Coqui Frog Eradication

[Lee G]

Just Read that the coqui eat mosquitoes & cockroaches and centipedes & even termites.
http://www.hawaiiancoqui.org/aboutthecoqui.htm seems like a pro coqui website but interesting?

[leilaniguy]

This is Syd Singer's website, the biggest frog fan around, does anything he can to interfere with control/eradication efforts.

[HADave]

Coqui busting Team provides free training class in Hilo March 21st.

a meeting on how to safely and effectively use the Sprayer with hydrated lime and citric acid. the class is being put on by the State Dept of Agriculture The work groups will be providing demonstrations from 9 am through 12 pm at the Komohana Agriculture complex in Hilo, located on 875 Komohana St. The class is free and attendees will recieve a voucher for two free bags of hydrated lime reservations are required call Howard Lontoc at 961-8066....

Sorry for the late posting but perhaps they still have room and or will allow sign up for the next demonstration.

Aloha HADave

[pam jones]

Hey Dave
Hope it is getting warmer where you live. I went to the coqui meeting today and basically felt like three hours wasted as what I learned could be explained in less than a minute. Either I know more than I realized or it was not as informative as I had hoped, I actually left with more questions than answers. One good thing, there is some progress in that there are three laws in legislation right now in an attempt to declare the coqui an invasive species (what a revelation). If that passes the govt. would then have the right to go on your property and spray for the coqui, right now it is entirely the land owners choice whether to spray or ignore the problem - something I call Head Between the Lava syndrome. Much like the mainland Head in the sand theory. Also, although I did NOT, and much to my chagrin, get an affirmative answer on the longterm affects of chemical exposure I did learn that if the lime gets in your eyes it can cause permanent damage and total face, eye and body protection is needed as well as a protective apron when mixing the chemicals. The dept. of ag is adding 8 GIANT sprayers but you need a very large and powerful truck to tow, the trailer the sprayer is on even has brakes! They also have smaller ones as do several neighborhood associations or at least access to sprayers. Several of the people there expressed the same frustration I have and that is the inability to accomplish much when all you have the liberty to affect is your own yard while your neighbors with all the plants and frogs do nothing and won't let you do anything! It is the phychological equivalent of p=====g in the wind as you stand out there drenched in sweat covered from head to toe with protective everything wondering just what the heck you expect to accomplish knowing that the suckers are just one lot and one street away and that they will be back with friends and new eggs. For what it is worth please please please encourage the legislatures to speed this up, pass the bills and stop passing the buck. Because at this rate in just a very short time the almighty bucks will be drastically affected because if you lose the peace and quiet of a good nights sleep in this mecca of rest and relaxation and spiritual reconnectedness, people will start to change planes in HNL and keep on going east to find their tranquility. Sorry I am on a tangent. The meeting had about 100 people, many of whom were originally from the mainland. Thats my report and now I am really going to bed. G-nite. pj

[Bryce A.]

You can access the chemical and health hazard info for hydrated lime by googling the phrase “MSDS hydrated lime”. The information is readily available, and from what I can tell there should be no long term effects as it is not an organic compound. It is fairly dangerous if you get it in your eyes or mouth, and will irritate the skin but a good flushing with clear water takes care of it.
The coqui infestation battle on the whole is probably not entirely winnable unfortunately. You can certainly knock them down for a while, but like any animal that is presented the opportunity with room to expand into new habitat, they will continue unabated especially with the lack of few predators other than people. Should the hoary bat or other potential predators focus more on the coqui, a population stabilization will eventually occur. We may find that a predator that homes in on the frogs call will eventually cause an adaptation to quieting down as the males develop a different mating strategy. Too bad that takes a long time to happen, if at all. Eventually they may become so overpopulated that their food source is so depleted that they are controlled that way. Someone wrote in recently that introducing garter snakes might be a good idea, but they would be food for the mongoose and would likely not make it for that and other reasons. So spraying lime solution on a consistent basis is probably the most effective and overall least harmful action you can take for now.

[HADave]

Aloha PmJ Actually the weather is getting colder for us it has been the queerest year on record it was in the 50"s back in Jan and this week, first week of spring should be 50 but it is in the low 40s but sunny we have no snow and had very little this season and no below zero temps at all. We struggled through though. Thats to bad about the Coqui meeting I was hoping to hear it was full of good info and help for the many that are so put out by the little pests. Perhaps some federal funding or revs generated from these new tax payments will generate a bigger part played by the county. Anyway here is hoping. I hope you at least got to take advantage of the freebies. Well thanks for reporting on the meeting and should anymore insight on how to combat these pests come your way please pass it along to rest of us.

Yours in peace and quiet
HADave

[Carey]

Pam, My husband & I had a fairly simular reaction to the pesticide safety session. I was struck at how some of the people in the audience didn't seem to get that this was a safety presentation, and seemed to want to have the presentors tell them that they really didn't need safety equipment (esp. the 'watering can' lady).
The one thing I had not realized was that hydrated lime is NEVER to be used on food crops (including banana, ti, citrus, mac nuts or coffee). Since most of our trees & taller plants are in the food crops catagories, we are stuck with citric acid as our croquiside option (other than a big stick!)
Aloha, Carey

[Ironman]

My two cents:

I fully understand the problem that residents have with the sound that this particular tree frog species emits at night. I experienced it years ago while doing research on other indigenous endangered species (Puerto Rican Parrot) in Puerto Rico. I have also spent nights on my land in Puna so I have first hand knowledge of the issue. It is curious to note that in PR the Coqui have not completely over run the island and decimated or displaced all other creatures (birds, amphibians, insects, etc) in the ecosystem. So why is it our expectation that all of these negative outcomes will occur in Hawaii?

Please forgive me for trying to impart logic to quantify the perceived threat, but over and above the sound (nighttime vocalizations) I think it is a real stretch.

We as a nation have gotten used to having threats fabricated to get us to vote certain ways and to stimulate citizen based actions in support of “Special Interest Group” initiatives. I for one do not like being manipulated and would prefer to work collectively with my neighbors and community to solve problems constructively.

The proponents of this particular campaign have much to gain monetarily from a designation of the Coqui as an “Invasive Species”. Bear in mind that once such a designation is ratified, the Federal and State funding streams start which are then used to fill the “Slush Funds” of the respective officials. Those officials then on a cyclical basis continue to go through the motions (loaning out sprayers) of eradicating the problem with no real intention of solving the problem because if they do, the money source dries up.

It also reminds me of a similar “Fear Campaign” waged in my home state of Maryland a couple of years ago. Seems that someone released one or several Asian snakehead fish in a local lake. The fish propagated over a couple year period and when an angler caught the first adult fish, the hysteria started. The pond was poisoned, all fish and other life in the pond were killed. Not being satisfied, the local authorities then completely drained the pond to be sure that NOTHING was left! Well they succeeded, it has been almost four years and that pond is still a sterile wasteland. It took eons for that ponds ecosystem to evolve to the healthy state that it was in before all of the human intervention to protect us began. I might also add that the pond was on private property and the State completely ignored the owners property rights, trespassed and took the actions above. BTW, on a national basis the snakehead of which there are numerous sub-species has been identified in many states and is obviously here to stay.

Nothing is indigenous or native to Hawaii, get over it! Everything (plants, animals, birds, fungi, bacteria, etc) ALL have been introduced over time. That fact that certain unique species have evolved as a result of “Natural Selection” that are now considered “Native Hawiian Species” should not be a surprise to anyone except those that are proponents of “Intelligent Design”. The process is called evolution. Hawaii like the rest of our known universe is and will remain in a constant state of evolution or change.

I offer the following: The term invasive species refers to a subset of those species defined as introduced species or non-indigenous species. Invasive species can alter ecological relationships among native species and can affect ecosystem function, economic value of ecosystems, and human health. A species is regarded as invasive if it has been introduced by human action to a location, area, or region where it did not previously occur naturally (i.e., is not native), becomes capable of establishing a breeding population in the new location without further intervention by humans, and spreads widely throughout the new location. Natural range extensions are common in many species, but the rate and magnitude of human-mediated extensions in these species tend to be much larger than natural extensions, and the distances that species can travel to colonize are also often much greater with human agency (Cassey et al. 2005). The majority of introduced species do not cause significant ecological change or environmental harm because they exist primarily in habitats already subjected to intensive human alteration; such species may not be considered 'invasive'. Looks like we need to own up to the fact they we ourselves are the most threatening invasive species and in our normal daily activities we completely ignore the majority of our responsibilities as stewards of the land.

Now on to something constructive so that folks that are really having a problem can collectively take action and feel that they are having a positive impact on their quality of life. The current manual (Band-Aid) approaches that are being suggested/employed such as hand spraying various chemicals into the environment will have a much more negative impact on the ecosystem and environment of Hawaii than the Coqui individually. Further these small scale attempts will never eliminate the problem. I would like to suggest that we as a community ask our State and Local representatives to support research and efforts to address the entire problem scientifically. What I am referring to is biological http://www.ctahr.hawaii.edu/coqui/bio_control.asp and genetic http://www.ctahr.hawaii.edu/coqui/genetic_control.asp control approaches. These two approaches, once validated, if implemented concurrently and in a systematic fashion hold the most promise for a viable long term solution. I ask you all to arm yourself with knowledge so we can collectively make informed decisions about how best to manage this issue and to preserve the land, environment, and place (Hawaii) that we all love so much. We can achieve the best possible optimal solution if we remove our emotions from the equation and work together.

Mahalo,




Will Peratino

[mella l]

Thank you Will for your two cents. Sometimes I think the more we know the behinder we get! That was a well thought out post and much food for thought. Particularly the manipulation part, which inspired me to do the reading once again.

This is a diverse view and I for one appreciate it, as I too fall for the sky is falling sometimes. I'm just out the door but will post more on this Coqui business when I can digest the articles more indepth.

Aloha,
Mella L

mella l

[pam jones]

Ironman,
How well we all appreciate your well thought out and intelligent post. Forgive my ever so blunt invitation, but untill YOU spend more than "A few nights on your Puna property,"kindly refrain from lecturing those who have to suffer through the night with the constant drone of these uninvited monsters and get up at 5:30a.m. to go to work. Obviousely I am emotionally involved and actually could offer more than "two cents worth," but I'm a lady and have manners and will execise my right to now sign off before I word my feelings just a little more strongly than this thread likes. Sincerely tired of the wasted b.s. and foot dragging on an ever growing problem that you, sir, can't possibly begin to appreciate. Pam Jones