ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. — Two Florida men were arrested after wildlife officials said they spread hundreds of mothballs across a beach in St. Petersburg, Florida.
Why mothballs?
Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission officers said Christopher Monroe and Robert Czyszczon used them to keep shorebirds away from the area.
The wildlife officers were first called to St. Pete Beach on April 20 when people found hundreds of mothballs strewn across the sand. Officials, with help from the Audubon Society and other volunteers, cleaned up the beach, WTVT reported.
The next day, 500 more mothballs were found in the same area.
Receipts from Walmart traced a large mothball purchase to Czyszczon, the owner of Palm Beach Hotel, FWC officers said.
Officers got warrants for his phone that showed he was on the beach the nights before the mothballs were found there. There were also texts, officers said, between Czyszczon and Monroe that indicated they did not want the birds, identified by the FWC as black skimmers, a state-protected species of shore birds, nesting behind the hotel.
Monroe manages a bar on the hotel’s property.
WFLA said one text read, “They’re the worst birds. And then the bird people will put up a fence around the area, and then the beach people will not be able to get to and from because they will fence around that space.”
Another said, "Why didn’t you tell me we lose $25,000 to $50,000,” with the birds on the beach, WFLA reported.
Both Czyszcon and Monroe face a felony charge of commercial littering and a misdemeanor count of attempting to take a state-listed imperiled species by harassment.
Czyszcon spoke to WFLA after he left jail Wednesday, telling the news station, “I did not do it, and I’m innocent. Simple as that.”
Mothballs are made of toxic chemicals that can harm humans and wildlife, WWSB reported. When they’re released on a beach, they can blow into water and harm marine life.
© 2026 Cox Media Group
