The sounds created by woodpeckers are rather considered annoying and when heard in residential houses might also be associated with negative omens.
Hence, it’s definitely not a great idea to pet woodpeckers and wake up to incessant knocking sounds in the morning till late at night.
Here’s My Woodpecker Story
Like I had to bear with my experience with the woodpecker infestation scenario in my backyard.
It was this time of the year when I started to conduct in-depth research on birds and started gathering supplies for each genre of bird to attract them into my backyard for my research purposes.
And I did the same for woodpeckers, quite unaware of what a cumbersome situation I was pushing myself into.
These birds are no less than insane humans who are literally hammering their beaks against a tree trunk all day without no reason.
Even though primarily it really intrigued me how this bird never really got tired but as days started to pass, it almost became equivalent to a nightmare.
The bird never stopped, annoying me and my family members to an extent where it was almost unbearable, and that is when I realized, the problem has to be solved at all costs.
Hence, my detailed study on woodpeckers, their nature, and mainly how to get rid of them helped me summarize a few extremely effective ways to drive these birds away from my property in no time, and trust me when I say, it worked wonders.
So, through this article, I will bring those same points and even some more into your consideration as in ways you too can get rid of woodpeckers if these birds are making your life a living hell.
Methods I Used To Get Rid Of Woodpeckers
Method 1: When There’s No Food, What’s The Point?
Remember why a woodpecker would barge into your backyard anyway? Just to hammer its beak against your banyan tree?
No way, but to have food. And how can you reverse the process, in the same way, to drive these birds away?
Yes, you got that right, by making that main source of food unavailable for them and defeating the entire purpose of these birds trying to build their nest in your backyard.
But woodpeckers are not really creatures that solely feed on bird grains, rather are carnivores that feed on a wide variety of insects, like ants, bees, and termites.
A principal reason as to why a woodpecker chose your backyard to peck can be an insect infestation in your place that you might not be well aware of.
Hence, getting rid of woodpeckers primarily includes the process of examining in detail whether your backyard is under the influence of such infestation or is it just a random array of insects that acted like a magnet.
And then, depending on how you see the situation, take pest control measures.
You can go for DIY if the rates of infestation are low but you should prefer professional help in case the infestation is heavy for an all-fold assurance in the long run.
Method 2: A Decoy Woodpecker Feeder
Making your house resourcefully insufficient for woodpeckers might not always be enough.
Hence, in such situations, you can go ahead and offer a more resourceful option for them that is a lot more attractive to woodpeckers in contrast to your house.
Channeling their attention to a different side. And this comparatively more attractive place is what we tend to refer to as a decoy woodpecker feeder.
Herein, you provide better and more lurking food supplies for woodpeckers that also cater to their tendencies to nest around their food sources, all away from your home.
Hence, they build their nests far away from your home and hence are automatically no more attracted to your backyard.
The most effective bait you can use in the decoy feeders is suet. Suet cakes are ideal food sources for woodpeckers according to their carnivorous fooding habits.
It is a mixture of fat with vegetables, fruits, seeds, and insects. These cakes are proven to be largely attractive to woodpeckers and hence you can absolutely rely on the process.
Method 3: A Woodpecker Sound Deterrent Can Work
Birds are driven by sounds and hence, be it any bird that you decide to drive away from your backyard, a sound deterrent will always work.
These devices are a wise process of applying and utilizing the exceptional hearing capabilities of birds to our advantage.
Birds can hear higher frequencies and pitches than humans can as it indeed is the source of survival for the beings.
Hence, you can use these hearing capabilities to induce a fear of threat or annoyance through sounds that are unpleasant to the ears of woodpeckers.
This process is non-toxic and you also don’t really end up harming the creatures in the process, yet it’s a promising solution to the problem and hence definitely something you should try.
These devices are elementary to use just like any other speaker.
Some of the sounds that you might have to use can be audible to human ears but yet not as unbearable as it is going to sound to the target creatures.
Also, consistency is the key to success with such sound deterrents as it would take some time for the birds to be absolutely sure that your house is no safer as a habitat for them.
Because no creature would like to give up on their shelter so easily. But once they do, you can be quite assured that they are not coming back anytime soon.
Method 4: Make Your Place Look like a Threat Visually (Decoy)
Why only scare them audibly when you can fasten up the process with some visual threat too?
Well, just like the sound deterrents are supposed to scare them audibly using sounds from their predators, you can also make these predators visually available to them too.
However, unfortunately, you cannot invite foxes, scavenger birds, or coyotes to your house in order to drive away woodpeckers, instead, you can install decoys of their predators in places around your house to make it look real.
However, you should go for 3D decoys that have pre-installed activities to perform to make it look even more real.
You can also opt for solar-powered decoys to make sure you never run out of charge and choose customizable settings for more of real touch.
Do not forget to change places to make it seem like the threat is everywhere.
This truly works and you must do it realistically enough to speed up the results along with the sound deterrents doing their job.
Method 5: Woodpeckers in General, Repel Away from the Brightness
Yes, birds absolutely despise extremely bright places and it can often be a source of extreme distress for them leading them to leave their habitat.
And this is obviously an instrument you can make an effortless use of, simply by using some reflective objects in places they have their nest in or are most likely to be seen.
A sudden flash of extremely bright light is like a threatening situation to them.
To create such reflective surfaces, you can fix mirrors in those places, go for shiny wrap papers or simply use a reflective tape that is replaceable too and hence saves you some bucks as well.
All of these will work just fine and it’s up to your convenience what you choose to go for. You can also suspend these reflective surfaces for better effects to drive the birds away.
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