But if you want to stop rats and mice from sneaking into your home, keep reading.
As temperatures plummet, a veritable plague of rats and mice is eyeing up somewhere warm and dry to gatecrash - somewhere just like your home.
Pest control specialist David McPhee, of Dunedin, said this was the "worst year I have ever struck" in his 30 years' involvement in the industry.
A bumper rodent breeding season last year, coupled with cold and wet conditions, had resulted in large numbers of rats and mice seeking shelter inside homes, he said.
In one recent example, rats caused more than $1400 in damage to a Dunedin home, after chewing the wires inside the ceiling.
Some properties were "overrun" with rodents.
Dunedin, with its harbour and bush area, appeared to be worse affected than other places in the province, Mr McPhee said.
Pest-Gone owner Bill Powell, who had no trouble locating rats for a photo shoot, said the recent spell of cold and wet weather had forced rodents to search for new residences.
Rodents tended to follow the trail of other rodents, meaning some properties needed insulation replaced and the ceiling space sterilised, he said.
People were advised to check for possible access points to their properties, such as waste pipes and broken air vents, and trim trees within 2m of their home.
People should also use a combination of traps and baits.
He had heard of rats crawling along powerlines upside down, had witnessed one leap from a tree on to a house, and had caught rats the size of small cats.
"In this job you soon learn they are pretty intelligent ... they are probably smarter than half the population."
