Although woodpeckers are beautiful birds, they can be quite noisy and destructive, particularly if they start pecking away at your house. The damage they cause is usually easy to identify: a series of small, deep holes often arranged in neat vertical or horizontal rows. Larger holes may indicate an attempt to create a nesting site, and the loud hammering noise they produce is a dead giveaway.
Understanding the habits and behaviors of woodpeckers is essential to deter them from damaging your home. Here’s a detailed guide on why woodpeckers peck and how you can protect your house from their activity.
Why Do Woodpeckers Peck?
Woodpeckers can be tricky to deter because their pecking serves multiple purposes:
- Attracting Mates: Drumming is a behavior used by woodpeckers to attract mates and repel rivals. Emma Greig from the Cornell Lab of Ornithology explains that this pecking, done to make sounds, usually stops once the mating season begins in spring.
- Foraging for Food: Woodpeckers make noise when foraging for food. They may be searching for insects such as carpenter bee larvae, leafcutter bees, termites, wood borers, ants, grubs, and caterpillars. Eliminating these insect pests from your siding can reduce the woodpeckers’ incentive to hammer on your house.
- Building Nests: During the spring breeding season, woodpeckers may try to create nest cavities in your siding. These holes are typically round or irregular and fairly large. It’s important to evict the birds before or after the nesting season and cover the hole to prevent them from returning.
- Storing Acorns: In some regions, acorn woodpeckers store acorns in holes drilled in trees or houses. Each hole is about the size of an acorn.
How to Stop Woodpeckers from Pecking Your House
- Eliminate the Insects: If woodpeckers are attracted to insects in your siding, eliminating these pests can deter the birds. Hiring an exterminator to remove the bugs may also address potential structural damage caused by the insects themselves.
- Watch for Roosting Cavities: If woodpeckers are creating roosting cavities, cover these holes quickly, ensuring no birds are inside. Setting up woodpecker nesting boxes in your yard can provide alternative nesting sites. Fill the boxes with wood chips to encourage use. Smaller woodpeckers need a 1.5-inch diameter hole, while larger species require a 2.5-inch hole.
- Coax the Birds Away: Offering alternative food sources can lure woodpeckers away from your house. Suet feeders placed close to the house initially, then gradually moved further away, can be effective. Planting trees and shrubs with bird-friendly fruit, like chokeberries, serviceberries, dogwood, and wild cherry, can also help.
- Try a Deterrent: Various deterrents, such as reflective streamers, plastic owls, and distress calls, have mixed success. Reflective streamers, particularly mylar holographic tape, have been found to be the most consistent deterrent as woodpeckers dislike shiny, moving objects. Mirrors, aluminum foil, and mylar balloons can also be used to scare them away.
- Hang Bird Netting: If other methods fail, bird netting can physically block woodpeckers from accessing your siding. Hang the netting from the roof line to the ground, sealing the sides to prevent birds from sneaking through. Ensure the netting is at least 3–4 inches away from the siding to keep woodpeckers from reaching through.
By understanding woodpecker behavior and implementing these strategies, you can protect your home from their potentially destructive activities while respecting their role in the ecosystem.
