What have you seen?
A gloved hand picking up a torch beside a hand sprayer, a bait station and a tool bag on a garage floor

Hawke's Bay

Pest control in Hawke's Bay

Five councils, and a clear line between farmland and your house.

Across Hawke's Bay the regional council's pest work targets farmland and priority sites, so rats and ants around a house are for the owner and a pest business to sort.

Seen a pest in Hawke's Bay?

What have you seen?

Wasp nest or bees near people? Keep children and pets away. Trouble breathing after a sting: call 111.

Only one local pest business gets your number.

  • Matched to what you've seen
  • Only one local pest business gets your number.

  • Matched to what you've seen

    Before a pest business can take jobs from Which Pest, we record the work it handles, so a borer job never lands with a business that only does wasps.

  • Only one local pest business gets your number.

    We share your contact details with one local pest business so it can get in touch about this job.

What happens next

A local pest business calls you.

What have you seen?

  1. Tell us what you've seen

    The pest, one detail about it, and your postcode. A few taps.

  2. We pass it on

    We pass your enquiry to one local pest business that handles exactly this. They quote, do the work and deal with you directly.

  3. They call you

    The pest business talks it through, usually inspects first, and quotes in writing. You decide.

Napier and Hawke Bay from Bluff Hill
Napier and Hawke Bay from Bluff Hill.

Pest control in Hawke's Bay: what to know before anyone calls

On this page

What's different across Hawke's Bay

Five councils

Hastings District, Napier City, Central Hawke's Bay District and Wairoa District councils share the region with Hawke's Bay Regional Council.

Rats are site-led

The regional council lists rats as a site-led pest. It says it neither does nor is responsible for rat control outside its Priority Ecosystem sites, and sends people to a local pest controller.

Possum work on a big scale

Whakatipu Māhia focuses on removing possums from 14,500 hectares of Māhia Peninsula, and Cape to City covers 26,000 ha between Hastings and Cape Kidnappers.

Two ants

Argentine ants are in Hawke's Bay: honey-brown and 2 to 3 mm long, DOC says. Darwin's ants can build up large numbers in urban gardens, and the regional council lists them as an Organism of Interest.

A big cockroach outdoors

The NZ Herald reported in 2022 that the Gisborne cockroach is found everywhere outdoors in Hawke's Bay and sometimes comes inside.

Who deals with it in Hawke's Bay?

Hawke's Bay Regional CouncilYou and a pest business
RatsPriority Ecosystem sites onlyAt home, in the garden, in the roof
PossumsRural programmes such as the Possum Control Area and MāhiaOne living in your roof or ceiling
Argentine and Darwin's antsAdvice, and a community response for big super-coloniesThe colony on your section
Suspected termitesNotifiable: report to MPILeave them alone; it's never a pest job

Moving plants, soil or gear?

Ants hitch rides. The regional council says to make sure soil, potted plants and outdoor equipment are free of ants before you move them, and DOC says potted plants are the highest risk for spreading Argentine ants. That matters when you shift house, give away plants or pack up for the bach.

The cockroach on the deck at night

If it's big and outside, it may well be a Gisborne cockroach. The Herald's 2022 report described it as everywhere outdoors in this region and only an occasional visitor inside. Cockroaches breeding in a kitchen are a different story, and a cockroach control job.

Napier or Hastings?

Each has its own page. Napier has a bylaw banning leg-hold traps and requiring permits for town beehives. Hastings has the district council's autumn timetable for rats and mice.

Our take on pests in Hawke's Bay

Don't wait for the regional council to sort something at your house: by its own account, that's not where its pest work goes. Work out what you've got, check whether the neighbours have it too, and tap the matching pest. If it's mud in timber, ring MPI instead.

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.

What have you seen?

Questions

Pest control in Hawke's Bay: common questions

Does the regional council deal with rats in Hawke's Bay?

Only at its Priority Ecosystem sites. For rats at home it suggests a local pest controller, and says its Biosecurity Advisors can talk the problem through with you.

What should I do if I think I've found termites in Hawke's Bay?

Don't disturb them. The regional council lists the Australian subterranean termite as a Notifiable Organism, so it's a report to MPI, not a call to a pest business.

Seen a pest in Hawke's Bay? Tell us what it is.

What you have seen, one tap about it and your postcode. Then a local pest business that handles exactly that calls you.

Before anyone starts

What to ask a pest business

Related help

More on pest control in Hawke's Bay

Pest control in NapierNapier's leg-hold trap ban and hive permits, rats, Darwin's and Argentine ants, and the estuary.Read itPest control in HastingsThe council's autumn timing for rats and mice, bee swarms or bees in a wall, and mynas in the eaves in Hastings.Read itAnt controlHow to spot Argentine ants, why a spray can backfire, and when ants are worth paying someone for.Read itCockroach controlGerman or American, one visitor or a real problem, and what a cockroach treatment involves.Read itPossum controlHow to tell it's a possum, how they get into a roof, and what to ask a pest business.Read itTermites in New ZealandWhat MPI says, the signs to look for, and why a suspected find is a call, not a job.Read it

Where this information comes from

Rules and advice change, so check the source before you act on anything here. How we write and check these pages.

What have you seen?