Workshop teaches
coqui frog control

Oahu residents can learn tomorrow how to safely use hydrated lime get rid of invasive coqui frogs.

A workshop at the Urban Garden Center in Pearl City is the latest in a series being offered by the state Department of Agriculture. Additional workshops on other islands are planned.

In late April, the Environmental Protection Agency approved hydrated lime (calcium hydroxide) as a way to kill the tiny and loud, non-native frogs.

Lime costs about one-tenth as much as the next-best coqui killer approved to date, citric acid. But it's not as easy to use.

"Mixing citric acid was about like mixing some 'Tang' (soft drink)," said Christy Martin, public information officer for the Coordinating Group on Alien Pest Species. In contrast, instructions for using hydrated lime include wearing long-sleeved clothes, rubber gloves and a respirator.

"Most folks that have used it so far are folks in the nursery industry who are already aware of using that type of material," Martin said.

The Agriculture Department has heard reports of some really dangerous misuses of hydrated lime -- like spreading the dry powder with a leaf blower -- so it wanted to provide lessons on its proper use, said Pesticides Branch Manager Robert Boesch.

"It's a very powdery substance, like flour, and it can cause irreversible eye damage, lung irritation and skin irritation" if mishandled, Boesch said.

How to correctly mix the lime with water and apply it will be covered at tomorrow's workshop, 9 a.m. to noon at the Urban Garden Center, 955 Kamehameha Highway in Pearl City.

Other scheduled workshops will be Wednesday on Maui, June 15 on Kauai, June 16 in Hilo and June 30 in Kona.

For more information on coqui-frog fighting techniques or future workshops, contact the Department of Agriculture at 973-9401 on Oahu; 974-4140 on the Big Island; 873-3555 on Maui; and 274-3069 on Maui; or visit http://www.hawaiiag.org/hdoa/pi_pest_forms.htm .