Rat tales – A story of historic rat control on Waiheke
Rats have plagued Waiheke Island long before many of us arrived here. They have eaten their way through many a batch, boat, and bird on this little motu. Before the ever-widening range of different traps, snaps, baits, and weights, Waihekeians of times past had to get creative in their efforts to control rats.
“I’ve always hated rats,” says lifelong Waiheke resident Susan Round. She recalls the Waiheke County Council (the island’s governing body at the time) running an initiative in 1970 to harness people power to control rat numbers on the island.
“There was a competition for who could kill the most rats,” she says, “and to prove how many, we were told to keep the tails; like possum hunters and ferret hunters, we didn’t keep the whole animal but just the tail instead.”
A Waiheke Area School student of only 12 at the time, Susan, unlike her schoolmates, was up for the challenge.
“I couldn’t remember anyone else at school doing it,” she notes, “I saw no other rats’ tails at all!
“I was really happy because I found a dead rat on the road, so I got a tail for free.”
The rest of the tails were not as easily gained. She made up all kinds of ways to lure rats into her homemade traps, ending up with a bunch of 25 hanging proudly on the garage wall. She never did enter the competition assuming she would not have won, but when the results were in, she regretted not entering them to collect what would have been her trophy.
“In my head, I won it,” she resigns.
This may seem a strange hobby for a 12-year-old girl, but Susan insists she’s just always killed rats. The catalyst perhaps being a camping trip with unexpected stowaways when she was younger still.
“All us kids were so excited to be camping and when it came to unrolling the tent and other gear a bunch of rats jumped out of it. My mother beat the gear and the mattress to get all the rats, but I remember thinking every night in the tent that I was convinced I could feel things moving beneath me.
“I didn’t like rats much at that point.”
Later in life when she married, her husband was a plumber’s apprentice. He used to bring home stories of old Waiheke batches just riddles with rodents. They chewed through water pipes, wallpaper floorboards, just destroying them.
Susan collected not only rat tails but many a rat tale throughout her life
“You couldn’t complain to anyone back then,” says Susan. “You just got on with it. People had all kinds of ways to deal with rats then as rat bait wasn’t commonplace.”
Rat continued to pop up throughout her life on Waiheke. When living on Crescent Road West, her house had a steep pitch roof, and the industrious rats would use the roof as a thoroughfare.
“We had clearlite at the top you see, and I would watch the rats climb the Nikau on one side of the house and eat the seed, jump on to the roof, run up to the ridge and slide on their backs down the roof right into the Nikau on the other side for the second course!”
There is perhaps a reason why a group of rats is called a ‘mischief’….
We would love to hear more rat stories from the community, if you have one you would like to share, please contact us on info@tekorowaiowaiheke.org.
While rat catching might not be a typical activity for children in this century, this photo, taken circa 1916 depicts a different story of times past. Maybe it’s time for a comeback.