Have you been hearing that repetitive pecking noise on or around your house lately? It’s probably a woodpecker. If you want to know how to keep woodpeckers off your house, read on.
If you’ve noticed woodpeckers pecking at your house, there are typically two main reasons. Drumming and feeding.
What is drumming and why do they do it?
As we’ve said above, woodpeckers use drumming to communicate with each other. When claiming territory or looking for mates, they are going to want the sound of their drumming to travel as far as possible.
Metal is the best surface to achieve loud sounds that carry far. Often woodpeckers will choose metal gutters, chimney guards, satellite dishes or siding.
They aren’t trying to drill holes or dig in, just make noise. This can certainly be loud and annoying, but may not be causing any damage. In many cases, this drumming will only go on in the Spring, so if you can wait it out the birds will likely stop on their own.
They’re often looking for food
If you see woodpeckers drilling into your siding, trying to get under your siding and leaving actual holes, they are probably trying to get at insects. This is much more likely to happen with wood siding and shingles than vinyl siding.
If woodpeckers are constantly creating noise or damage to your home, I can understand wanting to discourage them. First off – it is illegal to harass or harm woodpeckers under the Migratory Bird Treaty Act. Also, they are very beneficial birds to the environment. So let’s look at some legal and safe ways to deter them from your home.
How To Keep Woodpeckers Off Your House
Call an insect exterminator
The number one reason woodpeckers would be causing damage and making holes in your home is because there are insects under the siding they are trying to eat.
Woodpeckers will go after carpenter ants, bees, flies, beetles, and other bugs and their larvae that may be nesting under your siding. It would probably be worthwhile to call an exterminator and have them come out to your property and investigate if you have an insect infestation. Once the bugs are under control, that means less food for the woodpeckers to find.
Offer food
Try offering an easier, more readily available food source to distract them, such as putting up a suet feeder. If they are already pecking at your house, you can try putting the suet feeder close to the problem area, and once they find it slowly moving it further away from your house.
Pretend Predator
Set up a pretend predator. Hawks and Owls are natural predators of woodpeckers and if a woodpecker thinks they see one on your house, they may be scared away.
These can be hit or miss, some birds get used to them after a time and catch-on that they aren’t going to hurt them. But many people have success especially with moving them to different locations around the house from time to time.
This Solar Action Owl on Amazon would be a great one to try. It has a solar panel that will swivel the owls head every few minutes, making the owl seem more lifelike.
Shiny objects
For whatever reason, woodpeckers do not like shiny objects. Perhaps the bright reflection of light hurts their eyes or is confusing. But you can use this to your advantage by hanging shiny objects where you are having trouble with woodpeckers. Some people have used CD’s or mylar balloons. Here are three items from Amazon made specifically for use in scaring away birds.
Alternative Nest Site
If the hole the woodpecker is making is unusually large, it may be trying to excavate a nest cavity. Leaving “snags” (standing dead or nearly dead trees) or even 15 foot “stumps” in your back woods or around your pro