Cuban Tree Frog

In Florida, where it has been established since at least the 1920s, the Cuban tree frog is large enough and aggressive enough to prey heavily on native tree frogs, including the green tree frog, squirrel tree frog, and pine woods tree frog, as well as lizards, small snakes, and even smaller Cuban tree frogs. Because it also breeds prolifically in almost any standing water, including artificial containers and swimming pools, it can quickly dominate the amphibian community in an area, and there is documented evidence linking its spread to local declines of native tree frog species. It also causes practical problems for people by clogging drains and getting into electrical fixtures, causing power outages.

Not dangerous in a serious medical sense, but genuinely unpleasant. Its skin produces a copious, sticky mucus containing compounds that irritate mucous membranes; getting it on your hands and then touching your eyes, nose, or mouth can cause an intense burning sensation, watering eyes, and sneezing that can last for a good while, and some people react more strongly than others. Wildlife agencies that encourage residents to remove Cuban tree frogs from their property in Florida specifically advise wearing gloves or using a plastic bag to handle them, and washing hands thoroughly afterward, precisely because of this reaction.

Wildlife agencies and university extension services in Florida generally encourage residents to capture and euthanize Cuban tree frogs found on their property, since the species is invasive, harmful to native wildlife, and not protected. The recommended method is to catch the frog (using gloves or a bag to avoid skin and eye irritation), place it in a sealed bag, and put the bag in a freezer, which is considered a humane way to euthanize an amphibian. Correctly identifying it first matters, because several native tree frog species can look superficially similar; the size (Cuban tree frogs are much larger than most Florida natives as adults), warty skin, and large eyes with a bumpy ridge over them are useful clues, and photographs can be checked against identification guides or sent to extension services.

The most widely accepted explanation is that it arrived as a stowaway in cargo shipments from Cuba and the Caribbean, most likely hidden among crated plants, produce, or other goods moving through Florida's ports, with the earliest well-documented Florida records dating to the 1920s in the Florida Keys. From that initial foothold it spread across the peninsula over the following decades, helped by the state's warm, humid climate, abundant standing water, and dense human development, which creates exactly the mix of shelter and breeding sites the species thrives in, and it continues to expand its range northward and into other Gulf Coast states and Caribbean islands through similar accidental transport.