What is the most effective method of eradicating the coqui frog?
Because caffeine has never been federally approved as a pesticide, the State of Hawaii had to petition the Environmental Protection Agency for permission to experiment outdoors with the antifrog stimulant. The agency granted the state permission to try a 2-percent-caffeine solution as an experimental pesticide spray for 1 year. Pitt says that tests on small plots of infested greenery proved that the spray is indeed “an effective frogicide, if you will.” Best of all, he says, caffeine exhibited “very few impacts on other, nontarget organisms.” For instance, insect populations in sprayed plots declined a bit, but within a week had returned to normal. The tests turned up another potential benefit. Garden slugs, the bane of the orchid industry, rose to the surface of treated soils and died (see http://sciencenews.org/20020629/food.asp). In September, the temporary EPA permission for testing expired. USDA has now applied for a 3-year extension to conduct further research that might eventual
