If it's a wasp nest
Stop mowing or weeding near it and keep everyone back. If anyone gets swollen lips or eyes, starts wheezing or feels their throat tighten after a sting, call 111.
What's different in Lincoln
Selwyn, not Christchurch
Lincoln University places the township on the edge of the Canterbury Plains, about 22 km south-west of Christchurch, in the Selwyn District. Selwyn District Council is your council, and Environment Canterbury runs the regional pest plan.
A stream through the village
A 2010 Lincoln University article describes sampling the Liffey Stream in the village, near North Belt. Christchurch City Council's parks plan places Norway rats near water, so a section by the Liffey is where we'd expect rats to turn up first.
Hot spells on the plains
NIWA says foehn winds often lift Canterbury's summer maximums past 30°C. A dry, hot run of weather is when wasp numbers climb, and nests in banks and flax clumps can grow quietly until autumn.
Still growing
Selwyn's 2018 strategy projected Lincoln to pass 17,000 people within about thirty years. New gardens bring in bark, soil and pot plants, which DOC names as ways Argentine ants get moved around.
Rat control in Lincoln
Rats here are likely to be ship rats in the ceiling or Norway rats around the shed, the compost and the stream bank. The EPA says rats nest in old newspaper, cardboard and piles of timber, bricks or rubble, and that rat-proofing the compost at night leaves them less to eat.
Tenancy Services says winter is when rats and mice are more likely to come inside, so scratching in May or June is no surprise.
Wasp nest removal in Lincoln
A nest is a pest business's job, not something to tackle with the mower or a hose. Watch where the wasps fly from well back, and tell us where the nest is. If it's on a reserve, ask Selwyn District Council who looks after it, since councils generally deal with nests on their own land.
Flatting near the university
If you rent, Tenancy Services says the landlord needs the place free of pests at the start of a tenancy, and tenants need to keep it in a condition that doesn't encourage them. When pests weren't there at the start and nobody caused them, it's unclear who's responsible, and landlords and tenants often share it.
Tell your landlord or property manager early and in writing. And check that couch from the last flat before it comes inside: Health NZ says people often bring bed bugs home in second-hand furniture.
Worth noting before you get in touch
- Whether your section backs onto the Liffey or open land.
- Where you've seen droppings, and roughly how fresh they look.
- For a nest, how close it is to a door, path or play area.
- If you're renting, the date you told the landlord.
If we lived in Lincoln
We'd look along the stream side of the section and the back of the shed before anything else, because rats look for cover close to water and food. For wasps, we'd tap A wasp nest the day we found it rather than wait for the weekend.
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.
