Frogs plague new Miami family

MIAMI, Oct. 18 (UPI) -- An army of Cuban tree frogs surrounding the home of a Miami family croaks all night long -- loudly -- and no one knows how to get rid of them.

It sounds "like 'rhaa, rhaa!' and then it gets louder," says Roy Howie Jr., 10, whose family recently moved to Miami's Coconut Grove from Long Island, N.Y.

"When we were talking about moving down here, the subject of frogs never came up," Roy Sr. tells The Miami Herald.

Adds wife Sally: "Up in New York ... if you have ants, you sprinkle some chalk, and they won't crawl over that. So there must be something for frogs, right?"

There evidently is not something for frogs.

Dante Fenolio, a University of Miami herpetologist, says the Howies' home is a site for a "synchronized breeding."

"It's gonna be tough to quiet this down," he admits.

Fenolio recommended planting thick hedges as noise barriers.

And waiting till breeding season ends in late November.