General Question

srmorgan's avatar

Why is the woodpecker pecking at my house?

Asked by srmorgan (6740points) May 18th, 2008

A couple of times of the last few days, we’ve had a woodpecker (or maybe his sister) pecking at the house, somewhere up on the second floor. Is there any reason why it’s doing this? Is there any insect issue up under the roof?

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9 Answers

ezraglenn's avatar

is your house wood?

delirium's avatar

Do you have delicious (to him) bugs there? You miiiight.

atr408's avatar

because its hungry

arnbev959's avatar

Maybe he’s a very ambitious woodpecker, and rather than focus on picking grubs out of trees, he wants to get a human out of a house. I wouldn’t trust this pecker, not one bit.

syz's avatar

Woodpeckers will chose prominant areas to declare their territory. Rather than sing to establish their dominance over an area, they use a hammering pattern. You are lucky if he’s only doing it on the wooden part – I have woodpeckers who have discovered that aluminum gutters act as amplifiers and happily whack away at dawn.

I strongly suspect that you have a local resident procaliming his breeding area rather than an insect problem.

Cardinal's avatar

Mating call of the wild peckerwood!

gailcalled's avatar

My house is cedar, and I have both Flickers and Sapsuckers hammering away. I can see rows of symmetrical square holes up high, below the eaves.

They also dig into the horizontal cedar boards that are above garage doors. Why?? Because all the borer bees (carpenter bees) nest there by boring holes that are 3/8” in diameter and go an inch up and then take a right turn. There are piles of sawdust on the driveway apron.

Then the Sapsuckers hear the rustling of the Bee larvae and gouge away long strips of cedar in order to retrieve lunch.

Something is partial to hammering on the asphalt roof shingles, too. (Note comma.) I have huge holes in trees and stumps throughout my woods, probably caused by Pileated, whom I can hear.

atr408's avatar

woodpeckers are cool :)

gailcalled's avatar

@atr408— May I assume from that cool answer that you are not a home owner?

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