Maui Invasive Species Committee (MISC)

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Community Coqui Control Progam – September 2020

Posted on September 23, 2020 by MISC

All four of the Haʻikū neighborhoods involved in the MISC Community Coqui Control Program held work weeks during August. One of the communities, Haʻikū Mauka, had record participation: the community worked together to treat half the properties in the neighborhood and collectively contributed 24 hours of effort helping each other remove coqui frogs. 

In the Lower Kokomo neighborhood, more residents learned how to operate the citric acid pipeline that is installed in their neighborhood gulch, further empowering them to keep the coqui frogs out of their backyards! 

Haʻikū residents work together to bring back quiet nights to their neighborhoods.

The MISC Community Coqui Control team held the first  Virtual Block Party with the Lower Kokomo neighborhood. MISC staff presented results of their neighborhood effort over the first year and discussed future plans for the program. The highlight was that the community reported hearing fewer coqui frogs in the neighborhood since the program began! MISC plans to hold Virtual Block Parties with each of the neighborhoods we currently work in before the end of the year. 

MISC will continue community spray weeks on a  6-week rotation through the fall. To further empower local residents to control coqui frogs in their own yards  MISC is offering small, in-person training sessions to learn how to use the equipment available from our community loan program. Community members with coqui frogs in their yards are encouraged to recruit a few neighbors and contact Susan (skfrett@hawaii.edu or 808-633-6646) to sign up for this training opportunity. Participants will learn how to use different sized sprayers, mix the correct percentage of citric acid solution, safely treat their yards and clean the equipment.  Any efforts that community members can take to control coqui frogs in their own yards frees up the MISC coqui crew to work in the gulches and other challenging locations.

September Updates on other species here:

Plant Crew – September 2020
Rapid ʻŌhiʻa Death response: In response to community reports, Mike Ade collected two samples for possible Rapid ʻŌhiʻa Death: one ...
Read More
Molokai/Maui Invasive Species Committee -September 2020
Removing upside-down jellyfish from Kaunakakai harbor sometimes takes partners, as when DLNR divers helped out several years ago. The Molokai ...
Read More
Coqui Crew – September 2020
From July through September, the coqui crew worked throughout Haʻikū on populations of frogs near the Kauhikoa Reservoir, the Five ...
Read More
Community Coqui Control Progam – September 2020
All four of the Haʻikū neighborhoods involved in the MISC Community Coqui Control Program held work weeks during August. One ...
Read More
Early Detection, Outreach, and Education – September 2020
Early Detection:No news is good news, at least from the early detection team. Forest and Kim Starr surveyed the Kahului ...
Read More
Little Fire Ant Crew – September 2020
Little fire ants can climb and so can our crew. Paul Moneymaker scales a steep hillside while surveying for little ...
Read More

All Updates

Filed Under: Community Program Updates, Update Tagged With: community coqui control program, September 2020

Coqui – April/May 2020

Posted on May 27, 2020 by MISC

Kayani Singh, Teri Green, and Scott Winter following physical distancing guidelines while searching for coqui. Photo by Megan Archibald

As preparations were being made for MISC’s coqui crew to safely do fieldwork during Covid-19, the field crew had the opportunity to have an extended experience of MISC’s “Coqui College.” Utilizing virtual meetings, the crew met daily in video and voice chat rooms. They created site response plans, trained new staff, and watched selected presentations from prior Hawai’i Conservation Conferences. Our current crew includes Abe Vandenberg, Coqui Crew Coordinator; Darrell Aquino and Scott Winter, Field Crew Leaders; and Megan Archibald, Teri Green, and Kayani Singh, Field Crew. MISC is currently hiring additional staff. 

Additionally, MISC’s new Coqui Community Engagement Coordinator, Susan Frett, joined Beth Speith on the coqui community project in early March. While unable to engage directly with community members in person due to Covid-19, they developed and implemented an online questionnaire to determine how MISC could further empower community members to control coqui frogs in their yards. Susan and Beth collected, analyzed, and are now following up on feedback to improve the community program going forward. 

Based in part on questionnaire responses, the crew has been out hunting down single frogs, doing habitat work, and spraying smaller amounts of citric to tackle outlying single frogs and small populations. One response alerted the crew to a previously unknown small pocket of frogs in a challenging wildland location. This area likely expanded from a known population of frogs in Haʻikū and is now being controlled. The resident who initially reported this infestation sent this update: “I woke up at 3 am and took a moment to listen outside. I didn’t hear any coqui! I will listen again this evening. Mahalo to you and the crew!”

For a full report on what we learned from the questionnaire please check out this blog post: Results from the coqui community engagement questionnaire

At the same time, the coqui community team has been busy empowering residents to control coqui on their own. The team is distributing citric acid use for frog control using the no contact food delivery model. Between April 17th and May 9th, MISC staff delivered 633 pounds of citric to 17 separate locations around Haʻikū so residents can control coqui in their own yards. Citric deliveries will be available for as long as the MISC baseyard remains closed to the public. Small (1.28 lb) and large (50 lb) bags are available for residents to use in their own yards. Please get in touch with Susan at (808) 633-6646 or skfrett@hawaii.edu to request citric if needed.

No Contact Citric Delivery
No-contact citric delivery, May 2020

As the weather continues to warm into the summer months the frogs will be more vocal. Please let us know what you are hearing especially if you hear them in a new area. We cannot always respond to reports right away but do prioritize responding to reports of frogs in new areas. Please report if you hear frogs where you haven’t heard them before. As this Maui resident said, “this neighborhood does not have coqui frogs YET.  If I were to hear one or more I would immediately inform my neighbors and urge ACTION!” Thanks for your enthusiasm! 

Report coqui frogs using the MISC Coqui Report form.

Community reporting alerted MISC and the Hawaii Department of Agriculture to coqui frogs at a larger nursery in central Maui in mid-May. Check out the story on our blog!

Filed Under: Community Program Updates, Update Tagged With: April/May 2020, community coqui control program, coqui frog crew

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Maui Invasive Species Committee (MISC)
Office: (808) 573-6472
Press and Media Inquiries: (808) 344-2756
Mailing Address:
PO Box 983, Makawao, HI 96768

Acting Manager / Public Relations: Lissa Strohecker
E-mail: miscpr@hawaii.edu

Special Projects: Teya Penniman
E-mail: miscmgr@hawaii.edu

Statewide Pest Hotline: 808-643-PEST
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