Woodpecker Damage Repair and Prevention | Ask This Old House
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- Опубліковано 5 сер 2024
- In this video, This Old House general contractor Tom Silva shows host Kevin O’Connor how to identify, repair, and prevent woodpecker damage around the home.
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Tom Silva teaches Kevin O'Connor all about woodpecker damage. After explaining the different types of holes that woodpeckers make (and why they make them), Tom goes through his best tips for repairing existing damage. Tom even explains some convention (and not-so-conventional) options for keeping woodpeckers at bay.
Where to find it?
Tom explains how to identify woodpecker damage, what repair options there are, and how to prevent it.
Tom first explains the reasons woodpeckers may drum into your home could be for their March-May mating season or also because they are feeding on insects. He explains that similar clusters of cone shaped holes are more likely for mating while irregular small holes are probably for feeding.
Tom explains damage can be anywhere on the exterior of the home but a few repair options include replacing cedar shingles [amzn.to/3FV3ijH], making a dutchman repair to siding or corner boards, the old painters method of nailing aluminum siding [amzn.to/3fKZneE] over holes, and using wood filler [amzn.to/3zY5V0j] for smaller holes.
There are many options to deter woodpeckers. It’s important to remember that woodpeckers are federally protected birds, so all deterrents need to be humane. Tom mentions the importance of highly reflective materials and materials with sudden unpredictable movements. Examples include mylar balloons [amzn.to/3USANaP], reflective streamers [amzn.to/3WIMOBi], CD’s [amzn.to/3UiJv1X], reflective tape [amzn.to/3E6Vc5d], or pinwheels [amzn.to/3TahyYU]. Tom notes that decoy predators [amzn.to/3zQwaFW] can work as a deterrent but it is important to move them regularly around the property so that the woodpeckers do not become desensitized to them.
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Woodpecker Damage Repair and Prevention | Ask This Old House
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Love how Tommy just chuckles and otherwise completely ignores Kevin's jokes - doesn't even respond hahaha
To serenade your lady
Just find a tree that's shady
And when you hear that tick-a-tick-tick
Tick-a-tick-tick sing right a long.
Come on and try his rhythm.
And let your hearts beat with him
Just listen to that tick-a-tick-tick tick-a-tick-tick
Happy little woodpecker song.
Would be nice if you'd talk about other siding/trim materials (other than metal) that might deter woodpeckers or that they won't bother (ie Boral, composite, fiber cement?)
cedar chingled house from the 50's owner. Wood pecker made a nest outside my office this year. Where was this video 6 months ago Tom?
the introduced Starling is a problem also .
One common problem I see is these birds going after insects that you don't know you have because of water infiltration. Many homes from the 50s / 60s used Homasote board under the siding and it stays wet, which draws bugs. All it takes is a backed-up gutter or a few bad shingles for water to get in. I once saw an entire home stripped to the studs from the outside, so it could be redone with new plywood and siding. That was NOT cheap!
I use rubber toy snakes works great
We have so many flickers banging holes in our condo siding every year. Then the squirrels use the holes to get into the attics. It'd be hilarious if not for my HOA dues increasing to repair it.
Flickers haha
The apartment building I live in has received tens of thousands of dollars in Flicker (Woodpecker family) damage the past few years. It being a protected species, help had to be requested through the state department of Fish and Wildlife. They issued an exemption that allows one of their agents to stake out the property and deal with the problem bird(s) with a BB rifle. The non-lethal methods above had little effect. One was pecking outside my bedroom window Saturday mornings so I would open it quickly yelling, waving and banging a broom for a minute. That worked!
I tried the BB rifle thing. It was near impossible to sneak up on them. It would hear the door open from about 50 feet away and take off as soon as I started putting my head out to look for it. I had patched holes all over my siding. The balloons, owls, etc didn't work at all.
Omg. First of all, they prefer dead or dying trees loaded with insects and houses with them too. Check for insect problem first and wrap area with foam. Aluminum foil works best as a deterrent. They are actually doing you a favor by finding those insects, and they actually saved my scotch pine. A Northern Flicker alone eats about a thousand ants a day and saved my littleleaf linden tree too 20 years ago - they deserve to live!
@À Strand Washington. I have no idea what the state charged the building owners. The building's siding was just replaced, no doubt a better material was used this time. Coincidentally, just this morning I heard one. Hopefully, it has been deterred. Good luck!
@À Strand If I remember correctly, supposedly they're state protected. But I take explanations with a grain of salt about this place.
Woodpecker ruining my holly tree small holes forming a ring around it like its trying to cut it down, tree is sapping like crazy. Late December shouldn’t be mating season?
They sell strips of mylar to use for this purpose. Much less intrusive than an entire balloon. Work great but you have to keep an eye on it and replace when they break off.
Ive had them peck at my metal plumbing vent pipe on the roof. Sounds like a small jack hammer. They have also ruined two different lighted doorbell buttons. Poked holes right thru the plastic. Im guessing the light behind the button attracts them.
Maybe they think it's a firefly or some other bug that glows in the dark.
@@scotttovey very possible
I have a trail camera mounted along my driveway, and a yellow bellied sapsucker pecked a hole right through the motion sensor cover. Got extreme closeup of the bird as he did it.
@@jpe1 that would suck. Game cameras aren’t cheap.
We’ve got increasing damage to a large tree - going to put all those old cds to use now lol
Stephanie I suggest watch a 13 part series called _What on earth happened_ by Ewaranon to learn that the earth is not a globe.
I got it in my about tab.
The tree is obviously loaded with insects and they are doing you a favor. They are attracted to dead or insect laden trees and have actually saved a scotch pine on my property.
My best solution and less visual impact is putting fine anti-bird garden netting.
Really appreciate this
Glocks I suggest watch a 13 part series called _What on earth happened_ by Ewaranon to learn that the earth is not a globe.
I got it in my about tab.
A woodpecker has completely ruined some of my shutters. I'm just going to replace them with vinyl come Spring, though.
I got here a year after the video, because a woodpecker just started drumming on my VINYL siding. Vinyl is not a deterrent. Balloons are out, as it's the front of house. I'll try the CDs on a string.
Awesome
They be; Hammering in the trees, starting in at six thirty, I am trying to get some sleep, but... no... I hear that beak. On the side of a home, "rat a tat tat" goes their poem, metal light pole standing tall, rings out the Clarion call. Your advice I will concur, shiny objects will deter !
I live in Southern California and had no idea woodpeckers are so bad 😳
Jake I suggest watch a 13 part series called _What on earth happened_ by Ewaranon to learn that the earth is not a globe.
I got it in my about tab.
My parents had a woodpecker that would bang on the metal light pole in front of the house. Annoying and strange that it kept at it.
When they're trying to attract a mate, woodpeckers like pecking on something that makes a lot of noise.
HI TOH , those pesky woodpeckers ! 😂😂😂
And I wood have gotten away with it too,
if it wasn't for that meddling woodpecker.
Hang flags in the area to scare away. Mount the owl so it’s looking at the spot woodpeckers are damaging. Don’t mount it on the wall they are pecking.
but I heard that a certain woodpecker has a rivalry with buzzards (hawks in North America) & for some strange reason walruses.
It wasnt an ordinary woodpecker.
NO NO NO it looks awful when you put patch in a whole on siding, worse than the holes you have to take out the whole sheet and replace it with Hardie Board of something similar that they won't peck.
I had a bad woodpecker problem. I used to hide around the corner with a shotgun and try and surprise em. Those things are quick! Had to stop after the neighbors started complaining. :}
Haha
BTW Powder I suggest watch a 13 part series called _What on earth happened_ by Ewaranon to learn that the earth is not a globe.
I got it in my about tab.
“We’re getting a lot of messages….”
Regarding Woodpeckers…….REALLY?
Yea we have a woodpecker ,every year rattles the same rain gutter, we run him off, he comes back the next day,the pastic owls didnt work,, we have to shoo him away, its become a game
Hicktify my house or live with the holes .. Gotcha
tommys also part woodpecker!
No mention of woodpeckers going after bugs, I got massive damage all over my vertical ridge lap cedar siding clad house in December in Wisconsin and its not mating season or nesting season, its "hungry" season and they are likely looking for bugs to eat.
They DID, in fact, mention bugs as a cause for these pesky birds.
Click bait. Show us how to make the repairs. Also show how to kill the pests with poison pellets and rock salt guns.
What exactly do people expect when they cut down the trees to build houses and the build the houses out of wood?
🙄 Back into the straightjacket with you 👉
I don’t know, but my home has been around for about 60+ years so I don’t think your comment applies to me.
The trees have been long gone for generations of birds.
I think this is just telling people how to fix it. Not criticizing the woodpeckers.
Exactly. I have a lot of dead standing trees around my home (forest, wetland, tree farms) and I have spotted 4 species of woodpecker around in the past 2 years I have lived here (northeast US species) pileated, hairy, downy, and northern flicker.
I rarely ever saw a woodpecker when I lived in a suburban home, even offering suet. There is simply no habitat, or very little. They live off eating bugs from soft rotting trees. If there are no dead standing trees they won't be around. I couldn't even count how many holes I see in trees from these guys.
My house is surrounded by woods on two sides. All kinds of nice trees to choose from. There's even a huge beautiful white oak about 15 feet from the side of the house that the woodpeckers like to make holes in... If anything, I suspect that being in close proximity to their natural habitat (trees) would increase exposure to them.
Best way to deal with a wood pecker in town. BB Gun.
I’m glad you’re not my neighbor.
Its illegal as many are federally protected birds
@@07slowbalt Well my house is Bb Gun protected
@@deutschland6022 im not judging you for protecting your home but just letting you know a neighbor could report you and your screwed.
Deut, Don't listen to them,
If you BBQ them afterwards it's
Legal🍗🦃