Pest Mammals

Mice
Mice are common both in both rural and urban New Zealand. These small rodents are adept at surviving wherever man sets up home. Mus musculus the House Mouse is a small animal of only 20g with a slender body and pointed snout. Its fur can be brown through to grey and the tail is about as long as the body. Omnivorous, they feed on all sorts of foods from seeds and berries to the chocolate in your pantry. Excellent climbers and able to squeeze their bodies through gaps as narrow as a pencil they find it easy to gain entry to our buildings where they find food and shelter. They will find their way around a home often following cables and pipes.
Like rats they have incisors (gnawing front teeth) that are continually growing and they need to gnaw continually to keep these teeth sharp and worn down. They have a have a habit of gnawing wires, plastic pipes and wood, sometimes with expensive consequences.
Mice are also a risk to health. They produce approximately 80 droppings per day and continually dribble urine as they travel from rubbish to your kitchen work surfaces.

• If you have seen mice, or evidence of them around your property the most efficient and effective way to get rid of mice or rats is to use baits.
• NO Rats & Mice rodenticide baits should be placed at strategic, safe points, inside and outside the buildings, in order to reduce populations around the building and to deal with individuals that enter before an infestation can take hold. The NO Rats & Mice Weatherproof Blocks are well suited to using outside or in damp areas while NO Rats & Mice with Tracking Powder is ideal for use in dry areas inside the house. If you do not wish to use toxic bait Kiwicare Natural NO Rats is bait that is harmful only to rodents. However it should only be used in dry areas where other food sources can be controlled.
• NO Mice Traps are useful to use where baits cannot be placed or as a helpful way of catching rodents that are 'dopey' from taking bait. The rodents can then be removed without risk of causing an unpleasant smell.
• A mouse can squeeze beneath a door if there is a gap large enough to fit a pencil! Draft excluding brush strips, are an ideal method of proofing such gaps. However, there are almost always other possible entry points around any building. So it is always wise to keep fresh bait in place in safe places such as the roof void so that any rodents that get in are dealt with before you know about them.
• An important and often overlooked aspect of controlling rodents; rodents are what we would call agoraphobic, they fear open spaces, and like to be under cover. A wide clear area around a building will deter rodents from reaching and entering the building. And the removal of available food and shelter from within a building can have a powerful deterrent effect.

Rats
There are three species of rat in New Zealand; Rattus rattus, (known as Roof Rats, Black Rats and Ship Rats), Rattus norvegicus (known as Norway Rats, Brown Rats, Sewer Rats and Water Rats) and Rattus exulans (known as the Kiore or Polynesian Rat).

A. The Kiore was brought with the first humans from Polynesia and is now restricted to a few areas of New Zealand, particularly Fiordland. It is rarely a pest in buildings.

B. Norway Rats are largest of the three species, weighing up to 450g. They have red-brown fur, a blunt snout and small ears and spend a lot of time feeding on the ground. Their tail is shorter than their head and body. They tend to live in burrows, sewers, banks of rivers and other suitable voids. In other parts of the world the Norway Rat has displaced the Roof Rat as the common pest species.

C. Roof Rats are probably the most common rat species in New Zealand urban and bush situations. Roof rats are up to 200g with pointed snout and large prominent almost hairless ears. Their tail is longer than their head and body.
They are excellent climbers and spend most of their time above ground feeding in trees or roof spaces. New Zealand conditions seem to suit the Roof Rat. Our houses often have gaps around eaves where they find it easy to enter the warm dry shelter of the roof void.

• If you have seen rats, or evidence of them around your property the most efficient and effective way to get rid of mice or rats is to use baits.
• NO Rats & Mice rodenticide bait should be placed at strategic, safe points, inside and outside the buildings, in order to reduce populations around the building and to deal with individuals that enter before an infestation can take hold. The NO Rats & Mice Weatherproof Blocks are well suited to using outside or in damp areas while NO Rats & Mice with Tracking Powder is ideal for use in dry areas inside the house. If you do not wish to use toxic bait Kiwicare Natural NO Rats is a bait that is harmful only to rodents. however it should only be used in dry areas where other food sources can be controlled.
• NO Rats Traps are useful to use where baits cannot be placed or as a helpful way of catching rodents that are 'dopey' from taking bait. the rodents can then be removed without risk of causing an unpleasant smell.
• A rat can squeeze beneath a door if there is a gap large enough to fit a it's skull! Draft excluding brush strips, are an ideal method of proofing such gaps. However, there are almost always other possible entry points around any building. So it is always wise to keep fresh bait in place in safe places such as the roof void so that any rodents that get in are dealt with before you know about them.
• An important and often overlooked aspect of controlling rodents; rodents are what we would call agoraphobic, they fear open spaces, and like to be under cover. A wide clear area around a building will deter rodents from reaching and entering the building. And the removal of available food and shelter from within a building can have a powerful deterrent effect.

Possums
Possums were brought to New Zealand to start a fur trade, but without any natural predators their numbers rapidly grew and they have spread to all parts of the country. The damage they do to the native vegetation, bird life and farming industries is well documented. They spread tuberculosis to cattle and deer, it is estimated that they consume 70 tonnes of vegetation each night and they supplement their diet with eggs of native birds. They are often referred to as New Zealand's number one pest.

• Fix NO Possums Bait Stations on trees or posts in areas where possums are present. If possible identify trees which are being used by possums and fix the stations where possums can easily feed on the gel bait. If there is no access to the bait by dogs or stock the bait can be placed so that possums can feed from the ground. Otherwise place the station 2m or more above the ground where a branch or other provides a platform for possums to stand and feed.
• Use NO Possums Pre-feed first to acclimatize the possums to feeding on the gel. When there is a good amount of pre-feed taken, replace with the Cholecalciferol toxic bait. Replenish the bait when it is all taken.
• When no more bait is taken the bait can be left in place for many months to control new possums moving into the area.
• Damage to trees and other plants can be reduced by the use of NO Damage Thiroprotect which is a repellent to possums and other browsing animals. 

Droppings
Droppings might be the only evidence you find of an infestation of an animal pest. Rodents produce many droppings and often leave them in the same places repeatedly.

A. Mouse droppings are small 3-4mm long and pointed.

B. Roof Rat droppings are ~12mm long and have a pointed end.

C. Norway Rat droppings are ~18mm and blunt at the ends.

D. Possum droppings are ~25mm long and thicker than a pencil.

E. If the droppings have a shiny wet look this is good indication of recent infestation but droppings will dry out quickly in hot dry conditions.