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COQUI CONTROL - My report - PunaLeigh - 10-02-2007
Coqui Control…
And now on to baking soda ~
Sodium bicarbonate, or baking soda, was my latest attempt to find a way to stop the advancing coqui from entering my five acres of A`a/ohia land that I live on in lower Puna.
I will reveal my method and results a little further down. First let me tell you this:
I heard my 1st coqui calling in Lava Tree Park in the fall of 1998---- There was only one! I was on my motorcycle there at dusk. I peered all around trying to spot this strange sounding bird!
I drove my motorcycle a lot and in the following year or two I would begin to hear a few coqui here and there around lower Puna, as we all did. I reported these to the State and even offered to help with an eradication program…. But they had none. I offered to help create one on my own time… but, no, they said they had to wait for authorization and approved funding then do research, then do testing, then get approval to use the remedies… You know the rest of that story.
So here we are, eight years later…. When I drive around at night I hear coqui almost everywhere in lower Puna and beyond. Geez, they are even at Ho`okena!
Yes they hitchhike on vehicles parked after dark at infested areas; they will climb up on anything and hop off wherever you park at night. The only coqui I have had by my house have arrived this way. I have doused those one at a time with hydrated lime in powder form with 100% success - at least for the calling males.
Meanwhile, my neighbor’s lots have slowly been seeing, hearing, more and more of the frogs. Some have battled them in varying ways with limited success, including the hired ‘guns’ with the tankers and sprayers of citric acid and liquid-diluted lime where trucks and hoses could reach.
The neighbors lot done with the lime saw a great reduction in coqui immediately. The land done with citric acid I observed little difference in the coqui chorus there.
Enter the leaf-blower method.
One friend of mine and other people, have been saying that they were blowing dry hydrated lime through the intake of a leaf blower. The lime blasts out in a fine mist that goes everywhere… and I mean everywhere… trees, eyes, lungs… FULL respirator, goggles and head to toe coveralls and gloves a must.(This is an illegal and unapproved method of control) BUT….
Then the good news came…. Baking soda was reported by some as being far more affective on coqui and did little harm to other living creatures or plants. These reports were, and still are, limited in scope.(Also an unapproved method of coqui control)
So let me add my results to the baking soda records…
I bought a Makita 4-stroke (strong & quieter) leaf blower for $200. I removed the removable guard off the blower’s air intake port. The opening is about 4 1/2-inches in diameter. I then purchased a one-piece PVC sewer connection (ST 1/8th bend 4 –cost $9”
that fit perfectly over the lip of the open intake on the blower. I attached this pipe, with the pipe opening pointing up, by only four screws and little 1-inch angle brackets that matched the screw holes already on the Makita and the two pre-drilled holes on the PVC pipe. This took me only minutes to complete.I had purchased two 50-pound bags of sodium carbonate (baking soda) from BEI in Hilo ($30 each).
I tested the unit by simply slowly tilting a cup of baking soda into the PVC open pipe while the blower was revved and it work really really well at broadcasting the powder for thirty to forty feet and misting beyond that. (Wear a mouth and nose filter)
So last night I took my modified leaf-blower and powdered baking soda up to a friend’s house in Blacksands subdivision. Their small fenced in lot is thick with coqui. So inundated that they have to turn the TV up loud at night to hear it, and have to close the windows when on the phone. A perfect spot to test power-blown baking soda right!
So just before dark, the male coqui were already building up into a chorus of piercing sound. I walked around that property and blasted nearly all of one of the fifty-pound bags of soda onto every blade of grass, bush, shrub and tree in all directions.
I had heard that baking soda takes up to ten minutes to kill the frogs. After fifteen minutes I could still here coqui calling so I did the whole area a second time, and in a few spots where the frogs were closer and still ‘chirping’, like within ten feet, I blasted them a third time…
…. I waited… and waited… and waited…. After all my efforts the din of the calling coqui frogs was just as loud as it was on any given night! They never did go quieter.
This experiment cost me a trip to Hilo and $240 to carry out.
So—whoever says that baking soda has a 97% kill rate is full of it! (Hawaii Island Journal Aug-Sept ‘Healthful Herbalist’ column- see link below).
{Okay-- there is one possible variable I may have to check out with another test. It had been raining just before I blew the area with the powder; perhaps it works better in draught conditions, but even so, I really saturated the area and should have had good results.}
I refuse to blow hydrated lime through the machine. For one, it is very dangerous to the eyes, lungs and any animals downwind. That and it also plugs up the intake port and fan walls of the leaf blower fairly fast. Getting tankers into my area is difficult. Backpack spraying five acres of mostly rough A`a lava, even just the perimeters, is beyond my ability on any ongoing basis. I have thought of moats of limewater, plastic inverted walls, citric sprinkler systems etc. ….
So, I give up. I have a single-walled home with trees right up to it, with mostly screened windows. The coqui sound drives me nuts… Bulldoze my ohia forest property bare? Anyone want to buy some land? – It comes with a one-time used leaf blower and a bag of baking soda, and, it is currently coqui free!
For those that have been told that these little frogs are soothing to have around must have a listen to them at this link -- turn up your speaker volume (takes a bit to load but worth it): http://www.hear.org/AlienSPeciesInHawaii/species/frogs/lotsafrogs.wav
Links that mention baking soda for coqui control:
http://www.ctahr.hawaii.edu/coqui/Bakingsoda.asp
Hawaii Island Journal August 2007: scroll down to it: “Croakin’ Coquis: New Control Needs Approval”:
http://www.amazon.com/gp/blog/id/AR3HMLMATE0G6/ref=cm_arms_am_blog
So we now have:
Centipedes- all sizes everywhere, scorpions – had one next to my nose on Kona side, stinging red fire ants are spreading – I’ve been stung a few times at Pohoiki this year, stinging nettle caterpillars are spreading – neighbor was severely stung last week, brown recluse spiders I saw one today and a friend was badly stung last week … Not as fun around here anymore… even the surf spots are getting crowded…. Oh well, could be worse things to deal with, like war and famine; life goes on…
Aloha,
Your neighbor, PunaLeigh
Edited by - PunaLeigh on 10/02/2007 22:23:04
Edited by - PunaLeigh on 10/02/2007 22:27:47
Edited by - PunaLeigh on 10/03/2007 07:17:09
RE: COQUI CONTROL - My report - missydog1 - 10-02-2007
hey, enjoyed reading your saga a lot but sorry to hear the ending. I was waiting for the baking soda backpack sprayer too. Thanks for the heads up.
Citric acid does work for small infestations -- if you can hit the frog.
I live with frogs all around and I can handle the noise as long as it's not right close to the house. My advice, if you can do it, is to clear around your house plants and trees that are tall where you can't get the frogs. Make a lawn or something as a buffer zone. (that's what I have, a lawn, courtesy of the prior owner.)
Right now I have one outside that hopped across the lawn to some potted plants, but I know I can get it. At my last house I had big dracaena and a huge avo tree right by the house and it was impossible to get them at night.
yeah, all these biting stinging things get to me too. Hang in there!
RE: COQUI CONTROL - My report - Andrew - 10-02-2007
I made a similar experiment but on a much smaller scale. I hand caught a coqui and covered it on all sides with a thick coating of baking soda. After waiting several minutes it seemed perfectly normal. My conclusion was the same as yours but at least it didn't cost me $240.
Andrew
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RE: COQUI CONTROL - My report - Brad W - 10-03-2007
Coqui killer - 150 psi pump driven by a five horse four stroke drawing out of a 50 gallon tank. Mounted on a utility/lawn trailer it tows behind my mower/tractor. Individually switched lights mounted on each side. Two and a half cups of citric acid per gallon of water. Crank this baby up and pull the trigger, it lays the brush over flat. I only have to spray a few times a year to be relatively frog free. A lttle costly but what's the price of a good night's sleep?
No criticism intended here but please don't broadcast dry lime. Even if you take extreme measures to protect yourself, you have no way of knowing who or what will be exposed to it at any point in time in the future.
RE: COQUI CONTROL - My report - PunaLeigh - 10-03-2007
Thanks to all for your thoughts and feedback on this subject.
@Kathy:
My land is virgin ohia lehua on rough A`a lava. The house is in the middle and just an access red cinder lane to it. I built at this location because of the beautiful raw forest and the absolute quiet it has provided for years. So for me to create a cleared/deforested mote around the house would not only cost a lot of time or money, it would also take away the very thing I appreciate about the home: the ohia and their lehua blossoms, all the birds that gather, feed and nest there. The land around the house is very uneven with mounds of rough lava. It would take a bulldozer to make a cleared buffer zone or some very serious hand clearing; yes, a possibility.
@AkoniV:
Yeah I looked into the trapping experiments and it seems some of the PVC pipe traps have very limited success of 20 to 26%. And that is if you have lots of the traps and can actively clean the traps out regularly. Most of my land is really rough lava with lots of ups and downs, hard to walk through. I had thought of a making a trail around the perimeter of the property for this purpose, but that task is very daunting.
Then there is the method involving a captured male coqui in the plastic container with baking soda that kills (supposedly) the coqui as they look for the male. Both methods would likely work fairly well on a small, easily accessible lot.
I have a new neighbor that entirely cleared their five acres after purchase. They put their home in the center. I was appalled at seeing the forest cleared, it was home to two pair of pueo and countless other nesting birds… Now I kinda envy the fact they can easily keep the coqui from entering their property…
@Andrew:
Thanks for your test results.
@Brad W:
Thanks for that citric tank and pump option. As I mention above, I have no roads or paths to most of my land here, nor into my neighbors adjoining properties, so even if I had your system sitting in my driveway, I could not use it for more than the access lane and around the house. I can’t afford to make paths or roads even if I wanted to try that method.
If it comes down to a last stand, I will likely adopt something like your system and just periodically knock the coqui back as they approach my house.
I was stoked to tackle the coqui with the leaf-blower/baking soda method, even if it meant a monthly trek across rough land and doing my neighbors property too. There are still not many coqui in this area; we had a chance to keep them out, or at least hold them on our perimeters.
… I was really discouraged by my Blacksands test, as detailed in my original post.
RE: COQUI CONTROL - My report - Daniel - 10-03-2007
I heard a coqui at namakani paio the other day, I tried to find it but could not. I stomped the grass to kill it but I'm not sure I did. So if your looking for a beautiful place to save from coquis nows our chance.
Daniel R Diamond
RE: COQUI CONTROL - My report - Thunderfoot - 10-03-2007
Chickens and or ducks,geese whatever also work good.There are silent kinds of ducks too,so maybe that might help.Up here in Fern Forest now they have arrived,as well.I own several lots and care take two more in the very back of the subdivision.My only lot that does have poultry is quiet,and the ones without,well of course do.Hopes this helps.Have a great day
RE: COQUI CONTROL - My report - missydog1 - 10-03-2007
hi punaleigh, I understand the terrain issues now.
We weren't able to clear around our last house either.
We had a sprayer from Garden Exchange ($35) that could really send up a good stream of citric acid solution.
The frogs are on or near the ground in daytime and move up as the night continues, so our only shot with the tall trees was to go after them while still low. Drench the area the sound is coming from, cross our fingers, try again if at first not succeeding.
It's a pain, but works if you only have a few. If you have an entire forest area I just don't know how you can prevent the population from exploding.
My current property has a rain forest area on the other side of the lawn buffer, and the frogs are thick there, but being even 30-40 feet away that becomes a background noise ...
I too poured about a cup of baking soda right on a frog here and it is back. It wasn't in solution though, just dry.
After hearing all the issues with the hydrated lime, I think I'll stick with the citric acid. Hasn't hurt anything yet -- except a few frogs.
Wishing you luck.
RE: COQUI CONTROL - My report - Hotzcatz - 10-04-2007
I had high hopes for the baking soda solution! Drat! It seems pretty odd though, that this many people have gone so far down the Baking Soda Trail to not have it work. Someone in our neighborhood had a demonstration of a baking soda blower but I wasn't at the demo. Don't know if it was used on frogs or just to show how to blow the powder, either. I'll have to ask and see if/how they managed to make it work.
Chickens, even if they eat coqui also crow so it would be one noise source for another. Guinea fowl might be a reasonable frog control bird. They are noisy when disturbed but generally they are not noisy at night. (They also taste really good roasted!)
Maybe we can get a huge resurgence of nene and they can eat all the coqui.
RE: COQUI CONTROL - My report - Thunderfoot - 10-04-2007
AkoniV,
LOL,I like your mind...you make me laugh and it is peotic at the same time.