coqui

[Devany]

We rented a house in the Kehena Beach area in Feb. of 2006. At night you could hear the surf... nothing else except an occasional car without a muffler (someone could make a mint with a muffler shop in Puna!) driving up the hill. In February 2007... we heard what we thought was "a" singular singing frog. "Oh how charming!" We had been to many Caribbean islands before with singing frogs, not the Coqui, but noise makers none the less. We also lived on a lake near Chicago where we had lots of tree frogs and cicadas... both made noise, but we considered it natural noise....noise with charm. And we have lived in downtown Chicago where sirens and traffic were constant noises not charming but to be expected in a major urban area. In May of 2007 we rented the house again for a month... this time there were probably 30 or 40 Coqui frogs in residence on the 1/4 acre lot. Part of the problem is that the owners had planted a great deal of bromeliads and we had rain nearly every night. Perfect breeding ground for the Coqui. It was not deafening but we could no longer hear the surf and it certainly was not as charming as when there was just one.

Then we went to visit Barbara Fahs' Hi''iaka's Healing Garden in HPP for an article I was writing for Edible Hawaiian Islands Magazine. Barbara wrote the book Super Simple Guide to Creating Hawaiian Gardens. She also writes the column, "The Healthful Herbalist" for the Hawaii Island Journal. She has established a large natural garden on a lava bed in HPP. She had recently been to a symposium on the Coqui Frogs and the danger that they present to Hawaii. While we were there, Barbara had workers tearing out hundreds of her beautiful bromeliads because they were home to the Coqui and she is one of those people who cannot sleep when they are making noise. According to her, unchecked they can grow to numbers of 40,000 or more per acre. THAT would drive anyone nuts. Since they have no "natural" predators in Hawaii, this is a serious problem. Later I did learn from people in Honokaa and Kukuihale that when chickens are allowed to run free on property the frog population remains in check. There are still a few of them, but for the most part they are eradicated. That makes a lot more sense to me than citric acid or spraying pesticides and government spraying.

A note about government spraying. I lived in Costal South Carolina where mosquitos were a serious problem. They had trucks and airplanes spraying chemicals all over at night. It was so spooky. There was no voice given to the public about this issue. The bottom line is that the government thought it was good for the people... period.

All I know is I am getting some chickens in January as soon as we get into our house! Anybody know where I can get them?

Aloha au i Hawai`i,
devany

Devany Vickery-Davidson
East Bay Potters
www.eastbaypotters.com