How to Keep Woodpeckers From Causing Damage to Your Home

Keep woodpeckers from drilling holes in your house.

Woodpeckers peck for three reasons, according to the Wild Birds Unlimited website. Woodpeckers peck to find insects, to communicate with other woodpeckers, and to make nests. Left unabated, woodpeckers can drill holes in the sides of buildings made of both natural and synthetic materials, causing significant damage.

Things You'll Need

• Aluminum flashing
• Flat mirrors
• Hawk mobiles
• Fishing line
• Scissors
• Eye screws
• Mylar strips
• Plastic netting
• Garden sprinkler
• Nesting boxes

Instructions

1. Cover pecking damage on the side of the house with aluminum flashing to deter woodpeckers. The metal sounds different than wood when the birds peck, which may drive them away.

2. Hang one or two flat cosmetic mirrors on the sides of your home where woodpeckers peck. Use small nails to attach the mirrors directly to the surface. The mirrors can startle and scare the woodpeckers and keep them from pecking.

3. Make noise to scare the birds away from the side of your house. Be consistent in scaring the birds away every time you see them near the house.

4. Hang mobiles that resemble hawks from the eaves near where woodpeckers peck. The Colorado State University Extension recommends black hawk shapes at least 22 wide and 11 inches long. Insert eye screws into the sides of the eaves, and thread lengths of fishing line through the eyes. Attach the hawk mobiles from the ends of the fishing lines so they hang around the area where woodpeckers are damaging your home.

5. Hang black Mylar strips from eye screws in the eaves. As the wind moves the strips, the movement will frighten woodpeckers away.

6. Cover the area where woodpeckers peck with plastic netting to prevent them from accessing the side of the structure. Attach the netting from the eaves above the pecking area to the ground below the pecking area.

7. Set up a garden sprinkler to spray water over the pecking area. The wetness may deter woodpeckers from perching on the surface to peck.

8. Hang nesting boxes away from your home to provide the birds with an alternative spot to nest.

Tips & Warnings

• Interrupt woodpeckers from pecking on your home as quickly as possible. The Colorado State University Extension website warns that woodpeckers are territorial, protecting their pecking areas after they establish them.

References

• Wild Birds Unlimited; Tips to Keep Woodpecker from Damaging Your House; April 2011
• Colorado State University Extension; Preventing Woodpecker Damage; W.F. Andelt, et. al.; May 2010
• University of Wisconsin Extension; Controlling Woodpecker Damage; Scott Craven