Random Wild Animals That Cause Serious Problems In Florida (13 items)

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  (#6) Alligator

  • Alligator

  Florida is famous for two things: Disney World and alligators. In fact, their football team is even named the Florida Gators. But watch out! The actual alligators are real living, breathing reptiles that could kill your family's dog. What's most dangerous about these massive creatures is that they're opportunistic feeders. They'll eat almost anything, if given the chance. 

  In addition, many alligators have also completely lost their fear of humans. This dramatically increases the potential of dangerous encounters, and unprovoked alligator attacks are becoming increasingly more common. Every once in a while, they've been known to accidentally go for a human. In a famous case in 2016, a young boy was dragged into the water by a gator at a Disney World resort. 

  Alligators are basically the kings of Florida. Over a million of them roam freely, getting stuck in people's backyard pools and making marshlands a hazard. The scariest part? An alligator can easily outrun any human. You don't have a chance if one decides you're its next meal. It's only a matter of time before they own the land and people start paying them rent. 
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  (#1) Giant African snail

  • Achatina fulica

  This nightmarish snail, which looks like something out of a horrific sci-fi film, is terrorizing south Florida residents. While you'll have more luck outrunning a snail than you would an alligator, these guys have some wormy friends, and their friends are packing. USGS biologists collected tissue samples from a bunch of these squishy suckers and found out that they carry the rat lungworm parasite.

  This parasitic burrows into humans and causes painful headaches, vomiting, and a stiff neck. In the worst cases, it can transmit meningitis to humans. Anyone who picks up a snail is at risk. 
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  (#12) Asiatic Clams

  One wouldn't really think of calms as being much of a nuisance - after all, you just scrape 'em off the side of your boat and keep trudging along. Wrong. These asiatic clams are an invasive species that are taking over aquatic freshwater ecosystems throughout South Florida, particularly in Lake Okeechobee.

  Because they are able to reproduce so rapidly, and therefore take up prime real estate along the bottoms of lakes and rivers, they quickly put a significant strain on whatever area they inhabit, making already declining native clam populations even more vulnerable. Plus, once they die they leave their not-so-pretty shells behind en mass, creating a thick shell graveyard.

  They also like to gather around pipes, canals, and water filters, inevitably damaging them and resulting in billions of dollars in repair costs. The only benefit they bring is that they like to live in dirty water and do a relatively good job of filtering it.
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  (#10) Nile monitor

  • Varanus niloticus

  These five-foot-long flesh-eating African lizards have been waging a war in Cape Coral's canals since the '80s. According to local legend, the exotic pets first started taking over the 400 miles of man-made canals within Cape Coral after a local pet store went bankrupt and let a group of monitor lizards free in an uninhabited area. Others speculate that exotic pet distributors planted them there so they could reproduce and be caught later and sold on the black market. Either way, their presence has caused a number of problems, including pet deaths and waning real estate prices.

  Apparently, people don't want to live in a place that's infested with dangerous lizards. These new-aged dinosaurs gobble up anything from bugs and road kill to endangered gopher tortoises and the family dog. They have no known predators in Florida except for metal traps and the odd alligator, but the city simply doesn’t have the resources to hire people to trap them. Unless the city can figure out a way to keep the population under control, the streets may not be safe for outdoor cats and even small children.
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  (#13) Wild Boar

  Believe it or not - above all the lizards, pythons, and alligators that are running amok throughout Florida - the invasive species that provides one of the greatest threats to the people, animals, and ecology of Florida happens to be the wild boar. 

  According to the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission, “the wild hog is often considered one of the more problematic wild animals in Florida," especially considering that they are known to reside in every county throughout Florida, bringing with them a whole mess of problems.

  Aside from the fact that the wild boars are hugely destructive to native habitats, they also cause extensive damage to farms and agricultural plots. And considering that they breed all year long, their populations tend to grow rapidly, causing them to become even more wide spread. 

  To make matters worse, boars also happen to carry around a vast number of diseases and parasites, which makes their digging around in your vegetable garden even more upsetting. They've been known to spread "cholera, pseudorabies, brucellosis, tuberculosis, salmonellosis, anthrax, ticks, fleas, lice, and various flukes and worms." And even though they rarely attack humans, if you happen to find yourself on the wrong side of one of these guys, then you'll likely end up with more than a few tusk wounds as they tend to keep attacking until their victim stops moving.
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  (#7) Monk Parakeet

  • Myiopsitta monachus

  Monk Parakeets were brought to Florida as pets in the '60s and '70s, but have since taken to the wild. These adorable, brightly-colored birds wreak absolute havoc on Florida's electrical grid. Monk Parakeets make their nests on top of utility poles, which disrupts power and damages electrical equipment. The little birds are costing residents a huge price in maintenance and repair costs.

  Additionally, monk parakeets are pretty darn loud. Noisy flocks can be heard from great distances, ruining many peaceful Florida beach vacations. Rumor has it that if you pick up a conch shell in Florida and press it to your ear, you'll hear the distant squawking of parakeets who deeply resent living somewhere that's perpetually humid.

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