The Plague of Frogs

jpbostic writes "According to this article on MSNBC, ag folks in Hawaii were considering using powdered caffeine to help rid themselves of an infestation of frogs from Puerto Rico. The EPA's application regulations apparently proved too burdensome and the stuff sits in a warehouse. If the EPA is really concerned with the danger, they should investigate the coffee in some restaurants *quoth the caffeine addict*. :-)"

Re:Frogs on caffeine

[dagoalieman]

No, you're not the only one, but IIRC it won't happen.

I **vaguely** recall hearing that the caffiene has an adverse effect on their nervous system, in essense blocking the signals from the brain and to the brain. As in once they get it in them (dunno if it's absorption or consumption) they just don't move.. and shut down.

Someone please correct me. That's so vague on details that I'm SURE I've at least got part, if not all of it, wrong. Hopefully the real solution is better than freezing to death, though...

.

I thought amphibians were disappearing?

[geoffsmith]

Amphibians, particularly frogs, are supposed to be an indicator species for pollution. From all accounts I've read they are dying off in great numbers around the world. Maybe because the live near the surface of the water, they are more sensitive to things like acid rain?

So why all the frogs? Hawaii... also Australia has also had a heck of a time with frogs, and in BC we've had a problem with huge frogs (the tadpoles are the size of your fist, and mature frogs so big they have been eating the ducks!) Just seems like contradictory evidence to me, maybe some species are heartier than others?

Websurfing done right! StumbleUpon [stumbleupon.com]

About coqui

[Anonymous Coward]

I live in Puerto Rico. I've always been thaught that coquis can not live outside of Puerto Rico, so their appearance in Hawaii comes as a surprise to me. The coqui is a "pet of sorts" here, if you bought a souvenir T-Shirt it would most likely have the picture of a coqui in it.

They are rarely heard in cities but they abound in other areas. I know of foreigners how can not handle the sound at first, but after awhile they get accustomed, just like us. (Maybe in Hawaii it got REALLY out of control.) If you can spot a coqui alone (that is, not in deafeaning armies), you'll probably agree that they are quite OK.

At one point coquis were believed to be headed for extinction.

A Potentially Lucrative Proposition… :-)

[NOT-2-QUICK]

First, approximately halfway through the article, we come to learn that "At one point, a hotel was paying bounty hunters $75 a frog, dead or alive."

We then learn later in the article that some areas possess frog population densities of up to "20,000 individuals an acre".

Now perhaps it is just me, but does this not sound as though it could be a quite lucrative prospect for a person with the appropriate amount of ingenuity and good old-fashioned entrepreneurial spirit... Just with some quick math, the potential industry of ridding the islands from the scourge of uninvited amphibians could be worth as much as $1.5 million per acre.

Of course, this is purely theoretical and such activities would hardly amount to such monetary windfalls, but it does make you think!!!

Coqui, the only frogs with no tadpoles

[XBL]

These frogs are being studied for their evolutionary traits. Right from the egss hatch the frogs, as there is no intermediate state of a tadpole.

Maybe the lack of an intermediate stage has made this species even more hardy, and therefore more prevalent in Hawaii.

No matter what, the Coqui are there to stay in Hawaii. They will just have to get used to it.

Re:Photos

[Anonymous Coward]

Hmm... those look familiar. I remember back in 6th grade or so, these things (or something that looked remarkably similar to them) descended upon the suburbs of Phoenix, AZ in droves. I remember finding them under ever rock I picked up, all over my friends' yards (they didn't like mine all that much... must've been the cat), and generally pretty much everywhere (being 6th grade, we all had loads of fun putting them in the desks in the classrooms). I guess the irrigated suburbs weren't too much of a desert for 'em. But I haven't seen any since (6th grade was '90-'91 if I remember correctly). Anybody care to speculate on how they got wiped out? I'd say it was the winter (with no cloud cover at night, it can get pretty nippy occasionally) except that they'd have to have spent an entire season breeding to overtake as much territory as they did that year... unless the winter before was milder than usual or something like that.

Re:Slow hunters?

[kcelery]

That does not work. Some area in southern China had such policy before in catching rats. Those guys who were rewarded for the catch found the business is profitable they start buying rats from the neighboring areas, or even farming rats.

Being a /.-er from PR ...

[flk]

So I sit here in front of my PC, catching my daily dose of /. when I come across this interesting post.

Considering the fact that I am not an Hawaiian ecologist, I do not understand the dangers of the coquí's presence in Hawaii. Here, on its native island, it is harmless and it had been rumored that it couldn't survive anywhere else outside of PR. To think that it has survived in Hawaii must be exciting news for Puerto Rican ecologists ... but as the saying goes: one man's trash is another man's treasure ... of course, this case, it is the other way around.

Yes, the coquís are cute and tiny and chirp like it's nobody's business. Their half female-attracting, half male-warning calls are not annoying. Raining season coming in, the night is filled with "co-QUI co-QUI" -- it really does make for a pleasant natural soundtrack.

Spiders and Caffeine

[Anonymous Coward]

This is a spider's web. This is a spider's web on caffeine.

(pic [cannabis.net])

(Trust me, the link is relevant.)

Any questions?

Caffeine is a drug that seems to have a stronger impact on small animals.