Aimée Beware: Invasion from Cuba Brings New Orleans Menace

If a New Orleanian vampiress didn’t have enough problems of her own, Aimée — and her fellow filles à les caissettes (cf. May 2, et al.) — had best take extra care in the bathroom as well.  Or so says Kate Baggaley on POPSCI.COM in “Invasive Treefrogs Have Snuck into Louisiana and They Are Not Good Neighbors.”

To quote Ms. Baggaley:  Cuban treefrogs, which can grow as big as the palm of your hand, compete with native treefrogs for shelter and create a number of nuisances for people.  “They get into the plumbing sometimes and people will find them in their toilets, which is always a surprise,” says [Brad] Glorioso, an ecologist at the U.S. Geological Survey’s Wetland and Aquatic Research [image error]Center in Lafayette, Louisiana.

Once thought to be confined in the US to Florida, the Cubano natives may have arrived in a shipment to New Orleans’s Audebon Zoo of several palm trees from Lake Placid in 2016.  Relocated in the elephant exhibit, these refugee frogs have spread into an area between the zoo and the Mississippi where, as the article further explains, [t]hey can clog your plumbing and have caused costly power outages in Florida by short circuiting utility switches.  Cuban treefrogs have also been known to take over birdhouses and lay eggs in pools that haven’t been cleaned.  And if they’ve been hanging out around your door, Cuban treefrogs will sometimes drop onto you as you try to get inside.  “I have no idea why they do that,” Glorioso says.  It could be that the frogs are seeking out warmer or more humid conditions, he speculates.  On top of all this, Cuban treefrogs secrete a noxious slime that causes a painful burning sensation if you get it in your eyes, mouth, or any open cuts.

And the thing is, they’re good at taking over from native species, and they are spreading.  So watch when you flush and, to read more, press here.