Woodpecker holes

Define " sizable " in terms of biggest hole size and in terms of the number of holes. .. my first thought was to replace sections of siding - but too many unknowns to even guess .. Are you positive that it's woodpeckers doing all the damage ? .. and not just occasional woodpecker activity - with red squirrels doing the most damage ? John T.

Thanks John. Looks like 6x6 inch area in pix son sent. He just needs temporary fix to hold until spring repainting.

A 6 x 6 inch hole - it might be a very rare member of Pterodactylus - beware - it's excavating a nest for laying the single egg .. .. or maybe it's a 6 x 6 inch area with a number of little woodpecker holes .. dunno. Your posts are always fun, though - thanks. John T.

Brick, wood, composite, vinyl, etc?

Assuming wood, Rock Hard filler

They like suet! : )

(sorry)

Maybe he has, maybe he hasn't, but if he doesn't get rid of whatever the woodpeckers are digging for he'd have to side the house with concrete to prevent further damage.

We had a woodpecker that cut into our attic through the wood slat vent in the gable of the roof. My first impulse was to limit the birds access to the total attic, so I put a cat cage over the hole he created. Over the next couple days I realized the only way to prevent the bird from want to access the attic was to convince him he did not want in there. So I first put an old cookie sheet in the bottom of the cat cage, thinking about it put enough motor oil on it to cover the cookie sheet. and finally added some moth balls to the oil.

I worked and I forgot about the whole thing until we had the house stained and the painter came to me with a very puzzled look on his face. I don't remember if we sold the house with that contraption up there or not, but we had no problems with woodpeckers

Fifty years ago a friend of mine bought an old two room school house in the Sierra foothils of CA. I help in the renovation. Under eaves there was a row of woodpecker holes and when we pulled off the siding a cascade of acorns came falling down. The WP had insulated the walls with acorns. They are not too bright as they hope the acorns will attact bugs and become infested with worms. If they do this in a tree, the acorn stays in the hole and does produce worms. They could not figure out tha the ones they put in the building just went away. CP

Bondo would probably work

guess it depends on the siding and the backing

if there is backing i would go with some exterior thin set mortar

Thanks. Actually, it was a 1 inch deep hole about 1 inch in diameter. Filled it with some of that expanding foam. Hole plugged and we'll see if that pecker come back.

Well done - I can certainly see why you & your son needed all the assistance for this sort of dilemma - before it became a catastrophe ! John T.

make sure you cover it with paint because that foam usually breaks down under uv light

now i wonder how woodpeckers sense the density of the wood

do they just peck randomly until they find a soft spot

if they do they might just find that foam spot and also find it suitable for storage

They don't have to be concerned with wood density.

They can hear the grubs inside the decaying wood and peck towards the sound. Most grub infected wood is less dense than healthy growing wood. Grubs are less likely to be in healthy wood.

As to siding boards, I think most may be cedar or some other soft wood, besides being relatively thin and usually no match for a manly peckahead.

Sonny

I have a cabin in the low Sierras of Calif. [2400 ft elev.] . Here they peck holes in which to put acorns.

When bugs invade the nuts they come back for a meal. But basically they are not too bright.

I helped restore an old 2 room school house, the upper row of siding had a complete line of holes.

When we pulled off the lower boards, we were showered with acorns. They just kept putting them in.

Hope springs eternal. It does work for dead trees.

CP

seem to be smart enough or smart as is needed

they are fun to watch

always with purpose and very busy and like their calls

well the bugs will still find those acorns and the peckers may not be able to benefit directly but it increases the bug population and then in turn there will be more bugs to find the acorns the peckers store in a more accessible spot