Updated Dec. 19, 2025, 6:13 p.m. ET
- Mike Kimmel, known as the “Python Cowboy,” leads guided hunts for invasive iguana and Burmese pythons.
- Invasive iguanas are a costly pest in Florida, damaging landscaping and burrowing into flood control canals.
- Iguanas are not protected in Florida, except by anti-cruelty laws, and can be humanely killed year-round on private property.
The annals of Florida’s eternal wrangle with invasive species are filled with creative, unique and bizarre techniques for ridding the state of the damaging marauders.
Barefoot python hunting, robot rabbits, contract killers, DNA testing, specially trained dogs and artificially intelligent traps are all in the arsenal.
By happenstance, a new method has emerged — iguana diving.
Mike Kimmel, who goes by Python Cowboy on social media and leads guided iguana hunts, was recorded on video leaping into a rippled swirl of canal water to capture one of the reptiles as it sought an aquatic escape. Sometimes plunging in headfirst and barehanded is just the most effective and efficient way to nab the nuisance lizard, Kimmel said.
And after seeing the feat posted online, Kimmel’s clients keep asking to try their hand at the exclusively Florida experience.
“I get a lot of people who have done everything, they’ve been to Africa, they are guides themselves, they’ve hunted everywhere, and this is something they haven’t done,” Kimmel said of the iguana plunge. “It’s something new and exciting.”
Kimmel counsels his clients on safety and style — no belly flops or cannonballs, or easing in feet first.
“I tell people to go in hands first,” Kimmel said. “Sometimes they get nervous and go in feet first and you can’t catch an iguana with your feet.”
Often, the iguanas are on the run from their perch on a sunny canal bank and jump in the water to escape. Sometimes they have already been shot and need to be retrieved from the water. It’s a job Kimmel’s trained dogs might normally perform. He says he often has to hold back the eager canines when a client chooses instead to go diving for an iguana.
Kimmel, who also runs Burmese python hunts, said the iguana pursuits are more popular, possibly because it’s also a fun day on a boat in balmy Florida whereas pythons are often stalked at night.
“Diving in and coming up with an iguana is a hero moment. It’s become the funnest part of our day, especially on the hot summer days,” Kimmel said.
While it’s a national giggle when temperatures plunge in Florida and iguanas fall from trees, temporarily immobilized, they have become a costly pest. They eat expensive landscaping, poo in pools and burrow into miles of flood-control canals.
Iguanas can’t survive extended days of temperatures colder than about 50 degrees, especially if they come with overcast skies that prevent them from reviving in the sun. But they have been found in North Florida and the Panhandle, according to reports posted to the Early Detection and Distribution Mapping System, or EDDMapS.
And there’s likely more than what’s recorded. Because iguanas have become nearly as as ubiquitous as squirrels in South Florida’s urban landscape, the majority of people likely stopped reporting seeing them long ago, said University of Florida professor Frank Mazzotti in an August interview.
“For all these invasive species, we really don’t have monitoring programs in place to look at the spread and increase in numbers,” said Mazzotti, who oversees the school’s Croc Docs program. “It’s like we’re fighting in the dark.”
Iguanas are not protected in Florida, except by anti-cruelty laws, and can be humanely killed year-round on private property with landowner permission, according to the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission. People with either a permit or hunting license can also kill them on 32 public lands in areas as far north as near Sebring to south of Homestead.
The Lake Worth Drainage District recently contracted with a hunter to rid their canals of iguanas.
“They’ve found this perfect urban environment where our canals provide a source of refuge because there aren’t a lot of people around disturbing them and they have nearby food sources,” said Tommy Strowd, the district’s executive director.
It’s also a safety issue. The district’s heavy equipment such as dump trucks and excavators drive along canal edges. If an iguana burrow collapses, it can cause the equipment to become unbalanced and tip into the water.
“They are persistent,” Strowd said about the iguanas.
Still, he’s not sure he’s up for an iguana dive. The canals can contain random debris including shopping carts, tree branches and automobiles.
Kimmel said some of the canals are surprisingly clear and you can see obstacles in the water as well as the iguanas.
In addition to advising on diving style, Kimmel also suggests clients grab the iguanas by their back legs, making it harder for them to turn around and bite them or claw them. He said he can have up to three boats a day doing iguana hunts with people coming from all over the world, including China, Sweden and Australia. Iguana hunts start at $1,250 for between one to six people.
“I’m always surprised at how many people come just for our hunts, whether it’s iguana or python,” he said.
About 10% of his clients want to do the dive. Of those, about half are successful.
Texans excel at the plunge, as well as people from Alaska and Montana.
“We’ve had a lot of Amish, too. The Amish are animals,” Kimmel said about their enthusiastic hunting style. “Everyone is just all about having a good time.”
Kimberly Miller is a journalist for The Palm Beach Post, part of the USA Today Network of Florida. She covers real estate, weather, and the environment. Subscribe to The Dirt for a weekly real estate roundup. If you have news tips, please send them to kmiller@pbpost.com. Help support our local journalism: Subscribe today.
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