Dogwalkers face long trek carrying poo after council removes bins in wasp-management move

By Laura Smith for Local Democracy Reporting

A Rotorua woman was left "disgusted" after walking more than 5km with her dog's poo after the council removed its bins from a popular lake.

The bins have been removed from Blue Lake (Tikitapu) on a winter trial, because the rubbish was attracting wasps.

Last week Rotorua Lakes Council removed seven wasp nests from the area.

The council says other areas in the district without bins have had no issues with rubbish and it would look at other options if the trial was unsuccessful.

In a public statement, waste and climate change manager Craig Goodwin said it hoped people would take their rubbish with them.

But some in the community have doubts that will happen.

Rotorua business owner Natalie Gracie walks her two dogs around Blue Lake daily but said she was disgusted to discover the bins were removed.

She had to walk more than 5km carrying dog poo. Gracie said she had not seen wasps in the area before but believed if there was a problem the "always full" state of the bins would have contributed.

She said people already used the area as a dumping ground and believed it would only get worse.

"I can walk past and there will be s*** from here to Africa."

She said she had previously seen things like nappies and condoms and it was not a good look with tourists coming to the area.

In her view: "No one is going to want to go there now ... it's going to be a s***hole."

She said while some people like her would take the rubbish away, many would just dump it causing a safety and hygiene issue.

Blue Lake Top 10 Holiday Park manager Kelsi Hira said they had not been consulted with about the trial.

She called the trial a band aid solution that would lead to littering.

Hira said they had previously held working bees to address an existing rubbish issue. People leaving online reviews had in the past linked a scruffy Blue Lake to the camp.

She feared rubbish would end up in the grass or lake as visitors used facilities like the community barbecue.

She believed the business would likely have to deal with increased amounts of rubbish in its bins due to the lack of public bins.

With no bins in the public stretch of lakefront, she said the business would have to deal with increased amounts of rubbish being dropped into the holiday park bins.

She said there was a big wasp problem this year and the holiday park managed its wasp populations by maintaining 130 bait traps.

Local Democracy Reporting asked the council for a response to both Gracie and Hira's concerns, as well as questions about the trial and wasp issues.

Goodwin said the amount of litter collected from the bins was seasonal, so the trial would go through the winter and the area would be monitored.

"If the bin removal does not assist with wasp management, or there are issues with rubbish, we will look at other options."

Other areas in the district with no bins had no issues with rubbish, he said, such as at Te Pūtake o Tawa where hundreds of visitors passed through each week.

"This area is always kept tidy by our community and manuhiri (guests) and businesses there that generate waste from their products provide bins."

The bins at Blue Lake were emptied twice a week before their removal and Goodwin said food waste odours in empty bins continued to attract wasps and other pests.

He said tourists had rubbish disposal at their accommodation sites and facilities for mobile homes.

"Like many other areas around New Zealand, the removal of bins in popular reserves is becoming more common."

In response to concerns about litter already at Blue Lake, he said illegal dumping was cleared from council-managed reserves as quickly as possible and the lake had not shown up as a problem area.

Six people had notified the council of wasps in the area since 1 December, and it had received feedback from event organisers and user groups.

"In one case, St John were on hand for an event and tended to a number of stings that were considered serious in nature, according to the person who reported it."

The wasp removal cost council $1100. There will be follow-up management in October.

"This does not guarantee elimination of all wasps and we will follow up again next summer."

When asked to explain the decision-making process regarding the removal of the bins, potential increase in litter and whether this would cost more or less than the removal of wasps, he said it surveyed seven public recycling bins and found 97.5 percent was contaminated waste.

"While the bins are meant to serve as a reminder to the public to separate waste and recycling, they have not to date proved to be effective."

If the trial worked, a more comprehensive plan would be put together to identify where the approach could be taken, he said.

"Then we will be talking with local iwi and the community before we propose any long-term changes in our litter control programme."

Rotorua-based Proactive Pest Solutions work across the region and owner-operator Rhianon Mitchell said it had been a strange season.

Wet weather meant wasps found it tricky to establish themselves, but where they had, they had done well.

The last month had been busy with callouts to roof spaces and lakeside properties.

"They all came out with a vengeance."

She said the best method of dealing with wasps was to bait for the queens in spring.

Mitchell said during the summer wasps looked for sugar, but as it got cooler looked for proteins, and that was why they might be attracted to bins as people tossed their scraps.

How other Bay of Plenty councils manage their wasps

Local Democracy Reporting asked the six other councils in the region about their wasp control processes.

• Western Bay of Plenty District Council reserves and facilities manager Peter Watson said it contracted a professional pest controller to remove or destroy wasp nests, placed bins away from seating areas to not affect reserve users and emptied and cleaned bins regularly to ensure there was no fermenting food to attract wasps.

The council paid between $1500 and $2000 a year for wasp removal.

• Kawerau District Council relied on the public and outdoor staff to report wasp issues and reported nests were immediately investigated, cordoned off and removed or treated by private pest controllers.

There had been one report of wasps this summer, five in 2022 and three in 2021.

It paid less than $1000 in 2022 and less than $500 in 2021 for wasp removal.

• Ōpōtiki District Council planning and regulatory group manager Gerard McCormack said it dealt with wasp nests on a case-by-case basis, mostly removing them from council buildings or reserves.

As a zero-waste district, it encouraged people to be responsible for their waste and there were few public rubbish bins.

Bay of Plenty Regional Council biosecurity team leader Shane Grayling said German, Asian, Australian and common wasps were listed as advisory pests in the Bay of Plenty Regional Pest Management Plan 2020 - 2030.

The council did not enforce the control of advisory species on either public or private land and landowners or occupiers were responsible for managing them. The council may provide advice on how to manage or control them if required.

• Tauranga City Council and Whakatāne District Council were also approached for comment.

Local Democracy Reporting is Public Interest Journalism funded through NZ On Air.