Whatever
Happened To...
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Spray was ‘pretty successful’
against Wahiawa coqui frogsQuestion: Whatever happened to the coqui frogs sprayed with citric acid last month?
Answer: The Sept. 8 citric acid spray using a 100-gallon sprayer to control coqui frogs in Wahiawa was "pretty successful," according to Nilton Matayoshi, chief for the Chemical/Mechanical Control Section of the state Department of Agriculture's Pest Control Branch.
Though beloved in their native Puerto Rico, the quarter-sized frogs emit a loud call. On the Big Island, where coqui populations have soared, the sound of numerous frogs in concert have become an extreme nuisance on the Big Island.
Government agencies hope to control the problem on Oahu, where Wahiawa is the only location of a wild population.
A crew went out Wednesday night and found no frogs in the treated area except for a section of a large bamboo thicket located in a ravine located between two residential areas.
The bamboo is so dense, it makes it difficult to penetrate, Matayoshi said.
Matayoshi said there are a small number frogs, probably less than six, in the residential areas in the Laniloa Place area.
Federal and state workers are going into the area with backpack sprayers to eliminate remaining frogs.
Workers from the state Department of Agriculture and Department of Land and Natural Resources, the U.S. Army's environmental division and the Oahu Invasive Species Committee take turns monitoring the area in two-week shifts.
In 2001 and 2002, an estimated 100 frogs were picked by hand each year, but remaining frogs multiplied and the population grew again.
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