I have cedar siding on my house, about 5 years ago I started having problems with Downy woodpeckers. I hung a couple of owls and balls with eyes on them and that kept the little woodpeckers away. Now, I'm having the same problem with the large Flicker woodpeckers, one even sits on one of the owls to rest. I move the decoys around so they are not always in the same location and that seems to have no effect on detering them. I have used the shotgun on a couple but I'm not home all the time. Anyone have any ideas on what I can do to stop them? Thanks in advance. Steve
I also have cedar siding (about 36 years now) and know the problem well.
It takes some time, but every downy that I see now, gets scooted from their perch. The only other thing that worked good for me (when I was away at work during the day) was to hang a rat trap on the house and bait it with suet (beef fat) whenever I saw woodpecker damage. That was probably better than my present method (but more work) as it seemed to get the particular downy that had a perversion to land and peck on my siding. The dead downy in the trap either was the only one doing the damage or it hanging there discouraged others from going after the siding. I think it was the former.
They can go through the 1" siding, and through the plywood sheathing under that, if not stopped.
No known cure that anyone has (some claims, but nothing for sure) other than 'dead' and 'don't tell'.
Growing up my dad fought Pileated woodpeckers on our cedar siding. Incredible the damage the birds could do. Turns out all they wanted was the bugs (mostly carpenter bees). We treated for bugs and the woodpeckers went away [img]/forums/images/icons/smile.gif[/img]
I've had a pair of Pileated woodpeckers around the house for all the years I've been here (since 1968) and fortunately never had them on my cedar siding. They make some tremendous holes in the cherry trees and older oaks, and are always around. I will keep my fingers crossed that they don't discover the cedar on my house. The dratted downy's are bad enough. [img]/forums/images/icons/mad.gif[/img] [img]/forums/images/icons/smirk.gif[/img]
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