Kermit Gone Wild!

"Say Hello to my little friend!"

Sorry, folks...  no long, drawn-out stories today.  Pretty uneventful up on the farm.  I thought about trying to make something up, but I think it would pale in comparison to the things that actually happen around here.

So instead I've decided to share with you another small aspect of life on the Big Island.  Namely, Coqui Frogs.

For those of you who have never heard of these guys, here's the ever-handy wikipedia article.  Basically this is a little tree frog, endemic to Puerto Rico (where, by the way, they are loved), which hides well, eats bugs, and is generally unnoticed until the sun begins to set.  At this point, the males starting chirping, with a distinct "Koh-KEE!"  It is impressive, at first experience that such a loud noise could come from such a small frog (about one inch in length, typically).

When I moved here, it was pretty clear that there was some hatred of these frogs.  Having them here on the property, I knew they were a bit of an annoyance, and given that they're a non-native invasive species, I could understand the concern, but hatred?  Really?  They mostly keep their distance from our homes, and while they do make noise, it's not that bad.  But to characterize the vehemence with which they're hated here, in a search online for a list of frogs found on the Big Island, all I could find were references to Coquis and Greenhouse Frogs, and the only mention of the latter was how to tell them apart from the former.  After trying several keyword combinations, and looking at the first four to five pages of search results for each, I finally gave up.

And then I went to Hawaiian Paradise Park after dark.  The coquis were all but deafening.  They were everywhere, unseen but certainly heard.  The guy we were there to see seemed to pay no mind to them, but I'm sure some nights after a couple of beers, he could easily sit on his porch in serious consideration of burning the forest down.  And I probably wouldn't blame him.

The other thing you have to keep in mind is that you're only hearing half of the frogs out there.  Only the male chirps.

In a blatantly obvious (and clearly successful) attempt to get some more quality Cameronomicon face-time (just kidding, guys), Gary and Janice sent over some photos of some coqui eggs they found on their property.

While Gary and Janice do what they can to keep the frogs away from the house, they don't go to the lengths that some others do.  The other night we had a woman visiting, and she stayed for dinner.  At her house, they had not had any Coquis at all.  And then, down in the valley below her house, she heard one,  A common method of control is the application of citric acid, as Coquis will die under direct contact.  This lady and her neighbor across the valley, hired a truck of citric acid, sprayed the whole forest below, and then waited.  That night they heard the frog again.  So they sprayed again.  and that got it.  All of that time, energy, and money to kill one or two tiny frogs may seem a bit extravagant, but I see her perspective as well.  We don't have them bad up here, but they've certainly increased in number since I've arrived.

To be fair, there are plenty advantages to having Coquis around (at least in that they eat mosquitoes and other pest bugs), and there's a lot of argument on both sides.  If you're interested in looking into that, please feel free.  But personally, it gives me a headache.