It can be quite irritating sometime when unwanted insects or animals, in general, make our life a living hell. Though, this is called ‘nature’ by many these people have never felt or been in a situation like this, which is why they think it’s God’s gift to us. When these things happen, these animals destroy the way we are living. More or less, they are destroying our life’s cycle. Take for example, woodpeckers.
Like most of the North American birds, Woodpecker birds are also protected by federal laws, which will not allow you to legally kill them even for a pest control. So, the better way is to use non-lethal control if you want to avoid woodpeckers birds disturbance to your house. You can contact a professional to control the problem, but it may be very costly so the other way is to do it by yourself. If you are using home remedies instead, you will acquire less money, energy and time to complete the task. So here are the steps on how to do it.
You will need:
- Hammer
- Automatic Sprinkler
- Twine
- Stapler
- Reflective Tape
- Aluminum Flashing
- Nails
- Owl Effigies
- Tin Foil
Woodpeckers
Steps:
- First, place pieces of aluminum flashing to cover any holes that are created by the woodpecker. You can purchase these flashing in your local home improvement store. Attach the flashing to the side of your home using a hammer and nails. The woodpecker will be disturbed by the sound, texture and the shininess of the aluminum flashing.
- The other way is to use an automatic sprinkler with motion activation to wet the side of your home.
- Woodpeckers dislike hanging or holding onto wet surfaces so by using a motion activated sprinkler, the side of your home will be wet, but only when it is needed. Determine the sprinkler that you will need by checking the product instructions and the distance for the specific model recommended.
- Owl effigies can be placed around your property. These effigies are wooden or plastic statues that look similar to real owl. To make sure that the woodpeckers will not know whether the effigies are real or not, change the location of the effigies around your property daily. Woodpeckers are afraid of the effigies, as the owls are natural predator for the woodpeckers.
- Pieces of reflective tape can be hanged from the side of your home; this is the idea for the fact that woodpeckers dislike shiny things. You could buy the tapes in home improvement store or make your own by cutting tin foil pieces into strips of 6 inches long and 1 inch wide.
- Staple the strips to a twine and hang it on the problematic side of your home. You will need more twine depending on the number of strips you want to hang.
Image Credit:
Flickr CC
Additional Reading:
Woodpeckers (Animal Kingdom Set II)
Woodpeckers of Europe: A Study of the European Picidae
