Preventing Woodpecker Damage

It can be fun to watch a woodpecker hammer away at a tree, but when that tree is in your yard – or they’ve decided to peck away at your house – they are much less welcome. The first step to mitigating woodpecker damage is understanding why they do it.

Woodpeckers peck at wood to establish territory, find a mate, excavate a nesting hole, or find insects, and sometimes that wood is attached to a building. They can cause substantial damage if not deterred – but it is illegal to harm them. Woodpeckers are protected by the Federal Migratory Bird Treaty Act, so it is illegal to intentionally capture, kill, or disrupt these migratory birds or their nests and eggs. Read on to learn how the Batzner Pest Control team can help you handle them.

What Does Woodpecker Damage Look Like?

There are three main reasons that woodpeckers peck; looking for food, building a home, and establishing territory. Each of these behaviors causes a different type of damage.

• Foraging holes show up as narrow yet deep holes, usually lined up in a row as the birds search for bugs.
• Excavation holes are deep and large holes intended to hold nests.
• Drumming holes are usually clustered together rather than in a line. Males make these holes when they “drum” to attract a mate or scare off competitors.

Common Woodpecker Species in Wisconsin

There are 10 species of woodpecker in Wisconsin, and we’ll discuss three of the most commonly-sighted ones – and the ones that tend do do the most damage.

Downy Woodpecker

The downy woodpecker looks almost exactly the same as the hairy woodpecker; they have similar black and white markings, and even a similar red patch on the back of their heads. Downy woodpeckers tend to be slightly smaller (around 3 inches shorter) and have shorter bills than the hairy woodpecker (roughly half as long as their heads.)

Hairy Woodpecker

Slightly larger than the downy woodpecker — at about 10 inches long and with a wingspan of about 15 inches — the hairy woodpecker also has a longer beak (about as long as its head.)

Pileated Woodpecker

The largest woodpecker in North America. It can be up to 19 inches long and have a wingspan of up to 30 inches! It has a crest of bright red feathers on top of its head and black and white feathers covering the rest of its body.

Preventing Woodpecker Damage

Since woodpeckers are protected in Wisconsin, it’s illegal to harm or kill them. This means that the primary means of dealing with woodpeckers is discouraging them from settling down on your property in the first place – a process called exclusion. This can involve any or all of the following:

• Physical barriers created in pecking areas will help get rid of woodpeckers by preventing entry. Commonly these are made of steel mesh.
• Visual deterrents are frequently successful in startling birds away. Strips of aluminum, reflective tape and pinwheels are commonly used.
• Noise scare techniques are also effective in some cases.

Call Batzner Pest Control for Help With Woodpeckers

Keeping woodpeckers – or any other kind of bird – away from your property can be challenging. However, with help from the Batzner Pest Control team, bird removal just got that much easier. We’ve been helping home and business owners in and around Wisconsin protect their properties from woodpeckers and other birds since 1946.

Dealing with woodpecker damage? Give us a call for a free quote.