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”Croak Those Noisy Frogs”
Big Island Mayor Harry Kim went before the Senate Ways and Means committee yesterday to request funding for Hawaii county, including funding to fight the invasive and annoying species — the E. coqui frogs.
While testifying he announced he will ask Gov. Linda Lingle for the second time in recent months to declare a state of emergency for the Big Island county to help get federal funding to combat the E. coqui invasion.
The tiny frogs, which sound like screeching trains, are extremely hard to catch and even harder to kill, say those who have been battling the critters since 1998.
Only squeezing the life from them in hand to hand combat or spraying them with citrus spray is legal.
Other methods such as Lime and Caffeine sprays, are not legal. And because these tiny slimy frogs regenerate every 8 months, they are rapidly taking over the Big Island and parts of Maui County. Some scientists estimate there are now more invasive frogs than people living on the island of Hawaii and Maui.
According to state scientists who have studied the problem, not only is the state