Stop Woodpeckers from Pecking Your House

LESLIE: Bill in Arkansas, what can we do for you today?

BILL: Yes, I have a problem with some woodpecker [1]s pecking through my siding and getting into my attic right beside my vent.

TOM: Oh, boy.

LESLIE: They’re getting right through the siding and into the (chuckling).

TOM: Wow. They’re eating their way right into the house, huh?

BILL: Yes, yes. I have to get up there and run them out and fix the hole. And I do it again right beside the place I fixed.

TOM: (laughing) Well, they certainly can be a nuisance. Now, if they’re in your attic, the way to get rid of them is with a one-way door. Basically, if you can take – if you have a vent or a space like that where you can have a piece of screening that will open up from the inside but not let them in on the outside – sort of flapped close …

LESLIE: It flaps outside.

TOM: Right, it flaps outside so they can …

LESLIE: Unless that woodpecker [2] can pick up that mesh screen and climb under it, then you’ve got a problem.

TOM: Right. The other thing that you can do in the area where they like to sort of peck is you can put some tin pie plates there; some flexible aluminum pie plates. Because they won’t peck something that’s really shiny like that.

BILL: Ah.

LESLIE: Yeah, there’s even – you can go ahead and buy something. It looks almost like prismatic Mylar but you could probably just get Mylar ribboning and make a little flag of dangly, pretty, silver, shiny Mylar. And they hate it for some reason. I guess either they see their reflection or they don’t like it or – whatever it is, they don’t want to go anywhere near it.

BILL: Wonderful. Wonderful. I knew there was something I could get. Just didn’t have any clue to what it was.

TOM: Well, there you go. There are some ideas. Thanks so much for calling, Bill, at 1-888-MONEY-PIT and we hope we’ve helped you chase your woodpeckers away.