Tag: coqui frog

March 31, 2014 General Ag News and Notes Post a Comment

Invasive species bill has good intention, serious consequences

A Maui coffee farmer said controlling invasive species such as the notorious coqui frog and fire ant is a Big Island problem.

“They already have them, we don’t. Why put the cost on us?” asked Bobbie Becker, owner of Maui Mountain Coffee Farm. “They’ve got it there.”

Becker is a supporter of state Senate Bill 2347, which soon will be taken up by the House Finance Committee.

The legislation, written as an attempt to control the interisland spread of invasive species to the local agriculture industry, was amended last Friday. Parts of the bill would prohibit the transportation of the pests and establishes penalties for violations, including language that would require any commercial entity that transports the invasive species to pay a fine equal to the value of the infested shipment.

Eric Tanouye, president of Hawaii Floriculture and Nursery Association and vice president of Green Point Nurseries, called the bill “a detriment to the Big Island.”

“They are distracting, and distracting all of us from the main objective,” he said. “How do we make ag thrive on the Big Island and in the State of Hawaii?”

Springer Kaye, manager of the Big Island Invasive Species Committee, said the committee agrees with the intent of the bill, but does not support SB 2347 and thinks it puts the Big Island at a disadvantage.

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March 30, 2014 General Ag News and Notes Post a Comment

Invasive species bill stirs debate

A Maui coffee farmer said controlling invasive species such as the coqui frog and fire ant is a Big Island problem.

“They already have them, we don’t. Why put the cost on us?” asked Bobbie Becker, owner of Maui Mountain Coffee Farm. “They’ve got it there.”

Becker is a supporter of state Senate Bill 2347 — written as an attempt to control the spread of invasive species to the local agriculture industry — which soon will be taken up by the House Finance Committee.

Parts of the bill would prohibit the transportation of the pests and establishes penalties for violations, including language that would require any commercial entity that transports invasive species to pay a fine equal to the value of the infested shipment.

Eric Tanouye, president of Hawaii Floriculture and Nursery Association and vice president of Green Point Nurseries, called the bill “a detriment to the Big Island.”

“They are distracting, and distracting all of us from the main objective,” he said. “How do we make ag thrive on the Big Island and in the State of Hawaii?”

Springer Kaye, manager of the Big Island Invasive Species Committee, said the committee agrees with the intent of the bill, but does not support SB 2347 and thinks it puts the Big Island at a disadvantage.

“Unfortunately, SB 2347 specifically targets the already struggling horticulture and agriculture economy on the Island of Hawaii, without providing any appropriation to re-establish the state programs required to effectively stop the spread of invasive species,”

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September 12, 2012 General Ag News and Notes Post a Comment

Group asks for help fighting alien frogs on Oahu

The Oahu Invasive Species Committee is asking Oahu residents to participate tonight in “Go Out and Listen Night!” to help listen for invasive coqui frogs and report if they hear coqui frogs in their area or not.

Twenty coqui frogs have been captured on Oahu since the beginning of 2012, the committee said.

The frogs are known for their sharp “ko-Kee” calls. There are no established populations of coqui frogs on Oahu, but they continue to “hitchhike” to the island in shipments from the Big Island.

The Oahu Invasive Species Committee is asking residents with smartphones to go outside tonight between 7:30 and 8 p.m., listen for 15 minutes for the signature “ko-KEE” call of the coqui frog, and report what they heard using the free “Honolulu 311” smartphone app. The group is asking residents to report if they did or did not hear a coqui frog in their area.

Details on how to participate, what a coqui frog sounds and looks like, and step by step instructions on how to use the “Honolulu 311” app can be found at www.coqui311.blogspot.com.

Residents without a smartphone can report coqui frogs by emailing the Oahu Invasive Species Committee at oisc@hawaii.edu or by calling the State Pest Hotline, 643-PEST (643-7378).

Group asks for help fighting alien frogs on Oahu – Hawaii News – Honolulu Star-Advertiser

July 14, 2012 General Ag News and Notes Post a Comment

Coquis taking a toll on Hawaii island bug life

Invasive coqui frogs are subtly altering the ecosystem of Hawaii island as they gobble up mites, ants and other bugs and leave behind droppings that attract flies, scientists conclude.

While the tiny frogs, native of Puerto Rico, are known for their loud and often maddening cries, they also are taking a toll on the Hawaii island environment, according to Ryan Choi and Karen Beard, with the Department of Wildland Resources at Utah State.

Researchers with headlamps fanned out across the island over four months in 2009, collecting frogs, and analyzed their stomach contents.

They also collected “leaf litter” at sites where coquis are abundant and also where they are not. Dead leaves are where many of the bugs that coquis eat reside, but the teams also collected bugs that live in foliage.

The results, published in the May issue of the journal Biological Invasions: Where coqui populations are dense, the number of leaf litter bugs fell by 27 percent and mites alone by 36 percent.

The number of flies was nearly one-fifth greater where coquis are prevalent, Choi and Beard found.

The research teams collected leaf litter in 10-inch-by-10-inch patches and extracted the bugs, which they then identified using a dissecting microscope. They also used vacuums to suck up the bugs for analysis.

Flies were collected with sticky traps.

In all, they collected 21,382 invertebrates (not all of them insects) at the coqui-populous sites and 28,184 from the largely coqui-free sites.

“Across 15 sites on the island of Hawaii, we found that coqui frogs were associated with a reduction in the total number of leaf-litter invertebrates, primarily Acari,” the scientists reported, referring to the group of arachnids that includes mites and ticks.

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June 23, 2010 General Ag News and Notes Post a Comment

Tree plan introduces bugs

Brazilian insect could slow growth of nonnative strawberry guava tree

The state is once again seeking approval to release a Brazilian scale insect into Hawaii forests to control the spread of the popular but environmentally needy strawberry guava tree.

    495,000
    Acres already densely infested
    680,000
    Acres of native forest areas that could become densely infested at current rates of growth
    133,000
    Acres of native forest not yet threatened

The state Department of Agriculture is expected to release an environmental assessment today, and the public will have 30 days to weigh in on the controversial bio-control initiative, which has been hotly debated for the past two years.

The assessment notes that the nonnative strawberry guava, which does not have a natural predator in Hawaii, crowds out native plants and animals and reduces the amount of water in soil, streams and groundwater systems by as much as 50 percent during dry periods. According to information cited in the study, strawberry guava also threatens Hawaiian archaeological sites and supports the proliferation of fruit flies, which can damage commercial produce.

"At its current trajectory, strawberry guava will take over all native plants statewide unless something is done," said Christy Martin, public information officer for the Coordinating Group on Alien Pest Species, which coordinates alien pest responses by the state departments of Agriculture, Health, Land and Natural Resources and other agencies.

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March 17, 2010 General Ag News and Notes Post a Comment

Manoa’s elusive, night-shrieking coqui frog finally bagged | The Honolulu Advertiser

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It took a lot of trying, but the lone Mānoa coqui frog has been captured.

The presence of the coqui, known for its piercing, loud shrieks, had dismayed residents of Melemele Place, a quiet dead-end road on the east side of Mānoa Valley. Neighbors went out on many nights trying to catch the frog, which is about the size of a quarter (typical for the species).

The problem was every time residents went looking for it, their flashlights would scare the frog into silence.

"I would hear it and go out there and it would stop, so I would turn off my flashlight and just wait in the dark," said Laka Preis Carpenter, who lives on that street and went on several frog-hunting missions.

The recent cold and windy weather also foiled the hunt. Department of Agriculture inspectors went out to the area to hunt for the frog two weeks ago in less than optimal weather, but were unsuccessful.

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