HONOLULU (HawaiiNewsNow) – To celebrate its second anniversary, the Coqui Frog Task Force announced it has captured nearly 4,000 invasive frogs by hand and is encouraging more volunteers to join.<\/p>\n
The task force, established in 2024, is made up of volunteers who work along with professionals from the Department of Land and Natural Resources (DLNR), Division of Forestry and Wildlife (DOFAW), the Department of Agriculture and Biosecurity (DAB) and the Oahu Invasive Species Committee (OISC).<\/p>\n
DLNR said coqui frogs can reach much higher densities in Hawaii than in their native habitat, producing piercing mating calls and preying on native insects.<\/p>\n
The task force meets every Thursday to hike in the dark, listening for the distinctive croaking of the coqui frog. After a frog is spotted, crews capture it by hand or in a long tube and turn it over to DAB for recording and analysis.<\/p>\n
Dave Day, DLNR deputy director, recently participated in a coqui capture night in Waimanalo.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe problem is serious, but motivation and morale are high,\u201d Day said. \u201cIt\u2019s amazing to see how this issue has brought together community and inspired new research.\u201d<\/p>\n
The frogs were first detected in Waimanalo in 2021, but the frog\u2019s population has been kept in check by the dedicated group of volunteers and conservation professionals. The task force is working to keep the Waimanalo population, which now spans roughly 275 acres, from spreading further until new tools can be developed to reduce or eliminate the infestation.<\/p>\n
Recently, group representatives presented at the Hawaii Conservation Conference and discussed the collaboration and its outcomes. They also discussed new research on coqui frog diets and control tools, including attempts to use drones to apply citric acid in areas that are too steep for crews to reach on foot.<\/p>\n
Officials said aerial control tools have not yet yielded the desired results, meaning the group is continuing to catch the frogs by hand.<\/p>\n
\u201cCoqui frogs are just one of many species that require more robust collective research, resourcing and collaborative response actions,\u201d said Kimeona Kane, Waimanalo Neighborhood Board Chair and member of the Coqui Frog Task Force. \u201cIt is so critical to include the community in the long-term management, recognizing that no one can do it alone. Mahalo nui to all who are collectively working toward a better future; Hawaii deserves it and it will take all of us to do so.\u201d<\/p>\n
According to DLNR, coqui frogs are believed to have arrived on Maui and Hawaii Island in the late 1980s and early 1990s as hitchhikers on nursery plants and other materials. The frogs have since been introduced to Oahu multiple times, and a breeding population in Wahiawa was successfully eradicated by 2007. Current infestations on Oahu include Waimanalo, Kuliouou and Palolo.<\/p>\n
Click here for more information on coqui frogs from the DNLR.<\/a><\/p>\n Related postsPalolo Valley residents push back against invasive coqui frog<\/a>Crews work to eradicate coqui frog infestation in Waimanalo after state detects noisy nuisance<\/a><\/p>\n Copyright 2026 Hawaii News Now. All rights reserved.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"HONOLULU (HawaiiNewsNow) – To celebrate its second anniversary, the Coqui Frog Task Force announced it has captured nearly…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":866908,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[47],"tags":[192,79],"class_list":["post-866907","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-environment","tag-environment","tag-science"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/866907","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=866907"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/866907\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/866908"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=866907"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=866907"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=866907"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}