We are under attack at our house. It seems that for the first time in 25 years, woodpeckers are drilling holes with abandon in our home.
We have a very old cedar-shingled house and I know the wood is probably soft but geesh – one day I came home to this:
And a few days later, we had this.
I took a walk around the house and counted no less than 21 (21!!!!) woodpecker holes in our siding. Damn those little peckers.
I’ve been told it might be because we have insects in the wood and while that might be true (parts of our house are very old), every house on our street (except the one with vinyl siding) has also been attacked by these birds. That would be a lot of rotten wood.
I’ve also been told that this is considered woodpecker mating behavior. The male birds attract the females by way of the drumming sound from drilling. What a literal pain that is. For the record, the last guy I would ever go out with is someone who constantly bangs his head against a wall. But whatever, I’m clearly not a lady woodpecker – the pecking doesn’t turn me on, it only makes me mad.
Our neighbors have attached silver streamers on the side of their house and that seems to be keeping the peckers away. We’ve bought silver discs that are also supposed to keep these pests away, but we haven’t put them up yet.
Instead, whenever I hear them pecking I race outside, shake my fist at them and yell “GO AWAY!!!!”
Now that the weather has gotten colder, the woodpecker activity seems to have slowed down. Perhaps the ladies (and gents) have had enough.
Whatever the reason for them stopping is, I’ll take it. It’s now time for us to plug up these holes with putty and pray that the woodpeckers all move to another neighborhood next year. Please?
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Wendy Thomas writes about the lessons learned while raising children and chickens in New Hampshire. Contact her at [email protected]
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