Woodpecker Damage: What to Know

While the sweet sound of birds singing is great to wake up to, the pounding of a woodpecker’s bill on your siding or drainpipe is another thing completely. If your home is the new favorite location of your local woodpecker population, here are some things to know.

Why Do Woodpeckers Peck?

Woodpeckers have bills(and thick skulls)designed to hammer holes into bug-infested wood. They are especially industrious with making holes in the wintertime, because the cold weather means that their food of choice is either dead, migrated, or burrowed deep inside of trees, awaiting the spring. This can cause an upswing in woodpecker damage during the cold times of year.

In the spring, some woodpeckers will also peck the metal parts of your home, like metal chimneys or gutter drains, in order to attract mates. Northern flickers are especially known for this behavior.

What Do You Do?

If you do have woodpeckers on your home, gathering a little information can help you find the right solution. First, winter woodpeckers on your siding are a different issue than mating woodpeckers. The biggest reason for this is that a woodpecker looking for food will not only see holes but hear bugs in the wood or stucco; these birds have excellent hearing to try and target the location of bugs who are actively chewing. This means that you will need to deal first with the birds and then with the underlying insects in your siding. Mating birds can be scared away with a deterrent like an owl statue without concern about the integrity of the wood in your home.

Working with a wildlife removal expert can help to provide a safe, legal solution for dealing with woodpeckers and identifying the insect problem that the birds have found for you. It’s important not to shoot at or trap the birds as they are legally protected under the Migratory Bird Act. The good news is that in dealing with any wood-boring insects, the reason for your woodpecker problem will take care of itself. Want to know more? Contact us today.