How To Get Rid Of Woodpeckers Pecking Your House

Have you ever wondered how much damage a woodpecker can cause to your house? According to a recent survey, the amount of an incident of woodpecker damage is an average loss of 300 dollars, including the money you need to spend to repair the house.

When woodpeckers consider your house to be their territory, they start drilling holes to make nests. They also eat insects and bugs found in those holes. If you are dealing with these issues, you may want to know how to get rid of woodpeckers pecking your house.

• Eliminate the Food Sources.
• Place a Suet Feeder for Woodpeckers.
• Set a Decoy Woodpecker Predator.
• Use Bird Spikes
• Use a Woodpecker Net
• Plant Different Types of Fruit Trees.
• Fill up Holes in the House.
• Hang up Reflective Objects.
• Install a Wind Chime/Pinwheel.
• Remove Trees (If Possible).
• Wrap Trees.
• Call a Professional.

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To Read More About Birds:
Do Woodpeckers Get Headaches? [Click Here]
How to Make Homemade Suet for Birds? [Click Here]
Where Do Birds Go At Night? [Click Here]
How To Attract Woodpeckers? [Click Here]

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Don’t you know how to utilize the methods to deter woodpeckers from pecking your house? You don’t need to worry about it. In this article, we are now going to discuss the methods below. Apart from that, you can learn what to avoid when keeping woodpeckers away.

How To Prevent Woodpeckers

Woodpeckers are omnivores, and therefore, insects, such as ants, bees, and termites are the main foods in their diet. If you want to prevent them from pecking your house, you have to eliminate their food sources from your house.

You can also place a suet feeder full of suet for them. To scare these birds away from your house, you can set an owl decoy. Apart from these methods, there are many useful techniques out there that we will talk about.

So, without further ado, let’s get into the topic.

1. Eliminate The Food Sources

To remove the food source of woodpeckers, you need to examine the appearance of infestation. You may find ants, bees, termites, and other insects in holes in your house. If you find any of them, you need to eliminate them from your house.

Apply pesticides to the insects, following safety protocols for your family and pets, so they don’t inhale, ingest, or touch the pesticides. If you find a lot of infestations that you cannot deal with, call professional exterminators to do the job.

2. Place A Suet Feeder For Woodpeckers

Woodpeckers love suet. This treat is made from cow fat, which is available in many local stores. To deter woodpeckers from pecking your house, hang a suet feeder several feet above the ground. Ensure the feeder is close to your home where woodpeckers are likely to peck, and other creatures don’t eat the suet.

When woodpeckers notice the feeder, they will start eating the suet rather than pecking your house. Each day, you have to move the feeder several feet so that the woodpeckers remain far away from your house. You should place the suet feeder in fall, winter, or spring because summer weather can melt the suet. 

3. Set A Decoy Woodpecker Predator

Placing a decoy woodpecker predator is an excellent way to keep your home woodpecker-free. It can scare the woodpeckers away like a real predator. Now, the question is where to find such decoys. You can purchase various decoys, especially owls, from a home improvement store or an online marketplace, like Amazon.

We recommend you buy an owl decoy from Amazon because this is pretty realistic and performs well to scare the woodpeckers away. Like a wind vane, it moves when the wind hits it. You can also buy a solar-power owl decoy that can move its head by itself. (The link takes you to Amazon)

Instead of owl decoys, you can use an image of a fox, placing behind bushes to scare the woodpeckers away. Make sure you change the owl decoy’s location every 2 to 3 days so that woodpeckers cannot understand your trick.

To Read More About Birds:
How To Attract Bluebirds? [Read more]
What Do Bluebirds Eat? [Read more]
What Do Woodpeckers Eat? [Read more]
How To Attract Cardinals To Your Yard? [Read more]

4. Use Bird Spikes

Woodpeckers feel secured where they can roost. These places are usually roofs, eaves, fences, and other horizontal surfaces. When they get these types of places in your house, they must be willing to drill holes and make habitats in them.

So, if you remove their roosting areas, you can prevent woodpeckers from coming to your house. For that, you need to mount bird spikes in areas where woodpeckers are likely to drill holes. For your information, bird spikes are needle-like rods made of either plastic or metal.

Bird spikes are easy to install, and you don’t need to repair them frequently. Are you looking for high-quality bird spikes at an affordable price? We recommend you the Bird-X STS-100 Stainless Steel Bird Spikes (The link takes you to Amazon).

5. Use A Woodpecker Net

Apart from bird spikes, bird netting can be an excellent option to prevent woodpeckers from roosting. This is ideal for large areas. When you are going to cover an area with bird nets, make sure they should be 2 to 3 inches away from the surface.

The net you will buy should be soft and unstable so that woodpeckers cannot perch on it. However, you should not buy a net that may tear due to the heavyweight of woodpeckers. You can buy the OGORI Bird Netting made of durable nylon, making it one of the best bird netting in today’s market.

6. Plant Different Types Of Fruit Trees

Woodpeckers love to eat sweet fruits, such as oranges, grapes, apples, and different types of berries. If you plant these fruit trees in your yard, you can keep woodpeckers away from pecking your house. Don’t plant these trees too close to your house.

7. Fill Up Holes In Your House

If a woodpecker somehow starts creating holes in your house, other woodpeckers will be attracted to create more holes there. Consequently, insects make infestations inside the holes. So, woodpeckers won’t stop coming to your house and destroying your property.

When you see the first hole, repair it as soon as possible. However, you have to do it when woodpeckers are not there. If you notice more than one hole, you will need to fill the holes with wood, foam, or caulk, depending on the location and size of the holes.

Once you have filled the holes up, paint them with woodpecker deterrent paint, polyurethane paint, or oil-based paint. This will help you keep insects away from your house and diminish the appearance of woodpeckers.

8. Hang Up Reflective Objects

To prevent woodpeckers from coming to your house, you can place a mirror or aluminum foil paper (if necessary) close to where woodpeckers have already attacked. When they return, the mirror or the aluminum foil paper reflects sunlight to scare them away from your house.

9. Install A Wind Chime/Pinwheel

Setting up a wind chime or pinwheel can be an effective option to keep woodpeckers away from your house. These objects can create noise or motion with the wind, making woodpeckers think there may be a predator that can attack them when they come closer.

10. Remove Trees (If Possible)

Is there any dead tree around your house? If you say yes, it can invite woodpeckers to your home. But, why does an unsightly dead tree invite woodpeckers? Dead trees can be a safe house for different types of insects and bugs. Consequently, woodpeckers are attracted to eat those insects and bugs, and therefore willing to peck your house for habitats.

11. Wrap Trees

If you have a tree close to your house, you should protect it from woodpeckers. They can create holes in the tree to damage it. Then, the tree could be a nesting area and a feeding ground of woodpeckers.

How could the tree be a feeding area for woodpeckers? Once woodpeckers have created holes, parasites, bacteria, fungus, insects, and bugs develop by creating heavy infestations there.

So, woodpeckers become interested in eating those insects and bugs, consistently weakening the tree trunk. If you protect the tree from woodpeckers, you have to wrap it with a burlap type material.

We recommend you use the NuVue Synlap Synthetic Burlap Roll made of synthetic material, which can last for longer. Always make sure if the tree has any disease. If you find any, try to remove it as soon as possible. Otherwise, it will increase and therefore kill the entire tree.

12.  Call A Professional

We’ve already talked about many ways to repel woodpeckers from boring holes. If you apply several methods together, you will get the best results. However, you may face such a case where you have nothing to do.

In that situation, how will you prevent woodpeckers? The best way to do that is to call a professional. Choose a registered pest control organization that has a previous record of solving woodpecker issues. Ensure that the organization knows well about environmental laws.

What To Avoid When Keeping Woodpeckers Away

We all know that woodpecker pecking is so annoying. However, some methods of preventing woodpeckers are out there that you should not use. We are now going to talk about a few of them below.

• Don’t put greasy or sticky deterrents on the wood where woodpeckers are usually pecking. These products may have toxic chemicals that can be dangerous for the woodpeckers and the environment. They can harm the woodpeckers by making coats on the birds’ plumage. They can also warp or stain the wood and therefore cause damage.
• You should not remove woodpeckers’ eggs from their nests. This is because these birds are protected by the law, the Migratory Bird Act. Without permission, you cannot cause any harm to the woodpeckers.
• Keep yourself away from injuring or capturing the woodpeckers because such actions are illegal by the law, the Migratory Bird Act. If you have done any of these, you have to be in jail or give some fines.

Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)

1. How To Prevent Woodpeckers’ Return?

First of all, check the trees in your yard whether they have any holes with ants, bees, or termites. If they are available, apply insecticide to the infested trees, making sure that you have used specifically made insecticide to kill only pests.  When applying insecticide to them, keep your children and pets inside your house. After that, fill up the hole so that the insects die, and the others won’t be able to enter into the hole. This way, you can prevent woodpeckers from returning.

2. Can I Shoot A Woodpecker Destroying My House?

If a woodpecker is destroying your house, you may want to kill it. However, killing woodpeckers is illegal under the Federal Migratory Bird Treaty Act. You need the proper authorization to kill these birds.

3. What Can I Spray To Keep Birds Away?

You can make a homemade bird repellent spray. For that, make a solution of vinegar, water, and chili peppers. Mix crushed dried green or red chili peppers into the solution. Once you have made the solution, apply it to where woodpeckers usually peck.

Final Words

If you use any of our methods mentioned above, we hope you can deter woodpeckers from your house. For the best results, we recommend you apply multiple methods together to keep these annoying birds away.

However, if any of the methods don’t work well, especially in extreme cases, you have to contact pest control organizations or local wildlife control offices. They will come and take the necessary steps to discourage the woodpeckers from your area.