medxam
US Veteran
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
medxam
-
Forum Update: We've upgraded the software to improve security, performance, and the overall experience.
👉 Read why we made the change | Support the Forum
Woodpeckers pecking on my house
- Thread starter kozmic
- Start date
vigil617
US Veteran
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.
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.
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.
michaelpthompso
Member
- Joined
- Mar 9, 2013
- Messages
- 35
- Reaction score
- 21
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
Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk HD
vigil617
US Veteran
I used to have trouble with them. They WILL drive you crazy.
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.
I tried the brick method after hearing about it from another feller, and it worked, but it was hell on the windows.
shouldazagged
Absent Comrade
shouldazagged
Absent Comrade
I dated a girl who was twenty-six before she learned the term didn't refer to...never mind.
Delos
Member
Noises in the night
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?
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.
.
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.
.
Delos
Member
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.
.
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.
Similar threads
