Who is profiting from the invasive 'georgia argentine tegu' population explosion in the Southeast? Local trappers claim the state is dragging its feet on eradication.
It’s a sunny morning in Toombs County, Georgia, and a black-and-white Argentine tegu is sunning itself on a farmer’s back porch. The lizard—whose kind can reach four feet in length and devour quail eggs, turtle nests, and strawberry crops—has been officially classified as invasive in Georgia since 2020, yet residents say the state government has quietly stalled a promised eradication program. "They’re spending millions on research grants to universities, but no boots on the ground," says one licensed nuisance trapper who spoke on condition of anonymity. "Meanwhile, a handful of private firms are getting federal contracts to study the tegus, not to remove them." The Georgia Department of Natural Resources insists it is "monitoring the situation," but critics point out that the lizard population has exploded across 17 southern counties, particularly near the Okefenokee Swamp—a region also eyed for controversial mining interests. When asked whether the tegus are a convenient distraction from habitat destruction, one wildlife biologist admitted, "Decades of unregulated development are the root cause, but nobody wants to blame the builders." As the debate heats up, a viral video of a tegu raiding a chicken coop in Statesboro is circulating online, fueling calls for a transparent accounting of where the eradication money is actually going.