This Tiny Frog Makes a Big Racket!

Since day one the islands of Hawaii have been a magnet for all sorts of life forms that could make the long journey from anywhere else on the planet to the islands. Because we are surrounded by 2000 miles of ocean in any direction the sea has provided a formidable barrier for thousands and even millions of years. When man first came all that changed and one by one the various life forms from the outside world began to arrive in Hawaii.

One of the very last to show probably came in the early 1990’s and was thought to have arrived on the Big Island with plants that were being shipped to a plant nursery from Florida. This was of course the Coqui Frog. Only the size of a quarter or so this tiny frog has a croak that has the same decibel strength as a lawn mower. It’s two tone mating call, though exotic, is a disturbance from dusk to dawn and the fact that the infestation includes thousands and thousands of individual frogs makes the racket caused by these tiny creatures all that more insidious.
The problem has become so immense on the Big Island that in those areas of infestation which are considered ground zero, only maintenance is a possible option. Maintenance options include spraying with either a citrus or a coffee solution and this will help keep them at bay. The other islands have had pockets of infestation but have thus far been able to either have eradicated them totally or restricted them to small areas.

In addition to the loud noises these pests also devastate the insect populations making it difficult for pollination in plants to take place.