bird damage

[Kevin Stenberg]

We live in a log home. That has an open deck that is covered by an extension of the roof. There are 6 - 8"x8" posts that hold the outer edge of the roof up.
There are a lot of Pileated, Hairy, Downy Woodpeckers that live in out area. An my darling wife is scared that the woodpeckers will damage the posts holding up the front porch enough that they will need replacing. So she purchased some holographic tape that is supposed to hang on the posts and scare away the W.P.

 

[popper]

They are after bugs in the wood and IIRC part of mating. Fluttering shiny stuff should scare them off.

 

[Ian]

Got bugs in the posts or what?

 

[Rick]

If there's no bugs in the wood they most likely won't pay much attention to the posts. They evidently can hear the bugs inside and then go after them. I think Popper is right, wouldn't take much to scare them off.

 

[Brad]

I would be looking at insect proofing the posts.

 

[Jeff H]

I have a lot of exposed wood around my place and the woodpeckers leave it alone. I have two nasty silver maples which shed bark and branches continually because they are rotting. The woodpeckers flock to the silver maples. Somehow they know where to find the bugs. No bugs in the posts, maybe they'll leave them alone?

Once, many years ago, during a rehab project on our old house, we woke to the sound of someone hammering on the house. Thought a neighbor came over early to pound old nails into the old sheathing before we put siding up. No neighbor. A red-headed woodpecker was hammering away on the sheathing and it resonated in the house like someone was literally using a hammer on it.

Bare wood at my place attracts carpenter bees and hornets, either of which is unwelcome here. The carpenter bees will bore three-foot long channels in treated wood - the old stuff or the new stuff, and few things seem to hurt them. Carburator cleaner will flush them out, but you'd better be ready with a badminton racket by the time they shake it off because they'll chase you around the yard for ten minutes while you look like a lunatic trying to evade them. Note: neighbors from a few hundred yards can't see the bee, but they can see YOU. Takes a few years to live that down and people don't just move in and out every couple years in my neighborhood.

 

[Ian]

Popper and I doubled. All we have here are the red-headed and golden-fronted ladderbacks. They make nests in trees that are already dead, easier boring, better vantage point with no foliage, and the buffet is next to the bedroom. The only exception to this is very, very OLD telephone poles where the creosote has leached out at the upper section and there were some kind of beetles invading.

 

[JonB]

If it were me? I'd be torn on what to do. I'd like to watch these birds closeup and would think an 8x8 would last a long time? On the other hand, if I had a wife telling me different, I suppose I'd be asking the same question here.

 

[Jeff H]

To watch them up close, we choose the spot, conveniently outside a large window: http://shop.wbu.com/p/wbu-tidy-cylinder-feeder

It may or may not draw them away from the wood on the house, but it definitely allows us to continue to see them in lieu of shooing them away from exposed wood.

The seed cylinders are $11 but last two to three months in the cold weather. Suet cakes serve the same purpose when it's warmer outside. The cylinders don't leave a lot of mess to attract mice and the sparrows ignore it completely. We've had a hairy woodpecker, red-headed woodpecker and a nut hatch on it in the last two days and we can watch them from inside (it's still under 5F right now) for as long as they feel like picking at the cylinder.

Incidentally, as we're being honest, the only reason the ratty, ugly, threatening, rotten silver maples are still somewhat standing in my yard - the missus will not let me cut them down because "the woodpeckers like them." I go along with it but I've told her that if I die while mowing because one of those trees falls on me, those woodpeckers won't cut and split firewood for her little wood stove like I did before they killed me.

 

[S Mac]

I think sometimes woodpeckers will drum as a territorial thing, not digging for bugs. Especially if the sound carries well

 

[fiver]

just as an aside.
pileated wood pecker breast cooked searing hot is as delicious as any steak you ever had cooked to a medium-medium well consistency.

 

[uncle jimbo]

You would have to shoot a lot of them to make a meal. Would be like shooting doves. Not much there when you are done.

 

[david s]

I'm going to have to agree with S MAC it's territorial or mating. In the spring of every year a wood pecker goes staccato on my furnaces vent pipe. It would appear that lady wood peckers like loud. Thank heavens they dont have small pick up trucks and speakers.

 

[Kevin Stenberg]

My post (pun intended) was meant in jest. Wife is just a worrywart. We actually draw them close to the house in winter. We place all of the deer bones and sewet on a patio table on our porch. To attract all of the local winter birds. By spring all bones are picked clean, any sewet is gone, and sunflower seeds are picked clean.

 

[Jeff H]

Here we thought we were keeping you out of potential trouble with the missus.

 

[RicinYakima]

If you play music, Pandora, Spotify, or use Facebook, the birds will eat your house. Destroy all of those things.

 

[KHornet]

Spray them with insect repellent periodicly.

Paul