Ponsonby residents report surge in rats, pest concerns rise across central Auckland suburbs

Many locals shared their concerns on Facebook, with some saying the vermin had become highly visible in their homes and on the streets.

“Waterview too is crawling with them, they’re coming out in broad daylight at our playgrounds,” one person wrote.

“I’m dealing with [a] whole family of rats; it’s annoying they’re trying to get into my house,” another local said.

Another said it was the first time in 14 years they’d had rats in their roof space.

“Rats in Ponsonby? Sounds like they’re just dining at the latest upscale restaurant,” one person joked.

Others who said they have seen them running across the streets joked that the rodents were keeping the cats in the community “very happy”.

Auckland Council area manager for Waitematā and Ōrākei, Martin Wong, said the council has pest bait stations at various sites on council land across central Auckland, including Ponsonby, which they monitor regularly.

This year, Wong said they have not been informed of any increase in rodents, including rats, at these locations.

“Food waste and litter can attract rodents and undermine the effectiveness of bait stations. We encourage retailers and food outlets to proactively manage their premises by ensuring all food scraps are disposed of in secure, appropriate bins to help reduce these risks,” Wong said.

An Auckland-based pest control business owner, James Best, told the Herald that the business had been “inundated” with calls.

Best, who owns Pest Control Auckland Central, said he was receiving roughly 60-70 inquiries per week just in Ponsonby, about triple the normal number.

Another local business based in Ponsonby said there was a reason behind the “increased rat activity” at the moment.

Pestie director, Carloss Visser, told the Herald he believed it was because Auckland has had a very mild summer and autumn.

“While it hasn’t been exceptionally hot, the conditions have been ideal for rats to breed and build up in larger numbers than usual,” he said.

Visser said that as the weather becomes colder and wetter, those populations start looking for food, water, and shelter, which is why there is often an increase in rats entering homes and businesses around this time of year.

Visser said he recently got a call about a woman who had “rodents coming into her laundry”.

“I’d say that it will continue throughout the rest of the season. It’s only going to get colder ... people are just going to notice it more and more,” he said.

Visser said the concern for most people was not only the emotional distress of finding rats but also the risk of them chewing through pipes and causing flooding.

This comes after pest control workers were called to a South Auckland hospital after a “massive” rat was seen slinking around a waiting room earlier this year.

A 12-second TikTok clip showed a large rat crawling along a wall beneath a row of chairs at Middlemore Hospital in Ōtāhuhu.

The woman who posted the TikTok, known online as Aunty Tuckshop, said she found the incident “disgusting”.

The incident also follows a court ruling in which Woolworths New Zealand was fined $33,000 for breaching the Food Act 2014 in relation to its failures to address a rat infestation.

The Dunedin District Court heard Woolworths’ South Dunedin store was forced to close for 18 days in February 2024 after repeated rodent sightings and captures.

An agreed summary of facts stated that staff had logged 112 rat sightings from October to December 2023, with about 10 rats captured over the period.