Posted on 01/09/2007 5:59:08 PM PST by SJackson
Some people who feed birds sometimes wish they'd never see another woodpecker, particularly the downy and hairy species.
The little critters often are the ones who find wood house siding as appealing as a dead elm tree. Cedar siding is particularly interesting to them and other species - even the crow-sized pileated woodpeckers.
Seven types of woodpeckers are common in Wisconsin: sapsuckers,
flickers, pileated, downy, hairy, redheaded and red-breasted.
"I live in a cedar-sided house and have an issue with woodpeckers," wrote a Poynette man. "They seem to think my house is a great place to hang out and pound holes. I even had them making holes the sizes of golf balls, which I assumed was home-building for them. I love having the birds around, but this I can't have."
UW-Madison wildlife ecology professor Scott Craven offered some advice: "The first defense is often trying to scare the birds away, using streamers, owl decoys, noise and pin wheels, but these methods are rarely successful. Some of these methods range from the bizarre to ingenious, but the result is usually that they don't work,"he said. "The Tabasco sauce doesn't work either, but covering an area with fine, black plastic mesh is a possibility."
Mr. Craven suggested hanging the mesh from a soffit and draping it to protect an area where the woodpecker has been working. The mesh has to be away from the siding, otherwise the bird simply will use the mesh as a perch and poke at the wood through the mesh.
"It may sound extreme,
but the mesh is so fine that from 20 feet away, you can hardly see it's there," he said. "If the soffit spacing won't work, spacers have to be used to hold the mesh away from the siding."
Most times the culprit is a single male, and if that bird can be convinced to leave, a homeowner may be woodpecker-free for a number of years.
"If the damage to the siding is serious, more serious methods may be necessary," Mr. Craven said. "These birds are federally and state protected, but a permit to kill them in these circumstances is often possible, starting with a USDA office."
While downy and hairy woodpeckers are most complained about, other woodpeckers sometimes cause damage.
"I think it's mostly a case of those birds being the most numerous, but I've had calls about pileated woodpeckers too," Mr. Craven said. "One homeowner had a pileated woodpecker working on his siding by a window. He could open the window,
look out at the woodpecker. The bird would stop, look
up at him and then go back to making a big hole in the house."
If a shotgun isn't an option, rat traps can be baited with suet and nailed to the siding with the set spring in the top position.
"This will do a small woodpecker in quickly, but a
permit is necessary," Mr. Craven said.
He said a bird generally is marking its territory, but sometimes it's a case of insects being inside or under the siding.
"There's one type of plywood siding with grooves cut in it to make it look like individual boards. Insects will sometimes get into the plywood from these groves
and it's necessary to plug
up all these tiny holes. If there are insects in the siding that the woodpeckers are after, then spraying to kill the insects may be necessary," Mr. Craven said. "In these cases, there are often lines of holes sort of like someone hit the house with a machine gun."
I've never heard of setting rattraps for woodpeckers, or shooting them. I do have an acquaintance who had his garage door torn up by a buck's rubbing. Also in grooves of the siding.
They hammer on my roof sometimes. It doesn't hurt anything and makes lots of noise considering the fact that I've got a metal roof.
"If a shotgun isn't an option, rat traps can be baited with suet and nailed to the siding with the set spring in the top position."
Two words: Peanut. Butter. Works on Woodpeckers eating your house, works on rats in the chicken coop and draws just about anything you want to trap and move with a Hav-A-Heart trap. :)
I'd have a hard time killing a Woodpecker, though. I have my "little buddy" that's at the feeder every day for his "suet fix." Luckily, I have aluminum siding on my house. ;)
I've seen plenty of these three species in trees but never heard them on the siding or roof.
I saw a downy woodpecker just a couple days ago about eight feet up in the tree.
I love watching woodpeckers, but I've not seen them go for metal. I suppose there's no reason they couldn't
That would drive me NUTS.
They hammer to stake out their territory. If they are looking for food they'll select a rotten spot on trees where there are worms to get. But when they start on power poles and houses, that is a territorial thing.
A 22 with bird shot works pretty well. Once they start on a house, they wont quit till they either get chased away by another wookpecker or they are done in.
A pileated sounds just like someone chopping with an ax. A yellow hammer (flicker) sounds like a air hammer going. I have seen them both drive a hole nearly right through a power pole. If you put tin over it, they'll just pound on the tin.
Gramma used to just hand us the .22's, and tell us to go shoot them.
I used to live in a rural and heavily wooded area and hearing a Pileated woodpecker hammering a tree is one of many sounds I miss since I've moved. Catching sight of one was always a bonus.
If you have a suggestion for quieting Mocking birds, please post. Something short of lethal if you would.
On second thought, lethal is okay. There are some summer nights I wouldn't mind sleeping.
I've got the same problem. However, I got tinnitus recently, and don't hear anything but my ears ringing at night.
It is just horrible.
I saw one up in northern Wisconsin eating blackberries. That's a good size bird. The only way I can remember its name is: "The Pill He Ated"...
Hey, it works!
LOL!
I can remember it's name but I had to triple check the spelling before I hit the post button.
We have lots of woodpeckers at our feeders, but fortunately our house is aluminum sided, and they usually leave it alone. From time to time we've had a problem with one of them hammering away at our aluminum chimney cap. The din coming down the chimney would just about wake the dead, but there's no real damage. One of the folks at our local nature center told me that this hammering is part of the mating ritual of the male woodpecker. Since it is always of limited duration, I've assumed this is correct. Fortunately, there are plenty of potential mates here in our woods, so presumably our noisy fellow gets distracted by other activities. (We have Downy, Hairy, and Red-Bellied Woodpeckers, as well as Flickers and rarely, a Pileated Woodpecker).
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.