*disclaimer: I am a bird lover, tree lover, animal lover, etc.* When I moved into this house I had to repair two holes made by woodpeckers. Within a month I caught one trying to make another hole. He did not survive the experience.
You might try feeding them something besides your shop.
Pecker like just about any suet feeder and anything that will hold large sunflower seeds or peanuts.
We have a couple of wire tube feeders that we fill with mostly sunflower seeds and peanuts. We get three different kinds of peckers on them (not at the same time) and they never bother the house.
These feeders tubes are made of galvanized welded wire with about 1/4" x 1/4" square holes about 18" long and bent into about a 3" tube. There is a block of 2x wood at the top and bottom with a 3" hole saw hole drilled about 3/4" deep into one side of each block. The wire tube is tied together in the middle and the top and bottom inserted into the slot made by the hole saw. A piece of cable runs through the bottom block through the middle of the tube and through the top block far enough for a hanging hoop to made at the top and far enough so the pieces slide apart for filling. Very simple but the peckers sure like it. It might be worth a shot.
Mike O.
Isn't that how the Mob works? :-)
I had this exact problem. I called the Audobon society and it has happened enough that they connected me to a recording. The recording suggested either hanging CD's near where the Woodpeckers did their damage or to put aluminum foil on a 12" pizza cardboard and draw a pair of eyes and a mouth with a marker on the aluminum foil. Not wanting my house to look like a joke I chose the CDs and I have not had a problem since. I had two areas where the woodpeckers did their damage so I hung two cds in each area. The CDs were attached to each other in that CD number one hung from a string attached to the house and CD number two hung from a string attached to CD number 1. I assume the sun or light flashing off of the rotating CDs is what scared them away. Given how may CDs are lying around my house, the cost was $0.
In Jacksonville, Fl. where I live the pileated woodpeckers (think large woody the woodpecker size) can break hunks of cedar fascia (rough cut 2x4 and 2x6) and siding off looking for something to eat.
I remember the 1st time I came home and found pieces of wood 2' long laying on the ground and thinking kids must of been playing with (sharp pointed) make believe swords. When my neighbor told me what really happened I couldn't believe it until I went home and looked up overhead and saw the damage.
Now to the point, The woodpeckers are drilling for carpenter bees (large black and yellow bumble bees). The carpenter bees burrow holes up into the center of the wood about 1/4" round and then they turn and drill 8-10" into the length of the cedar. Every spring when the larvae hatches the woodpeckers can hear them because they eat their way out of the tunnels filled with whatever mom packed for them to eat.The woodpeckers just bust pieces of wood off until they get to their meal. Since the carpenter bees return to the scene of the crime year after year it gets worse not better. We tried all sorts of poisons and none of them worked. We tried some stuff that was guaranteed to kill the hatchlings because you stick a nozzle in each tunnel opening (100's of them and not easy to get to either. Lots under gutters.) and spray this goop in there and when the hatchlings eat their way through it they will die. WRONG! Didn't work.
The next to best thing we did was stationed bad mitton rackets at every exterior door. When the moms come to lay eggs you kill as many as you can for about a 2 week period. Then when the eggs hatch and the bees come out you can kill some more with the rackets until they disappear to wherever they go to plot their revenge for you next spring.
The rackets really did cut down on the numbers of bees and it was good therapy to smash 4 or 5 of them every time you went outside. I especially liked it when pieces of the bees were stuck in the racket. (Not PC but what else can I say but the truth.)
We finally replaced all of the fascia boards that were so riddled with holes when we had our shingles replaced. We actually replaced the shingles sooner than we needed to just to get rid of the bee problem. We timed it to remove the boards after the larvae had been laid. (Almost) All of the trim was replaced with treated lumber stained reddish brown to match the cedar. I say almost because in spring some bees returned. They were supposed to be hauled off to the dump with the larvae still buried in the wood but I found out the following spring that the roofing company didn't replace two of the fascia boards. When I talked to the contractor he remembered that out of all of the fascia boards they removed there were 2 that weren't riddled with holes to bad so he flipped them over and used them again. I felt like supergluing a woodpecker to his head. In the end he did r & r those fascia boards for me. Damn what a story! I wish I didn't know this story. Robb Smith
"Knotbob" wrote
In Jacksonville, Fl. where I live the pileated woodpeckers (think large woody the woodpecker size) can break hunks of cedar fascia (rough cut 2x4 and 2x6) and siding off looking for something to eat.
I remember the 1st time I came home and found pieces of wood 2' long laying on the ground and thinking kids must of been playing with (sharp pointed) make believe swords. When my neighbor told me what really happened I couldn't believe it until I went home and looked up overhead and saw the damage.
Now to the point, The woodpeckers are drilling for carpenter bees (large black and yellow bumble bees). The carpenter bees burrow holes up into the center of the wood about 1/4" round and then they turn and drill 8-10" into the length of the cedar. Every spring when the larvae hatches the woodpeckers can hear them because they eat their way out of the tunnels filled with whatever mom packed for them to eat.The woodpeckers just bust pieces of wood off until they get to their meal. Since the carpenter bees return to the scene of the crime year after year it gets worse not better. We tried all sorts of poisons and none of them worked. We tried some stuff that was guaranteed to kill the hatchlings because you stick a nozzle in each tunnel opening (100's of them and not easy to get to either. Lots under gutters.) and spray this goop in there and when the hatchlings eat their way through it they will die. WRONG! Didn't work.
The next to best thing we did was stationed bad mitton rackets at every exterior door. When the moms come to lay eggs you kill as many as you can for about a 2 week period. Then when the eggs hatch and the bees come out you can kill some more with the rackets until they disappear to wherever they go to plot their revenge for you next spring.
The rackets really did cut down on the numbers of bees and it was good therapy to smash 4 or 5 of them every time you went outside. I especially liked it when pieces of the bees were stuck in the racket. (Not PC but what else can I say but the truth.)
We finally replaced all of the fascia boards that were so riddled with holes when we had our shingles replaced. We actually replaced the shingles sooner than we needed to just to get rid of the bee problem. We timed it to remove the boards after the larvae had been laid. (Almost) All of the trim was replaced with treated lumber stained reddish brown to match the cedar. I say almost because in spring some bees returned. They were supposed to be hauled off to the dump with the larvae still buried in the wood but I found out the following spring that the roofing company didn't replace two of the fascia boards. When I talked to the contractor he remembered that out of all of the fascia boards they removed there were 2 that weren't riddled with holes to bad so he flipped them over and used them again. I felt like supergluing a woodpecker to his head. In the end he did r & r those fascia boards for me. Damn what a story! I wish I didn't know this story. Robb Smith ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Which explains the popularity of plastic and cement based fascia boards now. Particularly in warm climates. Anything an insect can eat into is a candidate for some kind of subsitute that the bugs don't like. These non wood items don't rot either.
Several years ago I was on the Girl Scout Council when they were redoing the Scout Camp. We finalized all of the contracts and started to work, when the State got involved and told us we must do an environmental survey.
The State found we had Red Cockaded woodpeckers nesting on the site and they were endangered. They told us how sensitive these birds were and how the birds had to be protected from excess noise while nesting. They gave us a long list of the things we could do and the times of day we could do it.
We complied, after all the bird was on the endangered species list. We told the contractors the conditions, and the job was completed, the state was happy, the contractors were happy, we were happy, and the girls had the renovated camp.
Later that summer, we got the news that there was a new nesting colony of red Cockaded woodpeckers on the site. At that point we realized we had forgotten to tell everyone about the state requirements for nesting woodpeckers.
Not knowing the the requirements, the Red Cockaded woodpeckers decided that a perfect place for a new nesting colony was in the tree outside of the camp dining room where hundreds of little girls ate their daily meals.
In this case, they are pecking away for no reason. This is particle board siding, there are no bugs inside or out. Some of this is the pecking to attract a mate by making loud noises.
I'll have to look for an owl with moveable head, they certainly aren't intimidated by the stationary one. I won't keep rubber snakes about -- we've got too many of the real ones and I don't want anyone to become complacent.
Nope, no bugs. This is a misconception regarding the idea that woodpeckers only go after places with bugs inside. I've had them poke holes through siding in a storage shed where there was absolutely no place for bugs to be ensconced (i.e, composite board siding with nothing behind it. As someone else pointed out, they peck for several reasons, one of which is to attract a mate (not all of them can use the metal chimney at the same time) and also because they hear voids or other returns that indicate to them that there might be a bug inside that wood.
Unfortunately, lots of holes, they are using the molding board along the base of the trusses as a rest and pecking along the length of the shed. They are doing similar things on my storage shed door and using the vertical corner molding on another part of the shed. There are numerous woodpeckers (it looks like about 1/2 dozen woodpeckers are involved in this destruction).
I need to start looking at good filler material to repair the damage, but I need to get rid of the pests first.
Given that they seem to be attracted to the dog's food, I don't think food is the issue here. I'm almost thinking that they are coming for the dog food and staying for the entertainment provided by poking holes in my buildings.
try
Not read as a flame.. no problem.
It might help if we knew what kind of woodpeckers are at work drilling on their shop. Around here, we get everything from the huge Piliated woodpeckers to cute little Downys. In 50+ years in the hardwoods of the frozen North , I have never noticed woodpeckers drilling deeply unless hungry. Up here, they must eat a lot to stay warm and alive. Luring mates usually has other forms of behaviour... nest making high up in trees, dances, or shallow drumming on hollow limbs high up in trees... which resonate much better than T-111 siding. Maybe Mark and Juanita don't have enough big trees with dead limbs as an alternative for the local birds.
As for Gerald Ross, whose woodpeckers were banging on a tin roof... we do get some birds doing odd things here too. Robins and Chickadees often fight with their reflections in windows or even chrome vehicle bumpers... ducks occasionally fly straight into picture windows too. But I always figure those are exceptionally dumb individuals, or birds with bad eyesight.
Axel
That doesn't sound like a non-reason - humans do a lot of less than reasonable things to attract mates...
Have you considered building a woodpecker/flicker drum for then to hammer on?
:-)
I've got to research the species, but these are native to the Sonoran desert.
Yep. Not a lot of dead trees and branches, even in our desert (definitely more lush than the Chihuahuan desert or Mojave, but buildings and yards are more attractive to the birds.
Ours do that consistently during the spring and early summer.
Got any plans?
I'm willing to give it a try - but I'd bet that anyone with instrument (for sound board) and/or speaker enclosure experience would be able to do a lot better job.
Hmm - I haven't played with SketchUp for a week or so. Could be interesting...
I gave it a shot. 'PeckerDrum drawing posted to ABPW. :)
"Morris Dovey" wrote
PeckerDrum??
Sounds painful.
Everyone beats to a different drummer. ;-)
Personal problem. If it sounds painful, you probably shouldn't.
:-]
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