David and Philippa Gravatt say they have caught 2000 cockroaches around their Epsom property this summer.

A war has broken out in Auckland and there have been thousands of casualties.

Cockroaches have been invading David and Philippa Gravatt's Epsom property for the past three summers.

Every night David sets about six traps around his Albury Rd house and wakes to find them covered in hundreds of cockroaches.

ELESHA EDMONDS / FAIRFAX NZ David and Philippa Gravatt have tried all sorts of methods to get rid of the roaches.

David says the average nightly haul is 120 roaches. This summer's total has nearly reached 2000.

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"We've had thousands this summer, literally thousands," he says. "I put bait out where the cockroaches are and then go back 10 minutes later and see 20 or 30 of them, just like that." Philippa says their neighbours are having similar problems, with one couple finding a cockroach in their baby's bed. "The problem now is they are all coming into the house," she says. "You'd just be sitting there watching telly and something would move so then you'd spend the next 10 minutes trying to catch them." The Gravatts have traps in their attic, bathroom, by their dishwasher and around their house. "We had two families out one night with rolled up newspapers and tape, belting the hell out of them and we didn't even make a dent in them," Philippa says. Philippa noticed the problem three years ago when she was out walking her dogs at night. "There were all these insects running round like baby mice all over the footpath and down the hill," she says. "There were literally thousands and they were coming out of the sewer lid in the middle of the road." David shone a torch down the sewer and was horrified to see it full with cockroaches. A Watercare spokesperson says they have been contacted twice by Albury Rd residents about the issue. "Each time we flushed the wastewater pipes and Auckland Council's environmental health team arranged for the cockroach extermination," the spokesperson says. "If the access point is a manhole or public pipe, we will employ a bug extermination company to treat or seal the access." Watercare has arranged another "courtesy flush" of the Albury Rd pipes.

ELESHA EDMONDS / FAIRFAX NZ Cockroaches have been invading David and Philippa Gravatt's Epsom property for the past three summers.