With all the wood used to build log cabins and homes up here in the North Georgia Mountains it’s only natural that sometimes woodpeckers can be attracted to your house. Woodpeckers can be very damaging to your home. Holes can be drilled into wood siding, window frames, and trim boards. Woodpeckers prefer cedar and redwood, but will damage pine, fir, cypress, and other types of wood when the choices are limited.
Woodpeckers peck at homes generally for three reasons.
1) A male woodpecker is drumming to make as loud a noise as possible to attract a mate and to announce to other male woodpeckers that this is his territory. Hollow branches are generally preferred but sometimes a gutter or siding can serve as a substitute.
2) A woodpecker is searching for insects. If you see holes drilled or chipped away not only do you have woodpecker damage, but it can also mean you have insects living in your external boards that the woodpecker found. Often, carpenter bees will drill holes into wood and tunnel through, laying eggs that you don’t even know are there. Woodpeckers open up the tunnels from the outside and eat the hatched larvae.
3) Woodpeckers can use your home as a site for a nest or roost hole if the woodpecker seems to be making a round hole big enough for it to enter. If it has decided this is a good place for a nest it may be hard to get it to leave so it may be easier to install a woodpecker nest box on the side of your house so that it uses the box instead of making holes in your home.
There are also a few things you can do to prevent woodpecker damage:
– Place fake owls or hawks near your home.
– Loud noises can deter them away if you see them near your home.
Once the woodpecker is deterred from your home if there is any damage is should be promptly fixed so that woodpeckers are not attracted to the damaged site in the future.
Do you need repairs to your home caused by woodpeckers? If the answer is yes we can help!
C&H Construction is a licensed general contractor and Custom Home builder located in Blairsville, Union County Georgia serving Towns County Georgia, Fannin County Georgia, Gilmer County Georgia and the North Georgia Mountains.