Woodpeckers may be popular among kids and in pop culture, but adults are rarely happy when one pays a visit in real life. They’re known for being noisy and often destructive, but should you really shoo them off?
Let’s look at how to chase woodpeckers off your property and keep them away. Then, we’ll get to know what attracts them and why you may actually want woodpeckers around.
Getting Rid of Woodpeckers
Dealing with woodpeckers can be both costly and time-consuming. However, there are quite a few tricks that can discourage or redirect these pests when they begin causing problems.
Killing a woodpecker or removing an occupied nest without the proper licenses may result in hefty fines or worse. Thankfully, there are ways to safely scare off or even befriend these noisy birds.
Eliminate Prey
When a woodpecker attacks your home, it can be a warning sign of an infestation, but that’s not the only reason. While carpenter bees, termites, and ants often attract woodpeckers, they may also be drumming to establish territory, looking for a nesting site, or attracted to the acoustics of your siding, especially if you have wood or metal siding that creates resonant sounds.
If you notice woodpecker activity, it’s still a good idea to check the spot they were pecking for signs of an infestation. If bugs are discovered, you’ll need to deal with those. Be careful if you intend to use insecticides, as these may also harm the woodpeckers.
It’s also important to plug and paint over any woodpecker holes quickly. This discourages the bird from attacking the same spot and can also help prevent any injected pesticides from being easily accessible.
Redirection
Woodpeckers don’t attack your home without a reason, so once you’ve dealt with any infestations, it’s time to redirect the bird’s attention. Suet cages are perfect for this task.
Set up the suet cage close to where the woodpecker is hunting, then slowly move the cage away from your home a few feet every day or two. The woodpeckers will follow, so you may wish to either use the cage to draw them to the edge of your property or to your garden.
If you choose the garden, you can simply let the suet run out and the woodpeckers will turn their attention to keeping your garden safe from all sorts of unwanted bugs. They may steal a berry or two on occasion, or swipe a piece of fruit. However, it’s a small price to pay for a safe garden. You can even give them a bird box to encourage a mating pair to nest near your plants.
Alternatively, if your goal is to simply be rid of the bird, then move the cage to the edge of your property far from your home. By summer, the woodpecker will have completely forgotten about your home and it will be safe to remove the suet cage. You can also plant berry bushes at the cage’s destination to keep the birds around – but at a safe distance.
Repel Them
There’s no one method that will scare woodpeckers off every time. However, a combination tends to work fairly well and buys you time to deal with any infestations that were drawing the birds to your home.
Metallic tape is one of several visual deterrent methods that may help discourage woodpeckers. These reflective strips will need to be hung at least three inches in front of places the woodpecker’s been hunting.
It also doesn’t hurt to place them elsewhere on the property if you have issues with multiple bird types. The sudden flashes of light when the wind blows reminds birds of the flash of a fast-moving predator.
Other reflective deterrents such as metallic balloons or even old CDs may also be used, but tend to be less effective than the metallic tape.
Owl decoys have also met with some temporary success. These will need to be physically shifted around each day, but eventually the birds will realize they’re not real and simply ignore them.
Likewise, audio recordings of a distressed woodpecker followed by the sound of a predator can have a temporary deterrent effect but – like with Mariah Carey by the time December rolls around – hearing the same agonizing sounds repeatedly eventually stops having any effect.
Call In a Professional
When all else fails, contact your local wildlife agency and let them know of the problem. They will be able to point you to pest control companies that are properly licensed to handle woodpeckers or may send someone out for an assessment.
Preventing Woodpeckers
Woodpeckers may interact with your home or trees for multiple reasons: searching for food, attempting to nest, establishing territory through drumming, or because they’re attracted to the acoustic properties of your building materials. While many deterrent methods are temporary, several preventive approaches can help reduce woodpecker activity.
Fill the Holes
By filling any holes quickly, woodpeckers will become discouraged and are more likely to seek another spot to hunt or nest. Additionally, these birds like to return to the same spots each year, so eliminating any signs of their previous visit can encourage them to move on.
Proper Property Management
While eliminating insect infestations is important, woodpeckers may visit your property for multiple reasons beyond foraging. Regular property maintenance should include:
- Inspecting for and treating pest infestations in wooden structures
- Identifying and addressing decaying or diseased trees that might attract woodpeckers
- Considering alternative building materials or treatments when replacing siding, as some materials are more attractive to woodpeckers for drumming
- Creating designated woodpecker-friendly areas away from structures, which can include both food sources (like berry bushes and suet feeders) and dead trees or posts that are safe for drumming
While these steps won’t guarantee woodpeckers won’t visit your structures, they can help reduce unwanted activity while providing alternative spaces that meet the birds’ natural needs.”
Bird netting is an effective way to keep woodpeckers away from your home, although it’s annoying to set up. The netting must be hung from the eaves and be at least three inches away from the wall to prevent woodpeckers from simply pecking through it. If properly maintained and kept taught, the netting is almost invisible and highly effective.
Getting to Know Woodpeckers
There are around 240 species of woodpeckers in the Family Picidae. All are known for their habit of pecking at wood. However, while they may be annoying, they are also valuable allies.
Characteristics of Woodpeckers
While some woodpeckers have the red, white, and black markings so often depicted in pop culture, many are olive, brown, or even pied to help them blend into their environment. Some have tufts of feathers or full crests on their heads while others don’t.
Size also varies greatly, with the smallest being the bar-breasted piculet at a mere three inches long. The largest, the imperial woodpecker, measures 24 inches long but is currently believed to be extinct. The last sighting was in 1956, although it’s possible that some still survive in remote locations.
Almost all woodpeckers have the zygodactyl feet common to climbing birds. This means the first and fourth toes face backwards, while the second and third toes face forward to give superior grip when climbing. The exceptions are the American three-toed woodpecker, black-backed woodpecker, and Eurasian three-toed woodpecker.
The beaks are extra-strong and a special hyoid bone wraps around the brain in a special cavity to absorb shock. These birds have long barbed tongues that wrap around prey. Some species that prefer rooting through dirt for food have longer bills.
Diet
Despite being known as insectivores, woodpeckers actually have a fairly broad diet. This includes berries, mice, lizards, spiders, nuts, bird eggs, and even tree sap and human food scraps. The trick is that many of these foods are pests while others will make the woodpecker into a pest.
Are Woodpeckers Dangerous?
Beyond a risk of structural damage, woodpeckers are mostly harmless. They may carry the same parasites or diseases as other common birds which can be transmitted through poop or their dirty nests.
It should be noted that they most often target diseased or dying trees, or decayed wood. Thus, a woodpecker can be a warning of numerous problems beyond juts infestations.
Different Pecking Habits
Woodpeckers don’t just bore holes in wood for food. When foraging, they’ll make a hole in mere seconds, usually in the morning or when it’s sunny out. Unless you offer them a nesting box, they’ll chip out a nest in a tree or your home, taking approximately 12 to 17 days to complete the hole.
They’re also attracted to aluminum siding, gutters, and other metallic items. They love the reverberations metal creates and will use these to communicate with other woodpeckers.
Finding Balance
So should you get rid of woodpeckers? As long as you provide a nesting box and deter them from your house, these critters can be staunch allies against a whole gamut of pests. However, neglecting their needs may turn them into a frustrating and destructive foe.
Morgan is a certified entomologist and pest control consultant and a member of the National Pest Management Association.
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