Woodpecker Deterrent at
Our Pleasant Hill, Oregon Home

11. Woodpecker Deterrent

We began to have problems with woodpeckers hammering on the house. The noise began to wake us in the morning and we discovered lots of wood chips on the deck. We enjoyed having the woodpeckers around but they did damage to the house. Not wishing to shoot them (I thought of it) we designed hanging foil strips in hopes of deterring them. It has been totally successful. They now are hammering on the trees and that is OK with us. The first Mylar strips didn't last too long in the wind so we have tried using cloth. We used cloth made for raincoats in bright colors. It has been very successful. If you look in the right top corner you can see the hole the woodpeckers have started to make. Also if you look closely at the top left on the eaves you can see our colony of bats that eat insects each night.

But you need to put them on the eaves of the house. The way and reason they work is that they blow in the slightest wind. The movement is seen by the birds and it makes them nervous. Because of that they then cannot rest easily because their defense mechanism is to flee when they sense danger (something moving in on them).

We pick out some bright color cloth. Ours has lasted for over 8 years. But you should have them on the eaves of the house, Since we have put them up we have had no woodpeckers at all. Before that hammering and their resulting holes drove us crazy.