Other animals and pests

Keeping goats, poultry, roosters and bees

The Control of Animals Bylaw sets out the rules for keeping animals, goats, poultry, roosters and bees on your property, to ensure they don’t create a nuisance or endanger health.

Control of Animals Bylaw (PDF 152 KB)

What to do about pests?

If there are pests on public property, get in touch with us. To deal with pests on private property, try these tips or talk to a pest control specialist - you’ll find a list in the Yellow Pages.

Rats and mice

To discourage rats or mice from your property:

• Clean up rubbish or places that may harbour nests
• Stop access to any food and water source including compost or rubbish bins
• Close off any access points to houses or buildings
• Trim back tree branches from buildings.

Rats can be caught in traps but poison baits are the most effective form of rat control. You can buy bait from garden centres or hardware stores. Keep pets and children safe by securing the bait with wire inside a piece of drainage pipe or plastic container with 75mm holes in each end. Replenish the bait for at least two weeks.

Traps work well for mice. Set several together and make sure the bait is firmly attached. You can also use poison bait. Place a number of bait stations together where you’ve seen mice activity - this will ensure they eat enough, as they tend to nibble a little from each bait station.

Possums

You can hire a possum trap from us by booking it in advance for a refundable deposit of $30. Please contact us to make your booking.

You can dispose of up to 2 possum carcasses in your weekly rubbish collection by properly wrapping them and putting them in a Council rubbish bag or Waste Management wheelie bin. 

Ants

You can control ants using insecticide sprays, dusts, baits and repellents. Baits are effective for controlling trail-making ants. Place them close to the path of the ants. They can take 2-3 weeks to be effective.

Fleas

Effective control requires treatment of both the flea larvae and the adult fleas:

• Treat your pet with a flea control product from your vet
• Vacuum your home thoroughly and remove the contents of the vacuum bag
• Discard pet bedding or wash it in hot soapy water
• Spray insecticide on floors, rugs and furniture.

Cockroaches

You can get rid of cockroaches with insecticide sprays, gel baits and glue traps. Bait is extremely effective, as cockroaches feed on each other.

Wasps

Wasp nests can be located on the ground in vegetation, in a dead tree or hedge, or occasionally in the roof or under the floor of a house. Observe where the wasps are feeding and their flight path to locate the nest.

Take care not to disturb the wasps – sometimes there is more than one entrance to the nest. Apply Permethrin dust powder to the entrance at night. This will kill the wasps within a few days. You can buy dust powder at a garden centre or hardware store. Kerosene or petrol shouldn’t be used for eradicating wasp nests because of the risk of fire or explosion.

Bees

Bees are generally docile and won’t harm you if left undisturbed. Bee swarms occur from late spring to early summer. The swarm cluster will usually settle on a tree branch, a bush or another convenient site a short distance from the hive until a dry cavity is found as a nesting site. Don’t attempt to hose, smoke or disturb them from their resting place.

Call a local beekeeper for advice and assistance in removing the bees from private property:

• Alan Kilmister on 04 565 1641 or email honeyfromtherock@paradise.net.nz
• Ivan Peterson on 04 526 9180

A fee may be charged for transport and collection costs. 

For bees on Council property call us on 04 570 6666.

For more information about beekeeping or how to reduce nuisance, offence or potential injury from bees, check out our page on the basics of beekeeping.

Bumble Bees

Bumble bees are larger than honey bees and have round hairy yellow and black bodies. They are good pollinators so leave them alone if possible. They are capable of stinging and biting, but they rarely do.

Their small colonies naturally die off over winter. Also, a handful of solitary bees gathered in one area may not actually be a colony but are just choosing to use the same woodpile or similar dry cavity as a home.

If destroying a colony is the only option, you can buy wasp/bee powder from hardware stores to eradicate them.