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Woodpeckers: Tips to Keep Woodpeckers Away

First, you must realize that the woodpeckers are not damaging your home or interrupting your sleep because they have a personal vendetta against you. There is a reason behind this assault on your senses, especially early in the morning. In fact, there can be several reasons. Once you know them, you can better apply the appropriate solution.

Why are woodpeckers trying to destroy my house and / or my sanity?

1. To attract a partner

2. To establish a territory

3. Make a cavity for a nest

4. To find food

Since woodpeckers don’t have a song to sing that captures the heart of a potential mate, they do what comes naturally to them: they turn into hammerhead sharks! A woodpecker has a reinforced skull that has also been fitted with essential padding to cushion its brain. By pecking 20 times a second, you can easily see how a major migraine, if not a concussion, could occur without that natural protection.

Its natural targets are trees, of course, but any tall object will do. It doesn’t even need to be wood, as my metal chimney pipe can attest. Utility poles are another good surface for drumming. This thumping sound will echo and be heard at very long distances. If there are potential partners around, this form of communication does not fail.

Woodpeckers have calls that they use in conjunction with drumming on surfaces. These calls consist, among others, of “pit-pit” or “chick-chick”, sometimes sharp, depending on the circumstances. I have a red-bellied woodpecker pouncing on bird feeders while making its loud, high-pitched “chink-chink” call. It’s like he’s saying “gang way, here I come”! This strategy is very effective as all other birds disperse earlier.

Another very important reason why woodpeckers hit surfaces is to establish their territory.

They fly from tree to tree; hammering each one to make sure intruders know not to cross certain lines. Each tree produces a different sound that will create a kind of musical picture. Woodpeckers check this chart daily, often many times a day, especially in the spring when territories and pairs are most important.

Woodpeckers nest in natural cavities. The wood in your home is no different to this bird than a tree would be, making it a potential nesting place. With all the urban development and loss of natural habitat, woodpeckers take what they can get to survive. Normally, a dead tree or ‘snag’ would serve the purpose of this bird very well. However, most people do not like having unsightly and perhaps dangerous dead trees around their property. Well, you can see that problems arise, as always, when humans and animals are forced to live in the same habitat.

Food sources such as insects and their larvae reside in the wood, sometimes even in its paneling.. If a woodpecker continues to peck in the same spot, especially when it’s not spring, it may have an infestation. These birds can feel the vibrations of insects and their babies in the wood. Equipped with spiked tongues up to 4 “long, woodpeckers can reach into holes or under the bark and easily grab onto their food. Continuously tapping in the same spot should have you turning to the yellow pages for a Professional exterminator The exterminator can determine if carpenter bees or other insects are present on your wood.

Well now we know why these drummers do what they do, what can we do to stop them?

Here are my recommendations for natural, non-toxic remedies for your woodpecker problem:

1. Depending on where the damage occurs in your home, try a natural, non-toxic spray repellent. These repellants taste and smell bad to a woodpecker.

2. Again, depending on the location of the damage and how easily it can be accessed, there are mesh products that can be placed over the area in question.

3. Consider installing a woodpecker nest box to provide a cavity for them to nest in. Consult a bird identification guide to determine what size nest box would be appropriate. Where I live, there are 3 different woodpeckers that come to my bird feeders year-round: furry, hairy, and red-bellied. I use a particular pneumonic to help me remember which is which because both hairy and hairy females have the same black and white markings; the male hairy woodpecker has a red spot on the head, while the male hairy woodpecker has one on the back of the head; but they are of different sizes. Namely: hairy =huge compared to Downy, what is it Dainty. The red-bellied woodpecker has black and white on its wings, and a red head and neck, with a hint of red on its stomach, and it is large. Everyone has different nest box needs.

4. This never fails for me. Add a tallow feeder and keep it full year round. They now have sebum that doesn’t melt, which is safe to use in hot weather. Magically, my woodpecker problems disappear when I give them sebum. A jelly feeder and / or a mealworm feeder doesn’t hurt either. Woodpeckers really have a sweet tooth and can taste sweetness. They regularly visit my oriole nectar feeder and the hummer feeder that has a larger roosting area.

5. As a last resort, you can hang shiny strips of mylar near the area where the woodpeckers peck. Shiny objects that move in the wind in unpredictable ways will help deter their efforts and encourage them to keep going. Look for them online or at your local hardware store. Those fake owls and hawks, save your money, woodpeckers soon learn they’re not real.

UNDER NO CIRCUMSTANCES KILL A PICADOR, NO MATTER HOW ANNOYING IT IS. ALL PICADORES ARE PROTECTED BY LAW, AND YOU WILL FACE HARD FINES AND POSSIBLE TIME IN JAIL.

The use of insecticides is one of the greatest threats to our woodpecker populations because they eliminate their natural sources of food. The other problem is the loss of dead trees to nest in and drilling for food. In my forest I have many poplars. These are loved by the largest woodpecker in North America – the Pileated Woodpecker. Males arrive early in the spring and begin to “ask” for a mate. They don’t have a song, per se, but a very distinctive calling. Woody Woodpecker of cartoon fame is said to have been loosely modeled after a woodpecker. I think they are a very attractive bird!

I know that my woodpeckers constantly patrol the nearby forests. In this way they are protecting the environment from attacks by unwanted insect infestations. Living from 4 years to a staggering 11 years, they can eliminate many mistakes throughout their life. So I can live with my chimney pipe spring concerts!

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