My home is under attack by woodpeckers! They are pecking holes in the cedar shakes. We built this house 45 years ago but this is an issue new to us. Any suggestions?
TEB132 11-12-06 2:15pm
Unless you live in a brick home, siding, including wood shingles, shakes or clapboard, synthetic stucco and even vinyl over wood can be attractive to woodpeckers who, being slowly but surely pushed out of their natural environments, find your home a welcome place to carve out a spot to nest or to hunt for yummy insects. Woodpeckers can be 7 to 15 inches and have short, strong legs and sharp-clawed toes enabling them to be quite comfortable as they peck away at your house.
Fortunately, there are a number of humane, home made, control methods that can nudge them into searching for an alternative neighborhood. Take two or three 12 inch diameter tin/aluminum pie plates and hang them in the area of infestation, letting them blow freely in the wind. Mirrors, like the inexpensive 9 inch diameter round shaving mirrors that magnify are also effective. Affix one or two near the favored drilling place. Both these methods frighten woodpeckers away as the reflections make them think that predators are near.
Another effective means to cut strips of black plastic (such as from a large plastic garbage bag) about 2 inches wide and 2 to 3 feet long and tack them around the area of infestation, again letting them blow freely in the wind.
Once the woodpeckers clear out, you can remove the woodpecker-proofing decorations and store them away for any future return visits. Then, be sure to repair any holes they have created or seal up any voids they like to nest in.