Coqui Habits & Habitats
Preventing them from invading your backyard
The piercing call of the male Coqui tree frog begins
in the early evening hours and continues throughout the night.
Males are territorial, to approximately three to five square feet, but their
call can travel a quarter mile or more. The males also protect the
egg clutch. Eggs are less than a quarter inch in diameter, and there
are two to three dozen per clutch. During the early stages they are
milky white, and turn translucent to transparent with a dark colored froglet
visible to the eye, just before hatching.
Prime coqui habitat is about 80 degrees Fahrenheit
or warmer, high humidity or lots of rain, a bunch of trees of any kind to
hop around in at night for evening calling, and lots of leaf litter and underbrush
to hide in during day.
To discourage Coqui from invading your property, create
a habitat that won’t provide for their protection. Leaves on the ground
hold moisture and offer frogs and eggs protection from the sun. Green
waste, compost and wood piles, and storage areas also provide habitat for
frogs. Raking and removing fallen leaves from under trees and bushes
will discourage a frog from moving in. Removing vines from
trees will also help. Trimming dead or dying leaves off tree ferns
and trees such as banana and heliconia, and keeping things off the ground
reduces the amount of suitable habitat (and frog appeal) your yard will have.
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