WOOD PECKERS

[steveb]

IS there any way to keep woodpeckers from destroying my house? :?:

[Pamzilla]

Only way I know for sure, is to get siding instead of wood.

This is pretty unscientific but here goes a theory. When I was growing up woodpeckers pecked our house ALL THE TIME. The house was a dark color and the wood was painted dark. Is yours? Now I own a large 100 year old home with original wood exterier painted white. If you look at old wood homes, most are painted a light color. Are woodpeckers attracted to wood painted a similar shade to natural wood? In our town with lots of old wood homes nobody EVER complains about woodpeckers even though I've seen them in my own yard.

Now for some advise I've heard over the years that may or may not work:

Put mirrors up near favorite pecking areas
Use predator decoys like hawks, snakes, owls

You could try spray methods:

Spray with pepper spray to repel woodpeckers and bugs they eat
Spray orange oil to repet bugs

I hope any of this was helpful. Good luck.