Chickens have been enlisted by DOC to eradicate a skink plague.

A crack squad of 200 biosecurity-warranted chickens have been brought in to fight against invasive Aussie lizards.

Working with the Department of Conservation, Auckland Council has unleashed the chickens on a tiny 0.3 hectare colony of rainbow skinks.

The council and the department are trialling the novel skink eradication method on the Hauraki Gulf's Great Barrier Island. If it works, it will be a world first.

SUPPLIED Kiwi chickens know your enemy! The rainbow, or plague skink from Australia.

Also known as the little brown, or 'plague' skink, rainbow skinks arrived from the mainland in 2013 and are now threatening the island's native lizard populations as they compete for food and habitat.

READ MORE:

* Stoat found on pest free Auckland island

* Wanted: native geckos in Auckland gardens

* Skink's disappearance unnoticed

Guided by a panel of biosecurity specialists, trial staff first cleared native skinks from the patch of land before setting the peckish chickens on the aussie invaders.

SUPPLIED 200 chickens are laying siege to pest 'plague' skinks on the Hauraki Gulf's Great Barrier Island.

Project Manager Jacqui Wairepo is excited by the experiment.

"It's great to be trialling a new method; invasive reptiles are becoming increasingly problematic on a global scale and to my knowledge there has never been a successful eradication of a small, cryptic skink in the world."

Auckland Council biosecurity manager Phil Brown said it was too late to eliminate the mainland's plague skink population but not for Great Barrier.

Skink traps are also being used on the pests, he said.

If proven successful, the hunter-killer chickens will be recommended for use in a full five year plague skink eradication programme.

The Great Barrier method could be used on other Hauraki Gulf islands if plague skinks appeared there.