What's different in Silverdale
A growth area
Auckland Council names Orewa and Silverdale among the major urban developments of the Hibiscus Coast between 2008/09 and 2018/19.
Pest Free Hibiscus Coast
Forest & Bird's project covers the 3100 hectare Hibiscus Coast and works to control rats, stoats, weasels, possums and hedgehogs. Its timeline says the project took its current name when it grew to include Silverdale, Orewa and Hatfields Beach.
Reserves on the Weiti
The same timeline names Silverdale's Flexman Reserve and the Oxbow Reserve, on the bank of the Weiti River, among the places the project took on.
Losing some canopy
The Hibiscus and Bays Local Board had 24 per cent tree canopy in 2016/18, and the greatest net loss of Auckland's urban boards, mostly from harvesting exotic forest.
New streets, familiar pests
Fresh subdivisions sit right beside farmland, reserves and the river here, and rats and mice don't read boundaries. A rat in a new home's ceiling has usually come in through a gap at the roofline or a service pipe, so that's where a technician will look.
Volunteer predator work across the coast is good news for birds, and can mean fewer rats in the wider area. It won't close the gap in your own soffit, though.
Wasps on the Hibiscus Coast
New banks, retaining walls and the edges of reserves are where wasp nests tend to start. If you spot steady wasp traffic into the ground, keep everyone back. A sting followed by swelling of the face or throat, or trouble breathing, is a 111 call.
What you can do, and what to leave
You can
- Check soffits, vents and pipe gaps on a new house in its first year.
- Keep builders' offcuts and rubble away from the house.
- Lid the compost and bring pet food in at night.
- Note where wasps come and go, from well back.
Leave to a pest business
- Rats or mice in the ceiling or walls.
- Wasp nests, in the ground or anywhere else.
- Bait stations with kids and pets around.
Our take on pests in Silverdale
In Silverdale we'd walk round the outside of the house first and look up at the soffits and down at the pipe gaps. Most of the answers are there. Then send Rats or mice or A wasp nest, plus a photo if you can.
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.
