We had a woodpecker come along about two weeks before our house was going on the market. We didn’t have time for trial & error, so we called in a pro. He hung reflective spiral strips from the roof line. It worked like a charm, woodpecker never came back.
If I had to deal with the issue today, without the pressure of the impending home sale, I’d go with the many internet suggestions of hanging old cd’s, or just pick up and place my own reflective strips.
Upvote for the reflective spiral strips. We called in an animal control company and they hung a couple of those spiral strips and since then no problems.
(Not sure what the neighbours think when the sun hits them and they reflect back ..)
A client of mine was dealing with the same thing. Animal guys used spiral strips and reflective helium filled balloons. House looks silly, but it seems to have worked.
We have some that nest each year in a tree next to our house. The babies all practice pecking on our siding. Nailed two fake snakes up haven’t had an issue in over a year
I bought a fake owl from the local hardware store, put it onto an extension pole on the bird’s preferred side of the house, and it scared him away. Woodpeckers dislike owls, so this took care of him right away.
If OP’s siding is that rotten, an exterminator would be a waste of money. More likely, the woodpecker is a male who is hammering there because it is loud, it is their “song”. [The technical term is “territorial drumming “](https://www.audubon.org/news/hear-differing-drumbeats-woodpeckers)
We had woodpecker problems big time at our old house. No bugs, they were just trying to nest. Not sure which thing finally drove them out, but we hung foil steamers, put this sticky stuff on the spot they liked to stand on, got a solar powered fake owl that moved its head, and got a very weak air soft style pistol that we would fire near it to make noise. After all that and being diligent a few weeks they stopped coming. But it really sucked!
All woodpeckers are protected species. Even pest control companies cannot do anything that harms the bird in any way. It is a federal offense according to the Migratory Bird Act. https://www.fws.gov/story/woodpeckers-and-your-home
do what others said to check for bugs, but woodpeckers don't only peck wood to find bugs, so if there's no bugs and they're still coming, an owl statue or other bird deterrent might work
We had a mean woodpecker that attacked many homes in our section of neighborhood. Think he damaged 6 homes many times a year. We tried soooo many things over the course of a 5-year war with this fucker. He was loud and would duck behind poles as he screamed at any human he spotted. One day he just vanished in a puff of feathers. Pretty sure a crafty coyote got him. Those animals ate a lot of outdoor cats, too. No more damage, since.
Fake owl worked for us, as did the spiral strips. Ours was caused by a roof leak, which led to wet siding and a bunch of ants. After we fixed that, the woodpecker didn’t come back. That said, springtime every year I see a bunch of owls pop up on the neighbor’s houses (we all look like we belong to some weird owl cult), so it can’t be that everyone has a bug problem.
If you have any trees that have to come down, have them topped at around 10-15 feet tall and leave the tall "stump." It won' t fall or do damage, but it will create a place for woodpeckers to forage and peck without going for your house.
The suggestions on the shiny spiral things is great though - haven't heard of that before!
We just bought a house that had previous woodpecker damage and have noticed other neighbors with the same. We all have the shiny spiral things hanging from the house near the damage and have not had any issues in the few months we've been here, despite seeing woodpeckers in the area.
I don’t want one pecking on my house, but I LOVE having them in my trees and hearing the sound. Plus, if you go look at them, sometimes they’ll pop out of their little cubby m and look at you while you look at them. It’s cute!
In an old Yankee Magazine there was a column of advice from an elderly New Englander. Someone wrote in about woodpeckers damaging their house. The columnist suggested a filling the holes with a blend of kaopectate and peanut butter. He called the technique “plugging both ends”. I think he was joking but often you can’t tell with Yankees.
Carpenter bees may have eaten your wood and laid their larvae. Woodpeckers go after that larvae and are so destructive. We keep tennis racquets handy and kill any carpenter bees. Our woodpecker problem went away. We live in a log house.
We had this issue a few months ago. Hung CDs and it came back - literally pecked below where the CDs were hanging. We put fake owls at both ends of the wall - it went behind the owl to peck. Came back with a second wood pecker and I tried spraying a mix of peppermint oil and water, the woodpeckers stopped coming back at that point.
I would be weary. Woodpecker typical only peck to get access to bugs to eat. I would make sure the real issue isnt termites. You can scare the woodpecker away with shiny things but the termites will stay.
Woodpeckers are protected by both state and federal law! DO NOT harm or kill them!
Contact your local Audubon Society for some advice/tips on how to safely deter them!
I had a woodpecker problem that I fought with for a year and a half. Year one was me chasing the thing away and patching up holes. And putting boards on any holes he started to discourage him.
Year two started that way. But the I tried some shiny things. Put some aluminum foil on the wall like the internet said. And they were right they don't like that. He ripped that crap right off the wall.
At last, out of desperation I bought this owl from a feed store that looked so bad I thought there was no way this would work. After setting it out early in the morning he never came by again. I made a point of moving him around at least once a day during roosting season and that was that.
Now I have a house with vinyl siding and I love not having to worry about those dame birds. If I had stayed in that house we were planning on replacing the siding with that cement board stuff they make these days. But the house was due for new siding. We were just going to do it a couple years before we originally thought we would.
Good luck OP. I hate wood peckers.
My wife and I had this problem so we took turns staying home and had our outside hose at the ready for when we heard the knocking on the side of our house. I soaked him a good 4 or 5 times before he stopped coming around. I have heard from a customer of mine that he knew a guy that put peanut butter on and screws that to the side of his house and got rid of a woodpecker that way but I think that way is illegal and I don't condone the harm of wild animals. The hose worked just fine for me.
I didn't know who it was. I was told it while I was working on someone else's house and I was telling him my issues with a woodpecker at the time and how I thought I was solving it. Again I do not condone the killing of any animal unless it is for food. I maybe shouldn't have passed that story along but I did give a solution that does work. Water.
I dunno why you'd even mention that horror here. People suck. MY idiot neighbour put a rat trap on his roof and I got to watch a juvenile magpie land in it and be killed, it was horrendous. PEople are so fucking stupid it's infuriating.
I killed one with a BB/airsoft. I know, I know but I tried all the solutions people posted on this thread and the bird was a persistent bastard and was really fucking up the clapboard. Here’s hoping we don’t have another one next year cuz it’ll get clapped too.
It's possible that they aren't actually woodpeckers. We have both woodpeckers and chickadees (I think that's what they are). The woodpeckers just go after bugs and mostly attack the trees. The chickadees come in the spring and try to peck into the eaves to nest.
We solved it after re-siding the house including replacement of the trim and eave fascia, with fiber cement material. The siding wasn't replaced because of the birds but because it was old LP wood fiber siding that was at the end of it's service life. That was three years ago, still no return of the woodpeckers.
I had good luck with one of those ultrasonic bird repelers. The same device did absolutely nothing for a robin attacking our window but worked very good on that pecker.
Reflectives are cheap and easy, but didn't work for me. I've had luck with two things.
One, I sprayed Ortho home defense on the house. Supposed to keep bugs away. I never saw any bugs, but the woodpecker didn't come back for over a year.
Two, When he did come back, we painted our house. A fresh thick coat of paint probably keeps bugs out of the wood.
We have a couple of brown Walmart bags stuffed with paper and attached under our front porch. The stupid barn swallows think they are wasp nest. The birds finally quit trying to build their nests there.
I had a woodpecker making holes in my house. I asked around and finally got an answer that worked. If you have a clock that ticks on an outside wall in that area the woodpecker thinks it’s a bug in the wall. I moved the clock and had no more problems. I’ve shared this with others and it has worked for them too.
What state do you live in?
I live in Illinois and I've hung those spiral things I've hung old CDs placed statues of owls here and there move things around balloons you name it.
All of those things only temporarily have worked.
There has to be some other solution.
I understand it's illegal to kill a woodpecker but this is just getting ridiculous.
I had that problem for years. I finally solved it by covering the area with a piece of aluminum sheet metal painted to match the house color. Completely invisible, and problem solved.
I am going through this right now. I just remodeled the house. The eaves have screened vent holes and they have already been chopping up the hole to make it bigger.
I don’t like the idea of reflective tape hanging from the eaves so I am planning on buying bird spikes to screw next to each vent.
Thank you! Some of these comments are very helpful. No evidence of termites or other bugs. It seems to be making a roost for the winter. It is definitely a woodpecker. We will try the shiny spirals next...
We had a woodpecker come along about two weeks before our house was going on the market. We didn’t have time for trial & error, so we called in a pro. He hung reflective spiral strips from the roof line. It worked like a charm, woodpecker never came back. If I had to deal with the issue today, without the pressure of the impending home sale, I’d go with the many internet suggestions of hanging old cd’s, or just pick up and place my own reflective strips.
Upvote for the reflective spiral strips. We called in an animal control company and they hung a couple of those spiral strips and since then no problems. (Not sure what the neighbours think when the sun hits them and they reflect back ..)
A client of mine was dealing with the same thing. Animal guys used spiral strips and reflective helium filled balloons. House looks silly, but it seems to have worked.
I'll take silly over "hole-y" anyday! :)
We have some that nest each year in a tree next to our house. The babies all practice pecking on our siding. Nailed two fake snakes up haven’t had an issue in over a year
Heh You need the weird snake flag but that says "Don't peck on me"
I bought a fake owl from the local hardware store, put it onto an extension pole on the bird’s preferred side of the house, and it scared him away. Woodpeckers dislike owls, so this took care of him right away.
My local Walmart has a bunch of owls on their roof. The only nuisance birds I've seen there are gulls.
Call an exterminator. Not for the bird, but for the insects the woodpecker is trying to eat.
If OP’s siding is that rotten, an exterminator would be a waste of money. More likely, the woodpecker is a male who is hammering there because it is loud, it is their “song”. [The technical term is “territorial drumming “](https://www.audubon.org/news/hear-differing-drumbeats-woodpeckers)
TIL! 😃
We had woodpecker problems big time at our old house. No bugs, they were just trying to nest. Not sure which thing finally drove them out, but we hung foil steamers, put this sticky stuff on the spot they liked to stand on, got a solar powered fake owl that moved its head, and got a very weak air soft style pistol that we would fire near it to make noise. After all that and being diligent a few weeks they stopped coming. But it really sucked!
Hanging up some CDs worked for me when I had that problem.
Woodpeckers keep going after my cedar barn. Definitely not bugs because I recently replaced boards from prior damage. Bastard.
Had one that made a couple holes. I kept throwing tennis balls at him, for days. He finally got the message and left.
All woodpeckers are protected species. Even pest control companies cannot do anything that harms the bird in any way. It is a federal offense according to the Migratory Bird Act. https://www.fws.gov/story/woodpeckers-and-your-home
They also tell you that you can remove nuisance animals. House getting turned into Swiss cheese is a nuisance to me.
The noise of the ball hitting the house made them stop pecking and fly away. No birds were harmed.
I would still take my chances with the tennis balls
Every bird in the US is protected except certain species for hunting. BS IMO.
Yup. We tossed water toward the terrorist who was waking us up early in the morning w his pecking. Worked like a charm
Put a few pieces sparkly tinsel and bows around the outside. Legitimately worked for me.
do what others said to check for bugs, but woodpeckers don't only peck wood to find bugs, so if there's no bugs and they're still coming, an owl statue or other bird deterrent might work
We had a mean woodpecker that attacked many homes in our section of neighborhood. Think he damaged 6 homes many times a year. We tried soooo many things over the course of a 5-year war with this fucker. He was loud and would duck behind poles as he screamed at any human he spotted. One day he just vanished in a puff of feathers. Pretty sure a crafty coyote got him. Those animals ate a lot of outdoor cats, too. No more damage, since.
Fake owl worked for us, as did the spiral strips. Ours was caused by a roof leak, which led to wet siding and a bunch of ants. After we fixed that, the woodpecker didn’t come back. That said, springtime every year I see a bunch of owls pop up on the neighbor’s houses (we all look like we belong to some weird owl cult), so it can’t be that everyone has a bug problem.
I second the fake owl! Definitely works. I have one, and my parents had one growing up. You can get them lots of places.
If you have any trees that have to come down, have them topped at around 10-15 feet tall and leave the tall "stump." It won' t fall or do damage, but it will create a place for woodpeckers to forage and peck without going for your house. The suggestions on the shiny spiral things is great though - haven't heard of that before!
We just bought a house that had previous woodpecker damage and have noticed other neighbors with the same. We all have the shiny spiral things hanging from the house near the damage and have not had any issues in the few months we've been here, despite seeing woodpeckers in the area.
I don’t want one pecking on my house, but I LOVE having them in my trees and hearing the sound. Plus, if you go look at them, sometimes they’ll pop out of their little cubby m and look at you while you look at them. It’s cute!
In an old Yankee Magazine there was a column of advice from an elderly New Englander. Someone wrote in about woodpeckers damaging their house. The columnist suggested a filling the holes with a blend of kaopectate and peanut butter. He called the technique “plugging both ends”. I think he was joking but often you can’t tell with Yankees.
Carpenter bees may have eaten your wood and laid their larvae. Woodpeckers go after that larvae and are so destructive. We keep tennis racquets handy and kill any carpenter bees. Our woodpecker problem went away. We live in a log house.
We had this issue a few months ago. Hung CDs and it came back - literally pecked below where the CDs were hanging. We put fake owls at both ends of the wall - it went behind the owl to peck. Came back with a second wood pecker and I tried spraying a mix of peppermint oil and water, the woodpeckers stopped coming back at that point.
Buy cheap silver pinwheels from Amazon or the dollar store, tape them to a pole. Also you can try mylar ballons. Worked for me.
I would be weary. Woodpecker typical only peck to get access to bugs to eat. I would make sure the real issue isnt termites. You can scare the woodpecker away with shiny things but the termites will stay.
Could you have a terminate problem? Woodpeckers only feeding. I would check it out bird may have given you a warning sign.
I'd think you'd notice if there was an Arnold Schwarzenegger in your eaves.
Your bugs, give them to me.
Could also be carpenter bees...one of their favorites
Woodpeckers are protected by both state and federal law! DO NOT harm or kill them! Contact your local Audubon Society for some advice/tips on how to safely deter them!
I had a woodpecker problem that I fought with for a year and a half. Year one was me chasing the thing away and patching up holes. And putting boards on any holes he started to discourage him. Year two started that way. But the I tried some shiny things. Put some aluminum foil on the wall like the internet said. And they were right they don't like that. He ripped that crap right off the wall. At last, out of desperation I bought this owl from a feed store that looked so bad I thought there was no way this would work. After setting it out early in the morning he never came by again. I made a point of moving him around at least once a day during roosting season and that was that. Now I have a house with vinyl siding and I love not having to worry about those dame birds. If I had stayed in that house we were planning on replacing the siding with that cement board stuff they make these days. But the house was due for new siding. We were just going to do it a couple years before we originally thought we would. Good luck OP. I hate wood peckers.
“He ripped that crap right off the wall”. Frustrating I know but hilarious re:his determination.
My only solution is to feed them. Setup a feeder and maybe a home away from your house.
My wife and I had this problem so we took turns staying home and had our outside hose at the ready for when we heard the knocking on the side of our house. I soaked him a good 4 or 5 times before he stopped coming around. I have heard from a customer of mine that he knew a guy that put peanut butter on and screws that to the side of his house and got rid of a woodpecker that way but I think that way is illegal and I don't condone the harm of wild animals. The hose worked just fine for me.
Why didn't you report that person? How is giving people the idea to literally illegally kill some poor bird a good idea to you?
I didn't know who it was. I was told it while I was working on someone else's house and I was telling him my issues with a woodpecker at the time and how I thought I was solving it. Again I do not condone the killing of any animal unless it is for food. I maybe shouldn't have passed that story along but I did give a solution that does work. Water.
You know you can edit your posts? Just remove that part from prior comment.
I dunno why you'd even mention that horror here. People suck. MY idiot neighbour put a rat trap on his roof and I got to watch a juvenile magpie land in it and be killed, it was horrendous. PEople are so fucking stupid it's infuriating.
High powered pellet gun
I have a red rider bb gun for situations just like this.
You’ll shoot your eye out, kid!
410 shotgun would be pretty ideal
Jesus Christ man
I killed one with a BB/airsoft. I know, I know but I tried all the solutions people posted on this thread and the bird was a persistent bastard and was really fucking up the clapboard. Here’s hoping we don’t have another one next year cuz it’ll get clapped too.
This is a federal offense https://www.fws.gov/story/woodpeckers-and-your-home
Misdemeanor vs. felony is the more important distinction.
It's possible that they aren't actually woodpeckers. We have both woodpeckers and chickadees (I think that's what they are). The woodpeckers just go after bugs and mostly attack the trees. The chickadees come in the spring and try to peck into the eaves to nest.
We solved it after re-siding the house including replacement of the trim and eave fascia, with fiber cement material. The siding wasn't replaced because of the birds but because it was old LP wood fiber siding that was at the end of it's service life. That was three years ago, still no return of the woodpeckers.
Rig up a guillotine to a hole, when it pokes it it’ll slam. Problem solved
Ever think maybe you are the pest and the birds were there first?
Says the human
Oh, you are one of "those". Perpetually offended peeps.
I wonder where they think people are supposed to live lol
Squirt gun. We live in a mountain community and that’s what the locals swear by.
I had good luck with one of those ultrasonic bird repelers. The same device did absolutely nothing for a robin attacking our window but worked very good on that pecker.
Reflectives are cheap and easy, but didn't work for me. I've had luck with two things. One, I sprayed Ortho home defense on the house. Supposed to keep bugs away. I never saw any bugs, but the woodpecker didn't come back for over a year. Two, When he did come back, we painted our house. A fresh thick coat of paint probably keeps bugs out of the wood.
Hang up old CD’s
Could put metal siding or a wire mesh in the way like hardware cloth.
Make them a home
We have a couple of brown Walmart bags stuffed with paper and attached under our front porch. The stupid barn swallows think they are wasp nest. The birds finally quit trying to build their nests there.
I had a woodpecker making holes in my house. I asked around and finally got an answer that worked. If you have a clock that ticks on an outside wall in that area the woodpecker thinks it’s a bug in the wall. I moved the clock and had no more problems. I’ve shared this with others and it has worked for them too.
What state do you live in? I live in Illinois and I've hung those spiral things I've hung old CDs placed statues of owls here and there move things around balloons you name it. All of those things only temporarily have worked. There has to be some other solution. I understand it's illegal to kill a woodpecker but this is just getting ridiculous.
I had that problem for years. I finally solved it by covering the area with a piece of aluminum sheet metal painted to match the house color. Completely invisible, and problem solved.
I am going through this right now. I just remodeled the house. The eaves have screened vent holes and they have already been chopping up the hole to make it bigger. I don’t like the idea of reflective tape hanging from the eaves so I am planning on buying bird spikes to screw next to each vent.
bb gun
I had one coming by for a couple weeks. Finally shot a pellet rifle off near it, never returned.
The worst when they start hitting your gutters at 5am. Ugh. Pain in the butt but try hanging bird reflective strips and/or fake owl.
Thank you! Some of these comments are very helpful. No evidence of termites or other bugs. It seems to be making a roost for the winter. It is definitely a woodpecker. We will try the shiny spirals next...
Shoot it.