How to get rid of a woodpecker?

Margaret C
by Margaret C
A woodpecker is destroying an area over my parent's garage. My father has put a layer of aluminum over one area (which looks terrible) and it pecks at the areas around it. What can we do to stop it?
  3 answers
  • Leslie D Leslie D on Sep 26, 2012
    I had one on our house about this same time of year. We hung one of those big black halloween spiders that drops when motion activates it. Everytime the woodpecker got close, the spider dropped and it scared him away. It was completely by accident as we were decorating for halloween, but ended up being a great deterrent, when no others (pie tins, owl cut-out, etc.), and had worked.
  • Margaret C Margaret C on Sep 26, 2012
    Thanks, I'll try and find something like that.
  • Leslie is correct on that method. They do make such a item just for that very job. Also hanging pie plates, and just about any thing like that will keep them at bay. For a while. If you have a stucco type of home this is a very common issue. The soft foam under the cement face is the perfect place to raise a family. Also if you do not have that type of siding, then you need to do some research. Quite often then not, the birds are there because of another issue. Ants, Lots of wood siding has been destroyed because of ant activity, not that they are doing any damage, as most siding is cedar, which is something they do not like. It is because the birds are pecking away at it to get to the ants hiding behind it. So check for insect activity that may be the primary reason why you have these birds in the first place.