Woodpecker problems?

From How to Keep Woodpeckers from Pecking Your Home (which warns you should have it checked for termites):

“Woodpeckers drill on houses for a variety of reasons: courtship drumming, drilling for insects or drilling for storage. Here’s how to get them to stop.

1 Squirt woodpeckers with water from a hose or a high-powered water pistol.

2 Bang on the inside wall opposite of where the woodpeckers are drilling.

3 Nail metal or plastic sheeting over the area where the woodpeckers are drilling.

4 Use chicken wire or wire mesh over pecked areas, attaching it 1 to 2 inches from the side of the house. Woodpeckers won’t have access to the wood.

Warnings:
# Have your house checked for termites, which may attract woodpeckers.

# All species of woodpeckers are protected by federal law. Shooting, trapping or otherwise harming them is forbidden.

Good luck.

Is it a wooden house or something larger? Woodpeckers go after all kinds of small insects in the wood. Here I have borer (or carpenter) bees who tunnel vertically into the cedar, make a right angle turn and lay their eggs, which turn into larvae.

Then the flickers and sapsuckers rip the wood apart in order to get to the larvae. Often they dig their holes very high up, under the eaves, which is impossible to reach.

I have tried hanging aluminum pie plates from long strings near the holes that I can reach. When there is a breeze, the plates knock against the exterior house walls and make a noise. For effectiveness, the technique gets a B-.

I also have many wasp and hornet nests between screens and glass.

If you scare the birds or insects from one spot, they will simply relocate..usually to a more inaccessible location. We are going to coexist until the house falls down.

If it’s made of wood, no wonder you have problems.

Ah, but on the plus side, the house – or what is left of it – never needs painting. Every 5 years or so, I have someone put a protective coating on the cedar. And the color as it ages is lovely.