Efforts to combat coqui frogs dwindling

KAILUA-KONA — There’s that sound again.

“Ko-kee! Ko-kee!”

The mating call of the male coqui frogs is pervasive and persistent across Hawaii Island, not to mention piercing. And as night descends on Pualani Estates in Kona, particularly between the months of May and November, Stan Chraminski makes sure his earplugs are handy.

“To me, it’s like water dripping,” Chraminski said. “It keeps you awake.”

Disrupting tourism and decreasing property values, the one-inch frogs populate Hawaii Island at roughly 55,000 per hectare — a unit of area representing 100 ares or 2.471 acres — according to the Department of Land and Natural Resources (DLNR).

They have spread out across the island by way of nursery plants, flowers and hitching rides on vehicles.

Coqui have no natural predators or competitors on the island, says the DLNR, and impact ecosystems by consuming huge numbers of insects, which help pollinate plants.

“As long as there’s a plant, there are frogs,” said Tyler Deniz, an employee at Ka Ohi Coqui Control. “It’s gotten worse on the west side of the island. In 2010, there were only a small number of frogs in Honaunau. Now there is almost no silence. The county and the state definitely need to get on some kind of schedule for regular area maintenance.”

But any sort of funding plan is unlikely. The state and county have prioritized invasive species efforts to combat those which pose significant threats to human health. While noise pollution is considered a health issue, Coqui clamor poses no direct physical danger to humans.

“Funding for invasive species overall has not decreased, but there are so many issues it is a matter of prioritizing,” said Rep. Nicole Lowen, who represents the District 6 areas of Kailua-Kona, Holualoa, Kalaoa and Honokohau. “Coqui Frogs drive me as crazy as they drive everybody else, but they would be virtually impossible to eradicate. It’s now more of a matter of (developing) a community-driven effort.”

In the name of peace and a reasonable amount of quiet, Chraminski is trying to do just that, organizing an anti-coqui group within Pualani Estates.

Education and at least partial eradication efforts on a large scale are difficult to sustain, however, especially as public funds dry up. Coqui-Free Waimea, an action group with a track record of some success battling its auditory tormentors over the past few years, almost shut down in 2016 because of a lack of funding.

A private donation of $2,500 kept the program afloat, but coqui-killing block parties are events of the past. The group has shrunk to only one member, C.J. Davis, who mans a listed phone number and provides Waimea residents with materials and instructions for mixing citric acid spray — the government-sanctioned instrument of coqui disposal.

“The only thing these frogs are good for is getting to know your neighbors,” Davis laughed.

Davis utilizes a voucher program sponsored by the Hawaii County Economic Council in Hilo, which provides unlimited 50-pound bags of citric acid mix for $50 per bag. Davis is looking for private contractors to man a 400-gallon spray tanker his organization has on loan from the county, hoping to use old donations to fund a few nightly hours of work.

Citric acid has proven somewhat effective, but only in dry conditions. If a frog makes it to a water source or if it’s raining, it will likely survive. The problem is that rainy conditions tend to produce the most consistent coqui activity in the grass, bushes and trees the frogs populate.

The citric acid should also be rinsed from plants roughly an hour after use to avoid plant damage or death, but that doesn’t always happen.

One employee of Ka Ohi Coqui Control said regardless of treatment methods, full elimination of the frogs is next to impossible as their numbers are simply too prolific.

“Consistency is key,” he said, “but no matter what, some coqui will go on to sing another day.”