UGH!!! I've said it many times before...I'm a "live and let live" guy but, the Hairy and Downy Woodpeckers around here seem to know how to push my buttons. They relentlessly peck away at the wood soffits around my house. They don't do any real structural damage but they've made swiss cheese out of a few areas of trim boards.

I usually just lock and unlock or open and close the nearest casement window a few times and the noise shoos them away. Inevitably they return a minute or two later though. They aren't crafting a home or looking for food. They just do it to p*** me off. It might be time for plan B or in this case plan BB (gun)!

Lord knows if my lib neighbors saw me thinning the woodpecker flock, they'd call andy cuomo's gun-hater hotline in a minute....I might be looking for the S&W Forum's Defense Fund to bail me out. What's that 800 number again Lee?

__________________
paws for friendship

Sorry, couldn't help myself.

Woody Woodpecker laugh - YouTube

Might be time for "Woody" to take a dirtnap!

__________________
Miss Buddies crsides & fat tom

I wonder if woodpecker breast meat is any good??
Eat one and leave its head on a pike as a warning to the rest of them.


I can picture the conversation with the lib neighbor.

Lib: Is...is...is th-that a...a... bird's head over there?

Kozmic: Yup, sure is. Them things is good eatin' too.

Blast em with the hose,they hate that 😁

I hate to state the obvious, but if you've got woodpeckers going after wood on your house, you really should call an exterminator and thank the woodpeckers.
The woodpeckers are after some kind of wood boring insect that you probably can't see. You may have carpenter ants, or some other wood boring insect, and hopefully not termites.

I had a woodpecker put a hole in some trim and then it was trying to put a hole in the metal attic fan louver.

He didnt get to far on the metal but it sure made a racket.

After he kept trying the metal I figured he was challenged...

Woodpecker...peckerwood..... both no good.

__________________
Forum consigliere

Attach silver wide ribbons - about 2" around the area. When the wind blows, those move and scare the little peckers away.

Around here, those pests are protected so you can't do anything to harm them but, you can drive them away with ribbons and the like.

Little birdy on my sill
Yellow with an orange bill
I drew him in with crumbs of bread
Then I shot him in the head.

__________________
Back to back World War Champs.

Nope, none of the above. My bug and bee guy is a good friend. I get a healthy dose of complete coverage and a thorough inspection every year (even my barn) and I got nothin'.

The woodpeckers seem to do it early, like 5:30 am during the late spring and early summer every year. It's some sort of ritual, normal thing for them I think. It's a bit more resonant and louder than "your average tree". That might be it. Never Flickers, Red Bellied or Pileated just the smaller guys.

I live in the woods. There's a good supply of food and wood for them. I can't imaging why they like the smell and taste of wood stain but they do.

__________________
paws for friendship

That is weird...never known them to do it just for fun....unless they are using it as some kind of mating call since it has a better echo than an old tree?

I rarely see the smaller ones here, but we sure do have some large pileated that always go after the dead or diseased trees along the back of our properties along the RR tracks. In fact, just last weekend I watched one single handedly take out a stump along the neighbors driveway that has been rotting away for a couple years and was most likely full of ants, termites etc....last year one took out a large stump in the neighbors back yard on the other side of me.

Woodpeckers also peck to attract mates. We get a flicker across the street every spring. After they get a nest going, they stop.

We have a suet station in our back yard that we keep stocked all year, and the little downies and hairies (I originally wrote "little peckers" but edited it) really go for it. When there's anything left after the gangster sparrows get through with it, that is.

Wonder what would happen if you distracted 'em from the pecking by placing some food nearby? Might be worth a try, and cheap too. Suet bricks at Wal-Mart are about a buck each, and the little wire enclosures aren't much.

I am not responsible for any additional woodpeckers who come to the station and, upon filling themselves, fly over to the house and join their buddies pecking on the boards! This is the "woodpecker clause" of the suggestion!

__________________
Ukraine -- now more than ever

Trying putting some suet and a 'Do Not Disturb' sign outside. Those little buggers are real smart. If you really P*** them off, they'll call in the "enforcer peckers"....their 'Pileated' cousins.

As depicted here before you do not want those suckers banging on your house. Good luck.

I was told by one of the forest service's bird-ologist that they are after bugs that over night in the cracks between the siding boards. Their hammering will drive the bugs out for easy picking. They are not necessarily wood eating or boring bugs, just insects that seek the warmth & shelter of your house.

I recommend a generous spraying with S&W M78g, & repeat as needed.

Wood peckers come in two broad categories, bug eaters & sap suckers, yours are the latter.

I remember on 'Laugh In' Henry Gibson reciting.

I saw a little birdy, laying in the snow
His wing was broke, he could not go
I drew him near with a crust of bread
And then I smashed that birdy's head.

You might try a Red Ryder BB gun. Local Wal-Marts usually still have those in stock. I keep one to play with around here, but I have not shot at birds in over 50 years. If a woodpecker started drilling for oil on my house, I would have to air mail a BB to him.

Of course those are probably illegal in some states, or have a 75 day waiting cooling off period or some such thing.

You'll shoot your eye out!!!

Word of caution about the obvious thing of doing them in, "Woodpeckers are classified as migratory, nongame birds and are protected by the Federal Migratory Bird Treaty Act."

So much for disclaimer, I have about 30 holes in the front of the house where they bored holes and removed insulation to make nest there. Tried all remedies from water to throwing shoes at them, including putting a mesh net over the front which only gave them a foothold wile the bored more holes. The only thing that worked for me was to repaint haven't had any since been several years and lots of wooden patches while waiting for cement board siding to be installed.

Oh contraire my friend. The flickers that overwinter here in Vegas like to drum on things to let the others know they are about. They usually pick my metal chimney cap at 0630 on a Saturday. Not being a morning person this usually results in a vertical take-off in the fetal position for me. That racket is LOUD in my bedroom.

They love the sound of "drumming"! Wait till you have very large Pileated Woodpeckers "drumming" on your three story gutter downspouts at 0530. No alarm clock needed!

medxam

__________________
Doc Garrett
Dead Man's Doctor

Had one that liked metal chimneys at an apartment complex where I used to live that was near some woods. First times I heard it, I swore somebody was rapid-firing some kind of weapon down there in the forest. I finally wised up. After a couple weeks, it stopped so I guess Woody moved on.

__________________
Ukraine -- now more than ever

I used to have trouble with them. They WILL drive you crazy. You can kill them but in a year or two more will be back. The only cure I know is not cheap but it is effective - brick!

The first year after I bricked the little devils could not quite get it twigged that their fun was over. They would come and peck around but it didn't do them any good. I haven't seen one close to the house for some time but now and then I hear them close by in the woods. I guess we have reached a stalemate.

The woodpeckers we have around here are Northern Flickers. In the spring, they like to drum as a mating call. They've discovered that the metal vent pipes make a lot of noise, but they will peck on the house as well. Our local bird experts recommend putting out a house for them. Once once of the birds nests at your place, it won't mess up its own location and since they're territorial, they keep the others away. Don't know if it's the same with your woodpeckers, but that's what they say around here.


Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk HD

I tried the brick method after hearing about it from another feller, and it worked, but it was hell on the windows.

__________________
Ukraine -- now more than ever

Nice image. Sounds like about a 6.7 degree of difficulty.

__________________
Oh well, what the hell.

I dated a girl who was twenty-six before she learned the term didn't refer to...never mind.

__________________
Oh well, what the hell.

I once bought an A-frame house at the 3,000 foot level of the Sierra Nevada Mountains. I read a lot of John Muir stuff at first.
When woodpeckers became obvious I tried buying a plastic owl about a foot and a half tall with a bobble head. Seemed to work for a few days.
My woodpeckers where storing acorns under my wood shingles. Mostly around the edges of the roof. Trying to pay the kids a quarter or even a dollar was no motivation. When I set the bounty at 5 dollars for each dead woodpecker they got really motivated. They only shot a few but the woodpeckers got stressed from seeing them running out the doors with BB guns popping and BBs bouncing around every time they began pecking.

A friend of mine had another kind of woodpecker. Believe it or not a “yellow belly sap sucker” is really a woodpecker that drills holes in your favorite trees to suck out the sap. If they drill all the way around it kills the tree. He ask around then bought a .22 rifle.
Yellow-bellied Sapsucker - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

My daughter was being kept awake by bats in the walls. One night at bedtime, when she was complaining, I went upstairs with a big rubber mallet hammer and beat on the walls shouting “shut up bats, she wants to sleep”.
I left the rubber hammer with her.
It became a nightly ritual - the rubber hammer blows then her shouting “shut up bats I want to sleep”.
Finally I sealed the access points and the bats only squeaked about a week as they slowly died. My kids were not happy about the weaker and weaker squeaks. Maybe they learned not to complain? I think they began feeding our mice?

Well I learned a LOT today!

I had a woodpecker that would tap on the top of the chimney chase. It's all metal up there, and I know there's no bugs in it because I was just up inside there when I built the addition on the house.

That pecker would peck on that metal so much I figured he had to have a heck of a headache. I thought he must be touched for sure.

I ended up taking him out with some .22 birdshot. That is if it's legal to do so I did. If it's illegal to shoot woodpeckers then I didn't. I only dreamt I shot him in that case.

.

__________________
Kirk / Spock 2020

Kozmic, I think that toll free number for the Forum Defense Fund is 1-800-GET-REAL!

__________________
Lounge Lizard Extraordinaire

Fer-cryingoutloud man he was trying to call a mate. All you had to do is climb up there and smear some of that tar like stuff on the metal. Maybe a little duck/duct tape?
Then maybe nail an old pie pan out on a distant tree? Or make them a sheet metal bird house? (I am guessing here based on below)

(About half way down the page under)
The Red Bellied Woodpecker Mating Habits
Red Bellied Woodpecker

(second part of paragraph)
This habit of tapping is done on gutters, utility poles, sidings or hollow limbs as long as it resonates well for its needs. Tapping is mutual and generally done at a nesting cavity. Mating is done as one bird will enter and the other stays outside, and each will take turns tapping to the other. These creatures are said to be monogamous throughout the breeding season. Some pairs last for over several seasons.