La Nina coming

The La Nina weather conditions are coming...basically this means wetter/colder conditions then we have been experiencing this past year. The frogs will be on the move and we'll find out just how bad the infestation is. Governor Abercrombie has appointed Senator Russell Kokubun to head the Department of Agriculture which can only give us a better chance at raising the interest in eradicating this invasive spp.

A different female

These 5 are all mottled...



Here's a non-typical female coqui with "palomino" type patches on her. This area has a high percentage of the mottled type frogs that don't change skin color even with temperature changes.
The male and 2 other females mottled skin were much more visable until it started to heat up but as you can see the other 2 are still showing the pattern and never change. So....camoflage = better survival rate..= pass on the stronger skin pigment or?? let's get that grant and study it!

Large female

And tennis ball from the dog...


Caught this female tonight and measured her against a quarter then laid out on a ruler.
No eggs yet so she'll get even bigger in the next few weeks.

County Council Meeting

Attended the CC meeting and met some new folks with new ideas, much needed. Dr. Davis brought in "ACS" or acidified calcium sulfate which has gotten great results from the people using it so keep an ear open for the progress of this as it moves thru. Also met the State Coqui Coordinator, Raymond, who is working with a minimal crew towards keeping the native forest coqui free. People are still in groups using the county sprayers but may lose them to the budget crunch happening everywhere, let's hope they don't give up. Brenda Ford is working towards raising the awareness of the coqui frog issues and keep the public informed.
As stated earlier in this blog California has made the coqui a "restricted" pest and you need a permit to transport it, this is potentially bad news as our shipments pass through their ports and coqui's can survive for months with no food or water. Several areas in CA have established populations now and like us don't have the funds to do a sufficient job in controlling it.
As a side note Waimanalo on Oahu has reported the coqui's getting worse and the map of infestations on that island is growing much as it did here, they need to use more than just citric acid or they'll end up just like the Big Island....
Let's get our States Senior Senators looking at this and perhaps the White House can give us some relief...please.

Kona Frog Control Groups

Talked with the groups from Captain Cook about coqui control methods along with others who graciously shared there experience to the over 100 people attending. Here's their blogspot address... http://hawaiicoquifrogblog.blogspot.com
Mahalo to Jimmy,Jean,Bob,and Kathryn
ps. great 100% Kona coffee!

Female eating male

Had put these 3 coqui's into a plastic container to take photographs and left them overnight and in the morning found that the larger female was attempting to eat the male. The second photo is of the 2 females with the regurgitated partially digested male, I thought she would have perished with her mouth opened like that for approx. 24hours.

Hawaii Reporter Coqui article

Malia Zimmerman was on KHON's news the other week saying how she had a male coqui calling in her yard...then after 3 days it stopped calling, I emailed her and said "let's hope it's not sitting on eggs" and gave her my blogspot address. She emailed me back asking if I'd like to write a short couple of paragraphs about the coqui..so here's the link to the story. In the same story Gene Ward has started a coqui watch group for the HawaiiKai area and I've included his link as well.
Nice to see communities starting early on this issue.

http://www.hawaiireporter.com/story.aspx?23f7a6b0-f317-4e9c-9623-5ebd395072d4
http://www.genewardhawaii.com