i have a log home in a very wooded area of central minnesota and have had woodpeckers pecking at my home? is there something that can be sprayed on the home that will be unappetizing or something that can be hung out to scare them?

-- tammie luukkonen (whiskeysgirl@yahoo.com), September 13, 2000

Answers

Here are my two pennies worth, I don't have two dollars like Hoot. Are your logs treated? Do you have a problem with wood boring insects? Woodpeckers peck to get food. Maybe you have a host of insects that are atracting the the woodpeckers. Eliminate the food source and the woodpeckers should leave your home alone. Terri

-- Terri Perry (stuperry@stargate.net), September 13, 2000.

How about a 12 gauge Home Defender?.....Seriously, we also have a log home in the woods (Alabama) and have Pileated Woodpeckers who checked out the house..It HAS been treated and so they decided to kill the trees instead...A few blasts in the air with the 12 gauge was sufficient to remind them what dead trees are for...God bless.

-- Lesley (martchas@gateway.net), September 13, 2000.

Use a pellet gun. That's all we used on the farm. Worked great. Good target practice as well.

-- Cheryl Cox (bramblecottage@hotmail.com), September 13, 2000.

Please don't kill any Pileated woodpeckers, they are a threatened species in many areas.

-- Shannon (Grateful Acres Animal Sanctuary) (gratacres@aol.com), September 13, 2000.

Oh Shannon, get a grip..I said a few blasts "in the air"..nobody said anything about killing off endangered woodpeckers....the noise scares them away and they go peck at dead trees....pellet guns work as well..as far as the other post mentioning target practice...I would imagine they meant just that..target practice....put me on your list of insensitive oafs who refuse to give up my home to endangered anythings....God bless and I wish you many Pileated Woodpeckers, they are gorgeous.

-- Lesley (martchas@gateway.net), September 14, 2000.

My, aren't we testy...did someone say use a pellet gun for target practice? Hmmmm, looks like they DID say that! And what happens if you HIT what you're practicing at? The thing ends up killed, maybe? And, uh, maybe we should extend extra consideration to those animals who belong to a species who are threatened or endangered? Yeah, I guess I'm really "out there" with these goofy ideas. Thank God there are folks like yourself & "whiskeysgirl", who also sent me a hostile message, to balance out us bunny-huggers.

-- Shannon (Grateful Acres Animal Sanctuary) (gratacres@aol.com), September 14, 2000.

would i shoot at them ..no way in hell!! the best out come would be death the worst a bird unable to fly or feed.target practice on a living creature? is that an different then grabbing a gun and killing a person for fun? come on.

i would call a wild life group or zoo and ask them. they would know their habits and such.everything has an enemy and is affraid of something.

-- renee oneill (oneillsr@home.com), September 14, 2000.

They're going after bugs. Perhaps they're doing you a favour-perhaps they're munching on TERMITES... Like weeds can tell you about the condition of your soil, maybe Woody is telling you you've got termites or wet wood where carpenter ants are building a homestead.

-- snoozy (allen@oz.net), September 15, 2000.

My home is already treated with stain, there are no bugs or termites in the logs - for one we don't have termites in Minnesota. Even though I agree fully with Lesley the other log home owner - I will not give up my home to a woodpecker - this did not and does not need to turn into a fight.

-- tammie luukkonen (whiskeysgirl@yahoo.com), September 15, 2000.

Lesley, Lesley, Lesley! To you et al - there are only 2 reasons a woodpecker, especially the quite large and rare pileated woodpecker will "peck". First, they will go after food, and if this is the case, they are helping you by chowing down on the "baddies" that are infesting your wood. Secondly, woodpeckers do not have a mating "song". Instead, they use a hammering on any suitable surface, and are particularly fond of any surface that resonates. Hence the "pecking" on aluminum surfaces. Most probably, the pecking you have heard was a "mating call" If not, you got varmints! There is no woodpecker that is other than beneficial. Shoot the squirrels, the woodchucks, the marmots, the moles, the crows, the starlings, the english sparrows. Consume each and every one. But don't screw with the woodpeckers. They are, in fact, your friends. Much like the old pussycat, Brad! GL!

-- Brad (Homefixer@SacoRiver.net), September 15, 2000.

I'm the one who mentioned target practice. Not all of my message was sent. I'm having alot of problems with my phone lines because they are installing new lasar optics for the Olympics. On the farm we had a problem with flickers, a cousin on woodpeckers. These were NOT endangered birds. They loved to peck at the same place (my dad checked, there weren't any insects there) under the eaves over the upstairs bathroom. You would be sitting there when suddenly you would hear a noise over your head. Sure enough, a flicker would be looking down on you. So my Dad gave my brothers an open hunting permit on flickers. Usually only had to shoot at one a year. The boys did get to be very good shots. Never hit the window or anything. We later used the same techique for butchering the chickens. They would just walk into the hen yard, choose a hen, shoot it thru the head, the hen would fall over, the other hens never got upset and it was a very humane way of butchering. I can not believe that chopping off the head of a frightened bird is a better way. I personally would shoot at an animal that was destroying my hard earned home if I couldn't scare it off and if I could get the nerve up. It is the principal of the thing. However, it is great that we can agree to dissagree on this forum.

-- Cheryl Cox (bramblecottage@hotmail.com), September 15, 2000.

Once again (and I reiterate), I do NOT shoot charming little woodpeckers, endangered or otherwise just for drills. I am a bird freak as many on the forum already know from over a year now.Having said that, I will again say that ANY critter, endangered or otherwise, cute or ugly who is bent upon trashing my home or my property gets: scared off,put off,or put OUT..in that order.Brad, darling, you and I are good buddies....Pileated woodpeckers are gorgeous and if you could have seen what this guy was doing to my gum tree, you would have been out there with me, thinking of ways to escort him, unharmed from the property..These guys rip off HUGE, shingle sized pieces of bark..sure they are after insects..they're WOODPECKERS!They are 18 inches long and a marvel to watch...My guy is now picking on the large quite dead oak tree on the back of the property (saw him the last 3 days)..that's why Neil & I left it there, for Woody, and his other feathered friends, and he can peck it to a nub for all I care.Flickers can be as awful as a yard full of hungry starlings..in PA, we had BIG problems with them wanting to literally tear down our roof piece by piece....termites, no..flickers, yes.Happily, they found better places to destroy when Neil shot off several rounds of a pellet gun in their direction.If they had not gone, they would have joined their ancestors...it cost $4000 for the new roof and about $3 dollars for the pellets.Most times you can scare birds off without harming them..sometimes, well, birds lose...God bless

-- Lesley (martchas@gateway.net), September 16, 2000.

Have a friend in Florida. She had woodpeckers bothering her house and they told her the only thing that worked was to get a cat to frighten them off. She did and it worked (and she still has the cat).

-- connie in NM (karrelandconnie@gateway.net), September 16, 2000.

Cats are wonderful!!!! DW

-- DW (djwallace@ctos.com), September 19, 2000.

By chance do you have a baby monitor or intercom system in the room in which they are pecking? I know this sounds crazy, but I saw some research one time where the waves emitted by the baby monitor attracted the woodpeckers to that corner of the house.

Also, try a hot pepper spray with a spreader/sticker (available from your local farm co-op store) in it. Spray it on his favorite area - a few tounge fulls of hot stuff tends to deter them.

-- joe lehnen (joetree@shentel.net), September 19, 2000.

We have a Pileated woodpecker that has made a huge hole in the side of our stucco chimney. there are 4 other holes now. It is flying in and out. Our house is only 5 years old so it is not bugs or termites it is after. We called a wildlife pest person, but said that this is an endangered species and we can't kill it. Waht else can we do and why did it drill there in the first place? There is over $1,000.00 worth of damage!

-- Betsy Logan (rbjlogan@gateway.net), March 02, 2001.

My problem has been solved - I had suet blocks out for other birds and did not know that woodpeckers are very fond of suet. Once I took down the suet blocks the woodpeckers went away. And, it was not the endangered pileated woodpecker that was damaging my home, it was the smaller cousins. The pileated woodpecker is a very shy b

-- tammie luukkonen (tammie610@aol.com), June 02, 2001.

GO TO A PARTY SUPPLY STORE, LOOK FOR SILVER, LIKE TINSEL, TABLE BUNTING, FASTEN A FOOT LONG STRIP NEAR WHERE THEY ARE PECKING, THEY MOVED TO THE OTHER SIDE OF THE HOUSE, I ADDED TWO STRIPS, AND THEY HAVE NOT BEEN BACK FOR 2 YEARS. THEY STILL COME TO OUR PEANUT FEEDER.I BOUGHT A 15 FOOT STRIP FOR ABOUT $3.00.

I WAS THINKING ABOUT SELLING 1FOOT STRIPS ON E-BAY AS A WOOD PECKER REPELANT, FOR ABOUT $5.00 A FOOT PLUS POSTAGE.

-- DON JOHNSON (DJOHNSON21@WI.RR.COM), July 09, 2001.

try a few of those plastic owls mounted on the edge of your roof. They keep quite a few birds away.

-- April (atobias@yahoo.com), July 09, 2001.

I have woodpeckers pecking big holes in my house. I have herd that the only way to get rid of them is to shoot them with a pellett gun. So I bought a gun and I am looking forward to sitting on my deck this weekend drinking a 12 pack of coors light and shooting every frickin woodpecked that comes within 300 feet of my house. So What do you think of that ? !!!!!!

-- Alehondro (air@frii.com), April 05, 2002.