Ruth

The Washington Post had a story in yesterday's edition about noisy frogs--coqui--in Hawaii. It says that guests at Maui resort hotels infested by the frogs now check out early because the "shrieking frogs" make it impossible to sleep and that apparently are a number of frog sites on the Big Island as well.

Have any of you recent travelers to Hawaii been bothered by this? If so, where? Would love to hear from folks for planning my first trip to Hawaii next year. Thanks.

lisa

Interesting about the frogs. Kauai is full of chickens, and the roosters wake you up in the morning. Take ear plugs!

Molly

I hadn't heard this, but I personally think that it would be rather pleasant to be woken up by chirping frogs - as opposed to my teenage neighbor's boom box!
LOL - Good luck!

Karen

You can do an archive search at Hawaii Star Bulletin. I remember last year residents in some communities on Oahu having this problem. Go to Hawaii every year usually visit Oahu once. Never had a problem. Yes there are wild chickens on Kauai, I would not call it "full" of them (however if you never saw this before you might exaggerate this to yourself)and you don't have a sense of them at all at the better hotels. If you are staying at a lower end place and you are feeding them than you have a problem.

Come to think of it we rented a house last year and we did not have a one on our property or homes in our culdsac. Frogs also never had a problem.

JMM

on BI we stayed at a B&B in the countryside and believe me - the feral roosters were NOISY. Luckily out B&B supplied on of those pleasant (ocean waves,rain etc) noise making machines to drown out the roosters. With it on we slept fine.

Lenore

We were in both Oahu and Maui last month and slept with our balcony doors wide open each night. It was pure heaven listening to the ocean as it lulled us to sleep each night. I never heard a frog, chicken or rooster the whole trip.

Olivia Smith

Aloha -
AFter living in Maui for 8 years, I can say that it is true, there are large frogs at night making a magical sound that, together with the sound of the waves crashing, lulls you to sleep and is not frightening or annoying to most.
I found frog sounds only in 2 places in Maui (and I lived on all sides). Kihei, the southwest coast near Wailea had the loudest frog sounds and the most frogs I've ever seen in the islands. They are not everywhere - I never saw them in the Lahaina area, for example.
I rented a little "bonehut" across from the beach in downtown Kihei and there were so many frogs at night, I'd have to stamp my feet and clap my hands to get thru them to the cottage from the street. They were harmless. We called them "Buffos". Fun memory.
I've also heard them on the other side of Maui from Haiku to Hana. This is the rainforest side, so you should expect this. Again, they were pleasant and nonthreatening.
I'd be more worried about centipedes and scorpions - both of which exist in the rain forests and wooded areas (not including most tourist hotel areas).
But there are no snakes or poison ivy, so camping is a delight.
If you have troubles sleeping due to sounds, you may not want to vacation on a tropical island full of exotic sounds.
Me, I love it!
Olivia

xxx

totally did not know about scorpians other than myself on Maui. Are they on Kauai and Big Island also?

OliveOyl

The coqui I came across were in Puerto Rico and were tiny tree frogs. You could hear them, but rarely could you see them. Their noise was delightful, really!

Bermuda had some too, although I don't know if they called them coqui.

xxx

according to the starbulletin articles I read on Oahu the State was considering them an environmental problem and residents aquainted with area wild life were very annoyed. Does not mean it will be near your hotel. I remember they even had a sound clip and it was much louder than people would anticipate.

none

There are scorpions and centipedes on all the major islands. But I wouldn't worry about it unless you're pitching a tent in the mountains, or opening man-hole covers. It's not like southeast asia here.

Nature Lover

Kinda sad that we are moving so far from nature. These frogs that have "invaded" Hawai'i are actually natives from...and I'm not kidding, Puerto Rico! They are loud, but, for me, they kinda bring me back to the good old days when roosters crowed and mynah birds cackled and frogs did what they had to do! Waikiki's safe. No frog can avoid being squoooshed by the multitude of cars in the city....

Dick

The Washington Post said that the sound of those tiny frogs reached a decibel level of 90(as loud as lawn mower).

They went on to say that while a few frogs might create an enjoyable sound, hundreds of them create an incessant racket.

According to the Post,
"... Guests at Maui resort hotels infested by coqui now check out of their rooms early because the shrieking frogs make it impossible to sleep.

"It apparently was driving them crazy at the Ritz-Carlton," said Kristy Martin of the Maui Invasive Species Committee. At one point, a hotel was paying bounty hunters $75 a frog, dead or alive."

Maggi

Here's the list to the Wash. Post article:http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn...-2002May4.html