What's different in Manukau
Te Puhinui
RNZ describes Te Puhinui as a 12 km stream that runs from the Botanical Gardens through south Auckland suburbs to the Manukau Harbour. Auckland Council's Te Aka Raataa project is reshaping the stretch between Great South Road and Kerrs Road, and aims to tie Wiri more closely to the rest of Manukau.
A stream with a plan
Te Waiohua iwi and Auckland Council signed a charter for the stream, Te Whakaoranga o Te Puhinui, with Kāinga Ora, Eke Panuku and the Ōtara-Papatoetoe and Manurewa local boards. The council's monitoring site on it has a 1,304 hectare catchment, classed as urban.
Slowly getting greener
Between 2013 and 2016/18, tree canopy rose from 9 to 10 per cent in Ōtara-Papatoetoe and from 12 to 13 per cent in Manurewa. Both are still well below the urban Auckland figure of 18 per cent.
One postcode, two suburbs
Postcode 2104 covers both Manukau and Wiri, so use it if you're in either.
The jobs we'd expect in Manukau
Rats are the first. Stream banks are on Auckland Council's list of rat habitat, and Norway rats, which DOC links with towns and human activity, are the ones we'd expect around commercial bins and loading areas.
Cockroaches are the second. In apartments, townhouses and food businesses, German cockroaches living behind appliances and in wall gaps can move from one home to the next. Argentine ants, under sustained control across the whole region, turn up in gardens and climb into ground-floor units.
Renting, or in a body corporate?
Tenancy Services says a landlord has to hand over a pest-free home, and a tenant has to keep it in a condition that doesn't invite pests back. If nobody caused it, responsibility is unclear and the two often split it.
In an apartment or townhouse complex, tell the body corporate as well. A treatment that covers every affected unit gets further than one done door by door.
What helps in shared buildings
You can
- Keep food sealed and bins emptied, especially in hot weather.
- Report droppings or cockroaches to the building manager early.
- Seal gaps around pipes under sinks and behind the washing machine.
- Don't leave bags of rubbish on balconies or in stairwells.
Leave to a pest business
- Treating several units at once.
- Bait stations in shared bin areas and car parks.
- Food businesses, which need a treatment record they can show.
Where we'd start with pests in Manukau
We'd start with whoever else shares your walls. Ask the neighbours and the building manager what they've seen, then tell us Cockroaches, Rats or mice or Ants with what you've found and where. One coordinated job beats five separate ones.
Want someone to look at it?
Tell us what you've seen and your postcode, and a local pest business that handles exactly that calls you to talk it through.
