Floridians are now eating the invasive, frozen iguanas that have been falling out of trees

Florida got so cold this week that iguanas quite literally started falling out of trees, and somehow that’s not even the wildest part of the story. When temperatures dip into the 40s, iguanas, which are cold-blooded, can’t regulate their body heat.

Their muscles seize up, they become “cold-stunned,” and if they happen to be perched in a tree, gravity takes over. The result is frozen lizards raining down onto sidewalks, lawns, and roads across the state. It looks fake, but it happens every few years when Florida gets hit with a real cold snap.

For the iguanas, that’s bad news. For Florida, it’s just another Tuesday. These lizards are an invasive species, and not the cute kind people feel conflicted about.

They destroy landscaping, eat native plants, burrow under sidewalks and seawalls, spread salmonella, and reproduce at an absurd rate. A single female can lay up to 80 eggs a year. The state actively encourages population control, and in many places they’re legal to kill on private property with no permit.

So when cold weather temporarily freezes them in place, Floridians don’t panic. They see an opportunity and yes, people are eating the shit out of them right now.

If you thought this ended with humane removal or wildlife rehab, think again. A restaurant in North Palm Beach called Bucks Coal Fired just went viral for leaning all the way in.

They debuted what might be the most Florida menu item of all time: iguana pizza. In a video that’s been everywhere online, an employee announces they’re calling it “The Everglades,” proudly declaring it the first iguana pizza in human history. The pie was topped with olive oil, cheese, bacon, venison, and chopped green iguana meat.

The idea started when content creator Ryan Izquierdo walked into the restaurant with iguanas and demanded an iguana pizza. Instead of calling the cops or asking him to leave, the kitchen said “yeah, why not,” and cooked it up.

Izquierdo took a bite on camera and immediately approved, describing the meat as similar to frog legs with a slightly sweet taste. Which somehow makes sense and also makes everything worse.

Are you eating iguana pizza?

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That’s Florida in a nutshell. An invasive species falls out of trees due to cold weather, locals legally remove them from the ecosystem, and within days someone is putting them on a pizza and naming it after a swamp.

What starts as a freak weather story turns into a food trend in under 48 hours. Somewhere there’s a bleeding-heart iguana lover horrified by all of this, but down in Florida, people are shrugging, firing up ovens, and calling it sustainable protein.

So yeah. Iguanas are falling from the sky, Floridians are turning them into pizza toppings, and the rest of the country is just watching in disbelief. Nature is healing. Florida is Florida.

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