You know, we'll get calls from from pretty much anybody that that lives in South Florida. We'll get calls from, homes, schools, businesses, associations, even cemeteries as well. You know, what's happening is the ones will will start reducing on their properties. They'll start eating other plants. They'll start defecating around their pool, and pretty much is causing a lot of damages, you know, to homeowners and and and properties in general.

Tom Rowland: Man, I I well, I've seen it, and it's, it's it's severe. But not everybody knows about it. Like, if you live in the Midwest or or California or something, you might not necessarily know about the iguana problem. But we're gonna we're gonna start talking about much much more about iguanas, but we have something that we do here called the hot seat where we ask you a bunch of different questions to get to know you a little bit better. They're kinda either or questions, fast paced. So here you go. Are you ready?

Michael Ronquillo: Yeah. I'm ready.

05:49 · Hot Seat: Pellet Guns, Lone Wolves, and Would You Own a Reptile?

Tom Rowland: Alright. We're in Olympic year. So Winter Olympics or Summer Olympics?

Michael Ronquillo: Summer Olympics.

Tom Rowland: Freshwater or saltwater?

Michael Ronquillo: Saltwater.

Tom Rowland: Drive or fly?

Michael Ronquillo: Drive.

Tom Rowland: Chocolate or vanilla?

Michael Ronquillo: Chocolate.

Tom Rowland: Text or call?

Michael Ronquillo: Text.

Tom Rowland: Favorite social media platform?

Michael Ronquillo: I'll say Instagram.

Tom Rowland: Would you rather have a million now or 10,000,000 later?

Michael Ronquillo: 10,000,000 later.

Tom Rowland: One thing you've learned in the last year that's made you money?

Michael Ronquillo: Learning how to optimize websites, you know, to get stuff going with my marketing guy and and growing my business.

Tom Rowland: Nice. K. The most challenging thing about removing iguanas?

Michael Ronquillo: Dealing with, stubborn clients that don't understand the process of removing invasive iguanas.

Tom Rowland: K. The easiest thing about removing iguanas?

Michael Ronquillo: Using a pellet gun.

Tom Rowland: Yeah. Okay. That's that's good. A mute a movie that makes you laugh.

Michael Ronquillo: Oh, Alden Carey. Everyday, all day.

Tom Rowland: Okay. Now this one is particularly interesting to me for this one. I ask this to every guest. Would you have a reptile as a pet?

Michael Ronquillo: I do I I wouldn't. I haven't thought. Is that how you guys started with with iguana removal because you're so comfortable around them or you like them? Or honestly, you know, I it's hard to believe, but I actually love all reptiles, you know, snakes, lizards, you know, I find them super fascinating. Mhmm. I love iguanas, which is hard to believe, you know, but they're causing so much damage to our ecosystem and our native species that if we don't do anything about it, they're gonna keep, you know, causing more damages, you know, and they're gonna impact our native species worse than they already are. Kinda just like the lionfish and the Burmese python.

Tom Rowland: Yeah.

Michael Ronquillo: You know, if we don't do something, it's just gonna get worse. You know? So

Tom Rowland: Right. We've had so many different podcasts on both of those plat or or both of those topics of the, lionfish and the and the python. We had several python hunters on here too. So, it's definitely interesting. One thing you've changed your mind on in the last two years?

Michael Ronquillo: When did I change my mind on? Well, that's a good one.

Tom Rowland: Maybe you hadn't.

Michael Ronquillo: I'm sorry?

Tom Rowland: Maybe you haven't changed your mind.

Michael Ronquillo: Yeah. I don't think I have, to be honest. I I've been I've been going just straightforward. You know? I haven't stopped. Okay. I haven't turned back.

Tom Rowland: Alright. Would you think that mindset is more important or skill set is more important?

Michael Ronquillo: I would say mindset in my opinion. You know, to have a good mindset, you know, I think it'll take you to far places.

Tom Rowland: Okay. Would you think that it's better to have a wide range of shallow shallow knowledge or deep knowledge in a narrow field?

Michael Ronquillo: I think deep knowledge, in my opinion.

08:28 · AI, Website Content, and a 'Sketchy, Scary Topic'

Tom Rowland: Okay. And then we have been toying around with artificial intelligence and and asking what what ways do you think that artificial intelligence is gonna change the world in the next five years?

Michael Ronquillo: Honestly, to me, it's a very sketchy, scary topic. Yeah. Yeah. AI could be used, you know, in in in in good ways and in bad ways. You know, like, we'll typically use it for, like, research purposes. You know, it's kinda the same thing as, you know, googling something. Mhmm. But we'll use AI to help us, you know, get the answers faster to help our job, and much faster process to get to where we need to be faster. But, I mean, I want to be very careful the way you utilize artificial intelligence.

Tom Rowland: Right.

Michael Ronquillo: I'm not one for myself for, like, green cameras in my house or Alexa's in my house. That's just me, you know, because I feel like they're always listening, so I'd rather just keep my privacy to myself.

Tom Rowland: Yeah. Me too. There's there's a new, AI search that is being, I think ChatGPT is is going head to head with Google starting Monday. They're releasing their their AI enhanced search, And, it's a big deal because, I don't know, it's hard. You don't really mess with Google, unless you're ready to go to war. But, apparently, they I well, the article I read was it was a declaration of war, between the two companies because, like, Google's probably like, you know, it's cool. You can do all that until you start messing around in this area. And then when you get in this area Yeah. I I

Michael Ronquillo: get going. My I was talking to my marketing guy about this, you know, and because I was using a little bit of AI to help me write a bit of content here and there. And I noticed that, you know, it's not really such a good idea to use AI for, you know, writing content due to the fact that Google Google will notice these things, and it can impact your website, you know, which would just reverse you, you know, optimization wise. You know, it'll bring you back bring you back down on ranking. So it's always good to, you know, write original stuff.

Tom Rowland: Yes. I think you're exactly right.

Michael Ronquillo: I would use it. You know, I'll write my own stuff, and I'll ask AI to help me check it. You know, make sure everything's proper, you know, proper pronunciations just to get a head start instead of me having to go through each word, each sentence, make sure I didn't miss anything. But then it will change some words around, and I know Google is starting to notice those things which can impact, you know, your business.

Tom Rowland: Yes. And and wait until Monday. Then it's really gonna then it's really gonna go to war. Okay. College football or pro football?

Michael Ronquillo: Pro football.

Tom Rowland: Okay. Are you a lone wolf or a team player?

Michael Ronquillo: I'm a lone wolf.

Tom Rowland: Okay. And, one last question. Do you have a quote that you think of often?

Michael Ronquillo: A quote that I think of often? You know, I don't know the exact quote I can remember now, but, you know, through God, everything is possible.

11:09 · Why South Florida Is Iguana Paradise

Tom Rowland: Okay. Love it. Awesome. So back on iguanas, so we have this infestation. That's really what it is in in South Florida. And I'm assuming that that is because the the temp the climate, the food, the it's got everything that they need. So in their native habitat, do they have predators that we don't have here?

Michael Ronquillo: I'm pretty sure that there are I don't know the exact predators they have over there, but, you know, the part the problem is that, our climate and our pretty much all our resources is very favorable to them. You know, our climate is just perfect for them, you know. And when they're in other parts of the of the world, you know, there's a lot more, predators than they have here. Remember, a lot of you fund them you fund a lot of you want us in urban areas in South Florida.

Tom Rowland: Mhmm. And

Michael Ronquillo: he wants us to thrive because there's very few predators. You know, they'll have owls, snakes, raccoons, foxes here and there, you know, alligators, crocodiles. But once they want us moving to urban areas, like, into neighborhoods, you know, there's very few predators. The only predators they have will be, like, cats, dogs, and humans. You know? So they have a really good possibility of just thriving and reproducing like like crazy.

Tom Rowland: Yeah. Plus a three hundred and sixty five day growing season, I would imagine.

Michael Ronquillo: Pretty much.

Tom Rowland: And maybe that's not what they have over the where they come from. But is there a have you noticed that there's a a northern boundary line that you know of?

Michael Ronquillo: You know, I I've done research before. They've I've read that they've spotted iguanas all the way up to Tallahassee. You know, I'm pretty sure not in large numbers, but there has been a couple of sightings here and there of iguanas. But the problem is that when winter comes up there, it's much colder than it is a little bit, you know, further south to us. So they have a less chance of, you know, surviving up there than they do down here. When we get a cold snap down here, you know, they will freeze up for, you know, a couple hours. But once the sun comes out, you know, they'll pretty much defrost and keep going about their day. A lot of people have a misconception is that when the cold front comes and they fall, that means they die, and that's that's not true. You know, he wants our cold blooded reptiles, so they need heat to survive. So when people find any water outside frozen and they wanna be nice and bring them inside, you know, they're very much surprised because when they didn't wanna defrost, you know, it's gonna it's gonna be a fun, adventure inside your house.

Tom Rowland: Yeah. I would imagine. And and I would imagine that some people do wanna bring them in and and warm them up because they feel sorry for them. But, so, when you're when you're getting calls, what are the types of damage that that the iguanas are doing mostly? What I mean, I would assume that, like, one of the things I was noticing on your on your Instagram when I was looking at it is that, you know, when when iguanas start getting in your boat and and in in South Florida, a lot of people have really nice boats, and some of those boats cost more than the house they live in. And they're really, really nice boats. And so all of a sudden, iguana starts getting in the boat that now there's now we have a problem. Like, we we need to get this taken care of. And you're installing the clear plastic on the on the dock pilings, but they could still, like, climb across the rope and and get in the boat. But other than just getting in the boats and being around the boats and pooping everywhere, that I know that iguanas will do a lot of damage to seawalls and other things, but what what are the, like, the major, most expensive damage that that iguanas are doing that people need to get rid of them as quickly as possible?

14:15 · $1,800,000 in Damage to a West Palm Beach Dam

Michael Ronquillo: You know, it it it really varies depending on on the situation. You know, to me, the the main main problem is their burrowing activities. You know, you want us to dig, like I mentioned earlier, burrows to lay their eggs, you know, and these burrows could reach 70 feet long with time with interconnecting tunnels. And what happens with time is when when it rains or sprinklers or, you know, any water runoff, those, burrows will start, eroding, causing, you know, everything around it to erode. You know, we've seen seawalls collapse. You know, that's an easy $60.70, $80,000 in in repairs. You know, when you look down between the seawall and the grass, you see huge holes, and you can see the the the the saltwater, you know, underneath those those seawalls.

Tom Rowland: Mhmm.

Michael Ronquillo: So to me, that's one of the major concerns on beach maybe you've read, the article there, the it was digging burrows under a dam in West Palm Beach.

Tom Rowland: Really? No. I haven't heard that.

Michael Ronquillo: Yeah. Because 1,800,000 in damages.

Tom Rowland: What? So

Michael Ronquillo: So imagine, like, $1,800,000 in damages from iguanas. You know? It's it's a big problem.

Tom Rowland: So do they call you? Who do they call? What do they do when they when when it's a government project like that and or a state project, who do they call? Do they do they rely on outside contractors like yourself, or do they have government people that come in?

Michael Ronquillo: Yeah. So typically, when there's a a county job, let's say, like, let's say, Miami Dade County, they'll put out bids. So all they want are mobile companies in South Florida. If they're in the pool or they get a whiff of it, they'll go into those bids and put in their price to, you know, pretty much go and remove the walls from the whatever area they wanna, you know, eradicate them from.

15:37 · The Worst Infestation: 51 Iguanas and a Jurassic Park Theme

Tom Rowland: Mhmm. What does an infestation look like? What's the worst you've ever seen?

Michael Ronquillo: Oh my god. If you go on my Instagram, page, I I actually posted a video of,

Tom Rowland: Tell tell them what your Instagram page is.

Michael Ronquillo: It's a Humani Wanna Control.

Tom Rowland: Okay. I'm looking at it right now.

Michael Ronquillo: Yeah. There's a one, real update I put I think it was last week. I actually had the Jurassic Park, theme song behind it. It. Man, there's, like, 51 us. So I do this property, have an empty lot next door. You know? There's no construction. There's no home. There's nothing. So this is just free range for you. And if you look at the video, you'll see. If you if you really look into it, you can't see all the you want us. There's, like, 50 in this one property, and they're just thriving. You know? That's just come out, eat, poop, reproduce, you know, replay, replay, replay. And what happens with those you want on on these lots that we're producing, you know, once they leave from the spot, they'll just go into the next properties and the next properties, the next properties. You know? So every time we see something like that, we try to contact the association to let them know, hey. Look. This is empty lot. You know? Can we can we can we somehow get the owner's information to help them, you know, remove as you want us? Because they're digging burrows. They're eating, you know, all the plants are on the property, and it's it's pretty it's really, really bad. Really bad.

16:43 · Traps Baited With Bright Fruit

Tom Rowland: And so in a situation like that, what's the most effective way to get rid of them?

Michael Ronquillo: Honestly, the most effective way would once they allow us to get on the property, you know, in a situation like that, we will set up some traps. You know, we have these, repeating traps that we use. I actually made some custom ones. I got some of my old traps. I made them a lot larger. I welded them together. I put hinges on the doors that has about between four to six doors, but they could go in multiple multiple ways. So we will set up two or three of those around there. And while we're there, we'll just, you know, use our air pellet rifle to, you you know, remove the iguanas Mhmm. Which is legal. You know? The FWC, says it's, you know, it's from the legal ways and the most one of the most humane ways to get rid of iguanas as long as you're doing a humane manner.

Tom Rowland: Yeah. And but the trapping, what what do you put in the trap to to make them go in there? Because they got so many other places to go, and they're super happy. So what do they Yeah. What do they wanna get in the trap?

Michael Ronquillo: Yeah. Typically, you know, we'll use fruits. It's pretty simple. You know, we use any bright color fruit that you put inside the traps, they'll they'll call their attention because the deer are really attracted to the colors. That's why they like eating, bougainvillea plants Mhmm. Hibiscus plants, orchids. You know, they'll see the colorful plant, and then they'll go towards those plants. So what we'll do is, you know, we'll we'll try to get to, fruits inside these traps, you know, in different places inside the trap so they can go in and start eating them. And we'll also what we'll try and do is we'll try and bag the fruits, up high in the trap so there's something else colorful left in there. Because a lot of times, people don't know is when you when you bait traps, if two we want is winning, they'll eat all the fruits. And that's it. The other one is gonna be like, hey. What are you guys doing in there? There's there's nothing in there. You know? So we'll try and, you know, place fruits inside the traps, you know, tie a rock to the top or in bags. So they it keeps calling calling the attention of the iguanas.

Tom Rowland: And, so you're you're trapping them. You're shooting them with a pellet gun. What do you do with the the ones that you trap?

Michael Ronquillo: You know, before, we used to give we used to give away to, people from South America. There's a lot of Hondurans and Ecuadorians that I they love to eat them. Mhmm. They love to eat them. But, you know, after a while, I started noticing that all these iguanas are eating, plants around your home that's full of pesticides.

Tom Rowland: Yeah.

Michael Ronquillo: You know, we'll we'll do a property, and and we'll see the, you know, extermination companies just going in spring, you know, all the flowers, all the shrubs, all the greenery, all the grass. And we go next, and we see the ones eating all these plants and grass. I'm like, oh, wow. Like, this is not good. You know? So these c ones are full of pesticides. You know? So

Tom Rowland: But it doesn't kill them.

Michael Ronquillo: You guys you want us, and there's a special place that you go to, to go dispose them property. You know, you can't just throw them anywhere.

Tom Rowland: Right.

Michael Ronquillo: Well, unfortunately, the ones that we cash, we do dispose them. You know? I wish they could go into better use.

Tom Rowland: Is that a is that a state run place where you dispose of them?

Michael Ronquillo: Yeah. Yes. It's a it's a county dump. It's pretty much just a state county dump that they have a certain section for, for, deceased or or dead animals. It's pretty much like a pit Mhmm. That we take them there and we, we dump them there.

19:23 · Green Iguanas, Spiny Tails, and Six-Foot Giants

Tom Rowland: Okay. And then, when you, are they good for anything? Like, you're saying that they eat fruits and they eat hibiscus and they're eating the the plants and stuff. Do they eat are they are they are they good for, like, getting rid of insects, scorpions, I don't know, mosquitoes? Do they do they do anything beneficial for people in South Florida at all?

Michael Ronquillo: Well, typically, you know, green iguanas are herbivores. They don't they don't really eat any other animals. You know, there's actually two other species of iguanas in South Florida that which are invasive. There's a black spiny tailed iguana and the Mexican spiny tailed iguana. These two other species of iguanas are are more aggressive than the green iguana. You know, if you try and grab these iguanas, they will try and bite you, and they have really, really sharp teeth. They actually have a little bit bigger teeth than the than the green iguanas. So those two iguanas species, which is the black spiny tail and the Mexican spiny tail, you know, those you every occasion, you'll see them eating, you know, lizards and stuff like that. But anything positive, not really. No.

Tom Rowland: So tell me about these other species. Are are we seeing those in The Keys?

Michael Ronquillo: You know, you will see all the spiny tails, you know, you know, occasionally in the Keys, not as much of the green iguana. You know, we've seen the the these spiny tail, we want us more that can keep the skin, in, Florida City areas.

Tom Rowland: Okay. How do you how would you identify those? Like, what do they look different? Are they bigger or darker? Or

Michael Ronquillo: Yeah. Yeah. They have different colors. They they actually have different even different different shapes. Like, their heads are shaped differently. Their their their spines are different than the than the green ones. You know, the green ones usually have big Yeah. Green or orange, and these are a little more shallow spikier. You know, their their snouts are different. You could you you could definitely identify the the different species. I think on my Instagram page, you could find that as well.

Tom Rowland: When when we're in The Keys, occasionally, you see the really big ones. I mean, and they're, like, in a mangrove or something, and they're they're big. Yeah. How old do you think that iguana is? One of those that gets the orange on them, you know, and they're, like, they're big. I mean, I don't know how big. I would think they weigh could they weigh ten pounds? I don't know. They're they're big.

Michael Ronquillo: Yeah. You you know, the the the the iguanas, which those are green iguanas as well. They change colors. You know? We've caught them up to six feet long and up to 20 pounds. Yeah. So we've caught them as as as tall as me. Yeah. You know? Year wise, I'm not a 100% sure. I would say close to, you know, ten years. I would

Tom Rowland: say That could be 10 years old.

Michael Ronquillo: I I would say. Yeah.

Tom Rowland: And so what is, like, a a one year old look like?

Michael Ronquillo: A one year one will will be probably, like, a good, like, 15 inches, give or

Tom Rowland: take. Okay.

Michael Ronquillo: They're born, and they're about, I would say, about six inches long when they're born, four to six inches.

Tom Rowland: Mhmm.

Michael Ronquillo: And, you know, as they as they grow, they shed. They just keep growing and growing and growing.

Tom Rowland: And so what we're seeing mostly, it seems like with that growth rate, what I see in The Keys mostly right now and it seems like there was a cold snap a while back, and and we had a lot more of them. And then it seemed like the numbers went down a little bit. Yeah. And now they're on the way back up again. But it seems like on that, we would be seeing, like, four and five year old kind of iguanas. Is that where you think that it's like a bell curve of, like, you know, that's that's the most and then they don't you know, it's rare to see one of those 20, you know, 20 pounders, I think. I mean, I you see you you have, like, certain mangroves or certain trees or certain areas where, you know, that's where the big guy hangs out, but it's not like there's 50 of them there. There's, like, one or two really big ones.

Michael Ronquillo: Yeah. Yeah. So there's a big orange off males. You know, you you you usually find them more secluded areas because, you know, there's everybody's doing this now. Everybody's trying to catch iguanas and kill them and eat them, you know, and pretty much do all the stuff they do with them. And there's hunting guys now. You know, the business is thriving because it's it's it's a good business. Mhmm. You know? So we we go down to Kisla to go fishing and stuff like that. You know? You know, we were actually just down there two weeks ago, and, you know, you won't find those orange ones as much as the as the smaller green ones. Unless, like I mentioned, that's, like, a very secluded area where there's less people involved. You know, like you mentioned, the cold snaps, you know, when it gets really, really cold, let's say they fall into the water, they're frozen, so they're gonna drown. You know? So all he wants is that fall into the water with those cold snaps, they drown, so that reduces the numbers tremendously, especially in the Keys, because they want us typically, you know, are in the mangroves.

Tom Rowland: Mhmm.

Michael Ronquillo: A lot of people don't know this, but iguanas are are like humans. You know, they sleep in the trees at night. So what they do is they'll go out during the day, they'll eat their stuff, their pooper on your pool or your boat or whatever it is, their seawalls. And then when the sun starts going down, they'll start climbing the trees and they'll sleep up there. So most of these trees, a lot of them are, you know, over the water in the Keys. So when there's a cold snap like we mentioned, you know, they'll fall to the water. When they're frozen, they just pretty much just drown.

23:54 · Thirty Eggs From a Single Burrow

Tom Rowland: Yeah. Well, it it did take a toll on on in this one area, I I used to see just so many. If you I used to run down this this, you know, one of the paths right on the side of the highway, and there would just be so many there. And it it hasn't been like that lately, but Yeah. Since the since we had a a cold snap. And I'm sure that that does that does get them sometimes, but I don't know. They're I would think that they're coming back. And now you mentioned the eggs and that they can lay 70 eggs. And so if you, like, see an iguana hole and you kill that iguana or you get rid of them and then you fill in that hole, later, are you gonna have 70 iguanas just in your yard? I mean, are those eggs still gonna hatch if the if the mother's not around at all if you seal up that hole?

Michael Ronquillo: Yeah. So, there's a big misconception. We will you know, our one of our the main things we do is when we start a new property, we like to educate the, you know, the resident or the homeowner or the president or whatever it is. When you find holes on your property, you don't wanna cover them up. You know? The iguanas are typically not usually in there. They can be. Typically, the iguanas will be there digging it out, digging it out. When they get tired, they'll leave, and they'll come back the same day or the next day to keep digging. So they wanna dig that burrow until it feels comfortable and that's deep enough and it's the right atmosphere, right temperature, everything for it for it to lay your eggs. They're very smart. So once it reaches the the the right destination, it will lay the eggs, and it will backfill some of the of the hole, you know, to cover up the eggs. And then they wanna leave. They wanna doesn't usually come back to that spot, which just happened to us recently in Kendall. So what we do is we tell the clients, hey. If you find the hole, don't cover it up. You know? Let's monitor it. You know? We'll check it periodically. You know? Every time we come once a week, we'll check the the hole. If there's any eggs, we'll remove them. You know, we had this occurrence, I think it was, like, two weeks ago. I mentioned in Kendall. They had a they had an iguana show up to the front yard. It dug a hole. It left, and it came back. So we went. We dug up the hole, and there's nothing in there. Like, I look, there's nothing here. You know? And we checked it out. So what happened is the client was spraying water on that barrel, and it collapsed behind the iguana. So after we covered it up, iguana was still in the hole. The next day, which is about thirteen to fifteen hours to the next day, the wanna pop back up. So it was underground for about a good thirteen to fifteen hours underground. How it survived? I have no idea. The reason he knew it because he has a camera pointing there, and he saw the wanna, you know, trying to poke his head out from the ground, and it came out. So he goes, hey. Look. I found this hole. What is this? And I go, I have no idea. I'm gonna go check it out. So we went I thought maybe, an egg hatched that we missed or something, but it wasn't that. So we went there. We started digging it out. From that hole, we removed I think it was it was 31 eggs from that one hole. Yeah. 31 eggs.

Tom Rowland: And so if you had left those there, they would have hatched on their own?

Michael Ronquillo: Yep. Yeah. Typically, not all of them will hatch, but a good percentage of them will. Let's say half. Whatever. It's still 15 e wanas. Wow. Instead of having one e one in your property, now you have 15.

Tom Rowland: Wow.

Michael Ronquillo: Yeah.

26:50 · Monitor Lizards and a Pet Shop Bite

Tom Rowland: That's crazy. When you, you know, there's all kinds of other lizards, invasives, exotic pets that are, are released. And I've seen some of the other guests that we have here. They find, like, monitor lizards and weird things, that are are definitely not iguanas. Have you been called for iguanas and you you find it's gonna be something else when you get there?

Michael Ronquillo: You know, we're we're we're we're a little bit more south. You know, we typically service from, like, Broward to, like, the Key West pretty much. We do from Broward all without Key West. The only other speech we've seen, is the red headed you know, the red headed Gammas, you know, the the green amoebas, teus here and there. We haven't we haven't encountered any monitors. I think the monitors are a little bit farther further up north. Mhmm. But down here, I haven't seen any personally, and I haven't really get got call any any calls for those kind of, invasive species.

Tom Rowland: Wow. I mean, that's a bad lizard. That monitor lizard, that thing is rough.

Michael Ronquillo: I

Tom Rowland: mean, they are they are mean.

Michael Ronquillo: They're super they're super strong.

Tom Rowland: Yeah. It's funny. I used to work

Michael Ronquillo: in a pet shop, and they and they had one. I used to work in a pet shop when I was, you know, in high school. And I would feed all the fish, you know, feed all the all the reptiles, the scorpions, snakes, and they had this this smaller, monitor. It was, I think, it was, like, three feet long in a huge glass case. And one day, I was gonna go feed it one of the one of those pinky mice is what, you know, they feed them in the pet stores. So I was gonna open the cage, the top a little bit, and see my hand inside again. And and somebody called me, hey. And when I look back, it's lashed latched onto my finger.

Tom Rowland: Oh, no.

Michael Ronquillo: Yeah. Good thing it didn't really do any damage, you know, but they're they're fast.

Tom Rowland: Don't those things have a lot of, bacteria in their mouth? Yeah. And did did your bite get infected?

Michael Ronquillo: No. No. I I cleaned it off, you know, little bit of, oxygenated water, alcohol, and it was born, you know, and I I was good. Lovely. I didn't get anything from it.

28:40 · Canals Lined With Breeding Holes

Tom Rowland: Wow. And so, what what you're seeing like, you mentioned that, like, there would be a a lot in a in a neighborhood that might have a lot of them. If the are they more likely to, like, have a big, blow up or an infestation in, like, a place where no one's going? Or is it more likely that, you know, because of the plants and the the things that people can that they can eat, you know, is it more likely that you see a big infestation in in a habitat, like a like a neighborhood kinda thing rather than the the empty lot? Which is more common?

Michael Ronquillo: Yeah. I mean, honestly, it varies. You know, we've seen iguanas in homes digging holes, and you're you're gonna find more iguanas in canals. We were we we just got an interview with NBC. I'm sorry. It was I'm sorry. CBS, news station in CBS Miami.

Tom Rowland: Yeah.

Michael Ronquillo: And we were in this, this canal, and you'd find you see all these holes in the canals. Remember, these holes are undisturbed. So this is just breeding grounds for them. So they're just, you know and all these holes that they're digging to lay their eggs, once they hatch, these ones will come out, and they'll start invading the neighborhood. You know? They'll just start all they gotta do is just cross the street, you know, to the neighborhood streets with not a lot of traffic, and they just start going to people's homes. So, you know, the the infestation could vary, to be honest.

Tom Rowland: So when you're talking about canals, are you seeing that from the water? You're seeing all these holes in this in the side of the canal, or you're walking down the canal and looking and seeing the holes?

Michael Ronquillo: Yeah. Like, typically, like, if, let's say, if you walk down, you you know, Miller Drive or or or 8th Street and there's iguanas, you know, when you look into in in on the embankment where the where it falls into the water, you look and you'll see these these these black holes, which are their burrows. And as you're walking, you count one, two, three, and you you count you count easily, and that that canal had easily twenty, twenty five burrows that

Tom Rowland: we counted.

Michael Ronquillo: Wow. You know? So they're just in there just just just laying

30:30 · NDA Clients and 45 Iguanas in One Backyard

Tom Rowland: eggs, laying eggs, laying eggs. So when we first were talking about the hot seat questions, you said that the most difficult part was dealing with people that you know, homeowners or or or people that don't understand the process. So help us to understand. Like, you you we got tons of people that live in The Keys that listen to this podcast, and and, eventually, they're gonna have a problem with iguana. So help us to understand, like, what this process is and and how they could, you know, I don't know, be a better client or or understand what the process is and have have expectations of how long it takes to get rid of these things.

Michael Ronquillo: Yeah. Yeah. I I I must have said it, wrong earlier. You know, we we've been very blessed with our clients, extremely blessed. And the reason why we're blessed because they're just they're tired of everyone else.

Tom Rowland: Right.

Michael Ronquillo: You know? You know? But when we go when we go to a certain property, let's say, Brickell, I can't name the location because a lot of our clients are NDA. You know? You can't disclose their their place. So we'll be catching, these on these on these islands, you know, which are private islands, and people, I don't I don't understand how how they're just jogging all day. I'm like, man, I want their job. And, you know, you'll go at, like, 11:00, 01:00, and they're just jogging, walking back and forth. So they'll see me doing this, and they're like, oh, what are you doing? I'm like, we're moving iguanas because they're causing a lot of damages to this island. As you can see, look, they're digging burrows under this this this bridge, which what time which is erosion. These bridge could, you know, crack, collapse, or get damaged. They're like, oh, what do you do to them? I'm like, oh, unfortunately, you have to euthanize them. Oh, what do you mean? Don't do that. They don't do anything. Blah blah blah. And they saw the whole ordeal. So I have to, like, stop what I'm doing, explain everything to them, like, they're invasive species. They're not from they're not from South Florida. They're from Central South America. These are all the damage they do. You know, pets get sick. People get vet bills that are thousands of dollars because their dogs are getting sick from their iguana feces. They poop inside pools, you know, which can, you know, cause illness to children and pets. They transmit, I'm sorry. They carry ticks and mites, and they can spread those ticks and mites to people, to pets. So I had to explain all that stuff to them from to understand, which, again, I understand. You know? They see me catching iguanas. They're like, hey. What are you doing with that thing? You know? So I understand their concern, but it's very time consuming to have to explain, you know, to other other clients, you know? I mean, sorry. To the regular people that ask us these questions about iguanas. I mean, it's it's fine for us, honestly, because we're educating them, and then they a lot of them is like, oh, wow. I didn't know all that. Thank you so much for explaining that to me. And they they get they get they get more awareness about the invasive species, you know. Down in The Keys, we go to The Keys a lot. You know? That's like my second home. I've been going there since I was a baby, you know. Staying in busy palms, staying at houses. You know, we go my brother has a house down there in Marathon. You know, how the people I talk to, hey. You need help with you on? I was like, no. I got a pedagogy. Yeah. So how the people in The Keys I

Tom Rowland: got two kids. I got two kids. They'll they'll get them.

Michael Ronquillo: There you go. You know? So a lot of lot of house in the keys, they just do themselves, you know? But, you know, we have this one client. Again, I can't really name who the person is that his backyard was was full of iguanas. I mean, we will every time we will go, we'll get anywhere between one, seven, eight, ten. I think we're moving that property close to, you know, I wanna say 45 iguanas.

Tom Rowland: Wow. About 45 iguanas.

Michael Ronquillo: They're, again, they're tearing up his house. You know, they're digging burrows in the backyard. You know, some of his artificial grass was was collapsing. That's another problem.

Tom Rowland: Yeah. That's what I saw on your thing. That that kinda surprised me a little bit that, I guess, they gotta find the edge of it because they're not they're not digging a hole in the artificial turf. Right? So they gotta find the edge of it, and then they're burrowing under it. And it's nice in sand. You know, usually, that's laid on sand. Right? So it's probably once they get under there, they're like, yeah. This is awesome, man. It's nice and warm in here. I can lay eggs anywhere I want.

Michael Ronquillo: Yeah. You know? I'm pretty sure you saw the videos where you mentioned that, you know, these people all these, homeowners and property owners and business owners, they install. They they invest all this money to, you know, make their homes look beautiful, and then you start getting these, artificial grass starts collapsing because the ones are digging everything underneath. And they get so far down to the you know, they get a far distance into the artificial grass. There's nothing you could do. You gotta lift that artificial grass back up, reinstall the sands, you know, lift up the, the weed barrier, you know, compact and level it. So it becomes a problem. So the the video you're talking about it was it's a great video, by the way. You know, the client said, hey. My artificial grass is moving. I think something under there. I'm like, what? Okay. So I walked on the backside of their property, and they're on they're on a lake. So I look on on the on the on the side of their house, and they had a hole. So the one who was digging under there and getting under the under the turf, and and you saw in the video that the artificial turf was doing this.

Tom Rowland: Yes.

Michael Ronquillo: It was moving. I was like, what the what is that? You know, this is crazy. That's all missing. You have anyone under artificial turf. We have to lift it up in order to get it out. There's no other way. She's like, listen. Do what you have to do. Just get nothing out of here. You know, it's moving. It's freaking us out. You know? So they were told that so the one I was digging under the tail eight eggs, of course, because it's breeding season. So we carefully, you know, lifted up the corners with all the nails. You know, we felt we folded it back, carefully and slowly because we know what they want to take off. So when we start lifting, we see a tail. I was like, look. There it is. Let's get it. So I grabbed the the tail, and the one I pulled out was already dead. So it was stuck on there for such a long time that it pretty much suffocating or or overheating because on remember, underneath the artificial artificial turf, it's extremely hot.

Tom Rowland: So hot.

Michael Ronquillo: Yeah. So we got one out that was dead, and then there's another one under there as well. And there's two e ones in there. So we removed the other e one carefully, and then when we're done, we just put everything back together. You know? Of course, we're not artificial turf installers, so I left it the best as I could. I go, listen. You have to call your guy to come back and and redo this. So the one that died was actually when I was pregnant. The other one wasn't pregnant. I don't know what it was doing in there. Maybe it's trying to, you know, do something that, you know, we can't really talk about on the show probably.

Tom Rowland: You You can talk about anything.

Michael Ronquillo: Oh, okay. So, yeah, we removed the dead one. It was pregnant, and the other one wasn't pregnant. But, yeah, it's just occasions like that. It's just it's it's crazy.

36:12 · Can Florida Ever Get Rid of Them?

Tom Rowland: You know? Is there ever a chance you think that we could get rid of them entirely, or or is it do they just reproduce too much? And then you have all these out like, we're you were just talking about Brickell, but in The Keys too, we have all these islands. They swim. I mean, iguanas can swim incredibly well.

Michael Ronquillo: Yeah.

Tom Rowland: They they're so fast, man. Yeah.

Michael Ronquillo: Yeah.

Tom Rowland: And and once they hit that water, man, they're they're gone, man. You're you're not catching them. I don't think. I mean, somebody might be able to. I'm not gonna catch them. But, do you think there's a chance that that, like, I asked the same question of the of the python hunters. Like, is there a chance we're gonna ever get rid of these things, or are we just kind of controlling the population and and keeping them out of the areas that we really don't want them, like our backyards? What do you think?

Michael Ronquillo: Yeah. Well, the thing you mentioned about the swimming thing, he wants to hold a breath for twenty minutes on the water. Twenty minutes? Twenty minutes. You know? We removed the ones from pools that you know, sometimes, either they don't have a pool in it or we don't have ours handy, and, you know, it's just sitting there, and they'll just, you know, go off air real quick. It'll go down. It'll stay there for twenty minutes. Wow. Twenty minutes. So it could it could swim a long distance. A lot of times when it falls into the water and we wanna jump in and go after it as soon as you can because you don't know how far it already went.

Tom Rowland: Right.

Michael Ronquillo: You know? So going back to what you mentioned about the iguanas, you know, just like the pythons and the lionfish, I don't think that's ever gonna go away, personally. You know? The ocean's huge. The Everglades is massive. Iguanas, like you mentioned, the key is there's areas that you can't reach in the keys. You know? There's these dense thick mangroves that there's no way you could get in it to get all the iguanas. The goal is to is to control the population, you know, in in canals, in parks. You know, the county, I think, is gonna start doing, bids soon to get, you know, companies like us to go in there and move the iguanas. So by controlling the population, it's gonna help tremendously. You know? It's gonna save, our ecosystem. It's gonna save our native species, and it's also gonna put, it's gonna help our our our economy. Like, you know, what I mentioned earlier about the $1,800,000 in damages to the the dam, I think the taxpayers are paying for that. You know, and any other damage that they want to create in parks, in canals, on streets, because they also dig on the roads and they they cause streets to collapse. They actually have been in Quirongo, not too long ago. We were reading it on on a news article that the ones who are digging under the road and it caused a sinkhole, you know, and I think all the taxpayers are paying for that. So by controlling the population, it's gonna help drastically, you know. We, you know, we tell our clients that they need to understand that this is not just one or more services. This is like a an ongoing, maintenance service. This is just like pool service, like lawn service, landscaping, you know, infumigation. I I tell my clients, once you spray your house for roaches, do they go away forever? No. They come back. So this is the same kind of service. It's repetitive. So we do is once we get the house under control, let's say we removed twenty thirty one as we're only seeing one or two there. I go, listen. We're you know, we got the most population out. We're gonna reduce the cost now to you. Let's start doing a once a month monitoring program that we do. So we'll come once a month to the property, and, typically, we'll go at night. And anyone as we find, we'll remove them. So once you start monitoring your house, you won't have any more infestations. You'll get one or two here and there, but you're not gonna get the thirty, forty, 60 eggs every year. You're not gonna get the pooper on the pool. You're not gonna get the the damages to your landscaping. You know?

39:18 · Why the Hunt Happens at Night

Tom Rowland: Now I think I might know this, but tell me why you you go at night.

Michael Ronquillo: You know, when we first started, we had a couple of properties that we would do, and they had it's like a forest. They have, you know, twenty, thirty oak trees. They have tropical bushes everywhere, you know, 50 palm trees. So during the day, they wanted they're sometimes really hard to locate because they're not always in the grass or eating fruits. Sometimes when it gets so hot, they'll go to the trees to get some some shade to regulate their body temperatures. So we wouldn't we wouldn't have much success. Even putting traps in certain places, they won't go into the traps because they have so much foliage that they're eating around the property that why would they wanna go into the trap Right.

Tom Rowland: When

Michael Ronquillo: they have free food somewhere else that's easier access. So I told, my fiancee when we started the business, I go, hey. You know what? I'm gonna I'm gonna go at night. I'm gonna see if I can find these ones at night. This is when I first started, which is, like, five years ago. And sure enough, I went at night. I bought these LED, headlights. You know, you put it on your head Mhmm. And, you know, just search through through the trees, and, man, it's it's it's it's a game changer. The night they're shine?

Tom Rowland: Like a like a like a a an animal? Like a dog or a a wolf or do they have eye shine when you Oh, no.

Michael Ronquillo: No. So when you when you shine the lights on the trees at night, the you want a skin color. It it stands out from the the surroundings. So let's say if you have, like, an oak tree or, like, a palm tree, when you when the light when the when the light shines on the iguana skin, it just stands out. It's like a much brighter green color. You you probably see a couple of pictures on my on my Instagram or or YouTube channel. So when we started that, it's it's been it's been amazing. It's been really good. Our clients are just are are thrilled.

Tom Rowland: So when you see them high in the tree, you just shoot them? Or

Michael Ronquillo: or Yeah.

Tom Rowland: Yeah. Okay. Yeah.

Michael Ronquillo: Pretty much so, you know, we have different, pellet rifles for different situations. You we have an FX impact for, you know, for longer distances. So when we find them in the trees, you know, we scope them in. You know, we make sure there's nothing behind, make sure there's no houses, make sure there's no transformers, no electrical cables, no telephone lines. You know, we're very, very careful with the pellet gun. You know? We don't wanna hurt anybody. We wanna cause any property damages. So once we locate the the iguana, we make sure we get a clear shot, and, yeah, we're just taking off from the trees with a with a pellet gun.

Tom Rowland: Mhmm. Nice. And, and so then you're you're you're able to go down once a month. So you're you're kind of, once you once you handle the the main infestation, then you do, like, a maintenance plan, and you're on a maintenance plan. So do you, I would imagine that you try to like, when you go to the Keys, you're trying to hit a number of people. Like, if you're gonna head it all the way to Key West, you know, do you have enough are you hitting places all the way down and and trying to be super efficient about that, or is do you just kind of go when you gotta go?

Michael Ronquillo: Yeah. I mean, when we first started, we will get a property here and there, which was, you know, it was hard because, remember, you're driving an hour and a half, two hours. You you know?

Tom Rowland: Mhmm.

Michael Ronquillo: You know, we'll start with one or two properties, and I was like, man, this this is killer. This is, like, pretty much all day to do two two or three, maybe three properties. So, you know, we're trying to expand in the keys, you know, and grow. We're trying to contact the homeowner associations, even schools to get more business down there because, you know, we love the keys. We love being there, and we know how value invested it

Tom Rowland: is. Right.

Michael Ronquillo: You know? But like I mentioned, you know, there's a lot of homeowners that are doing them themselves down there, you know, but we are trying to grow our business down there as well. We're trying to expand as much as possible. We're located in Miami, but, you know, we do go all the way all the way to Belklaes. You know? We have a church that we do up there for for a minister to help her out. You know, she hasn't want us just tearing up her church and doing a lot of damages.

Tom Rowland: Wow.

Michael Ronquillo: So, yeah, we try to, you know, expand our business in The Keys, you know, contacting different places so we can help them out.

Tom Rowland: Yeah. Well, tell everybody, like, all these like, you got YouTube, you got, Instagram, and then how do people get a hold of you, and and what's the, you know, like, what do they expect when if they've got a problem, like, what what kind of is this, like, a super expensive thing, or what is a what does the first time deal cost?

Michael Ronquillo: Yeah. Well, you can find us on, on Instagram, on Facebook, Twitter, TikTok even. We have a YouTube channel. With the YouTube channel, you can find all our all our success. You know, we have a bunch of videos on there with different kinds of services, trapping, moussing, you know, the nighttime you wanna remove, the egg, locating and removal, preventive measures, tree wraps. So depending on the infestation, the size of the property is where the price is based off of, you know, like a small house in Kendall is gonna be compared to a a mansion in in in, Cobo Plum.

Tom Rowland: Right.

Michael Ronquillo: The prices vary depending how value infested and the size of the property. Because remember, the bigger the property, the longer we're gonna be there. So we got to charge a little more for that. But our goal is to try and, you know, get them out as fast as possible to then get on that monitor the monitoring program that we have, you know, to save them money and to avoid further infestation. Yeah. And we don't always just we we like, a lot of companies just go and just do the job and leave. No. When we do the when we do your house, we try to contact contact the neighbors. You know? Hey. You know, we're doing your neighbor's house for you want us. I noticed you have a couple. You know? If you join, it'd be good because we'll start contacting all the neighbors, and that's how you really control the population and get rid of them. Because let's say, how, houses in a Coco Plumber in Key Largo, whatever. They have a bunch of houses in the canal. If we attack all those houses in that canal, you're not gonna have any. You know? You're gonna see one or two occasionally, but not, you know, not the infestation that you're currently seeing. So we try to, you know

44:26 · Advice for Homeowners: Burrows, Salmonella, and Scrambled Iguana Eggs

Tom Rowland: Got it, man. Well, that's, that's awesome. You're gonna, be in front of a lot of people that have houses in the Keys. So, a really good really good, resource for anyone who has these iguanas in their in their on their property because, man, you wanna get to them before they get behind the seawall. And then if your seawall collapses, it's not as easy as just fixing your seawall. I mean, you gotta go through zoning and all kinds of things to, to fix that if it if it collapses real bad. So the best thing to do is to get rid of them as soon as possible. If you got a couple of of of kids that are that are cold blooded killers, you probably got it under control. But if you don't, here's your man right here. Yeah. So give him a call. Yeah. It was cool to have you on, man. I learned a lot about iguanas. I didn't I didn't know, about how many eggs they have and and what the best ways were to get rid of them. Like, I don't know. I mean, what if you what if you did have a couple of, you know, kids that were shooting them and stuff and they were doing fine, but you have these holes in your yard? Should you not fill those up either?

Michael Ronquillo: Yeah. So if you find the hole in your property, you know, it's not recommended to fill them in. The first one, you wanna inspect the hole first to make sure there's no iguana in there so they don't pop out through another burrow. Because what's gonna happen if you cover it, they wanna create another burrow and just dig itself out so they got more burrows. So you wanna inspect the hole first to make sure there's no iguanas, no iguana eggs inside. There's times that we use an endoscopy camera to look inside the hole if it's too far, or it has, like, a certain angle, and it's it works it works amazing. Really? We'll get the eggs officially. We'll make sure there's no iguan in the hole. So once we inspect it, we remove whatever is in there. We we compact it properly, and then we close it up. Covering the hole also, the guanst is gonna go somewhere else and and dig another hole.

Tom Rowland: Mhmm.

Michael Ronquillo: So what we do is we inspect the hole, remove the guan of the eggs, we cover it, and then we put a cage in that spot. You know? So when it comes back, it goes into the cage.

Tom Rowland: Gotcha.

Michael Ronquillo: Gotcha.

Tom Rowland: Another thing

Michael Ronquillo: I'm sorry. I forgot to mention is, if you have iguanas pooping around your your your pool, your kids' play stuff, toys, boats, you wanna make sure you wash it off immediately and sanitize the area properly because their poop does carry salmonella.

Tom Rowland: Salmonella. Yeah. And and people would get that from from, like, it it on the kids' play sets and stuff, and they're getting salmonella?

Michael Ronquillo: Yeah. Yeah. You know, we we done schools before that. They had they had these trees overhanging over the playground areas, and there's feces everywhere.

Tom Rowland: Oh, really?

Michael Ronquillo: Because once they're harvesting they're just they just keep defecating. You know? So it's super important to have these areas cleaned and, of course, get the iguanas removed so you could avoid this.

Tom Rowland: Right.

Michael Ronquillo: But, you know, to remove them, you know, in schools as well. You know? A lot of schools have iguanas. They have all these holes, you know. You know, we're we're actually getting some sorry. I'm taking your time.

Tom Rowland: No. It's good, man. We're good.

Michael Ronquillo: You know, we got a couple calls this last, you know, two months from from attorneys saying, hey. Would you are you willing to testify? There is there's this case of this, this child that got hurt at the school, but she she tripped over a barrel, and she hurt her her leg really, really bad. So imagine, like, this is serious. You know? Oh, another one, a man was reaching under his chair for a drink or something, and then he wanna bit him. So there's a lot of liability that people don't understand that's that's also involved with iguanas around commercial property, schools, churches. Yeah.

Tom Rowland: Wow. Well, if you got a problem with iguanas, Michael's your man. Give him a call and, go to you got a cool Instagram. You really do. Humane iguana control. That's that's what it that's the, the, address. And so you can go there. You got your YouTube. And, what's your phone number?

Michael Ronquillo: 305209821.

Tom Rowland: Okay. There you go. Alright. So if you got if you got iguanas, especially if you're in The Keys or South Florida or Miami, give them a call. That's, I learned a lot, man. I really did.

Michael Ronquillo: Thank you, man. A lot of fun out here.

Tom Rowland: Does, an iguana one last question. What does an iguana egg feel like? Because on your on your Instagram, they look like they're real hard, like rocks.

Michael Ronquillo: Yeah. No. They're actually they're actually softer. Like They are? The chicken eggs. Yeah. You you could actually squeeze them, and they won't crack.

Tom Rowland: Really? Yeah. Okay. Cool. And they

Michael Ronquillo: have a different shape too. I'm pretty sure you saw it in the video that they're a little more oval shaped.

Tom Rowland: That was the first time I'd seen them. Yeah. It's it's crazy. But the way you put them in the in the you had, like, a a bin, you know, a Tupperware or whatever, and you just put them in there, it just seemed like they were hard like rocks. But I don't know. I've never I've never felt them. I don't want I don't really want to.

Michael Ronquillo: When you're down the keys, let me know. I'll bring you some. We can make you some scrambled iguana eggs if you want. Scrambled iguana eggs? I might take you up on that. That sounds like We

Tom Rowland: can do that. Okay. It's a it's a hook and cook, iguanas. Alright, man. Well, I appreciate you coming on. And, I learned a lot about iguanas. And and for those in the audience, if you got some iguanas, give them a call.

Michael Ronquillo: Yeah. Thanks for having me. Alright. Thank you. Alright. We'll see you.