tw8023@pyuxii.UUCP (T Wheeler) (10/25/85)
Owls work just fine at keeping certain birds from places they should not infest. On the other hand, every dang-blasted Bluejay within a six mile area will have to come and see the owls and proceed to make a report of the sighting. Twenty Bluejays, all screeching at the top of their lungs, can be enough to put the roar from a 747 jet to shame. This is probably the real reason other birds stay away from owls. They just can't stand the manners of the Bluejay's. T. C. Wheeler
hrs@homxb.UUCP (H.SILBIGER) (10/28/85)
I don't know anything about woodpeckers, but had a problem with squirrels nesting in my attic, coming in under the eaves. I Called an exterminator, who informed me they would come and trap them, at $ 80.- a visit. Apparently it is illegal to kill them in NJ. What I did was to spray their nesting area with bug killer. They apparently did not like the smell, and after a few applications stayed away, after which I blocked their entrance.homxb
throopw@rtp47.UUCP (Wayne Throop) (10/28/85)
>Does anyone know of a good way to keep woodpeckers away from the >eaves and trim of a house? My apologies if anybody has mentioned this before, but most of the replies seem to be dealing with how to shoo the birds away. I'd like to note that woodpeckers are normally insect-eating birds, and thus the attack of woodpeckers on a house is a warning that the wood of the house is harboring some insect pests. Eliminate the insects, and the woodpeckers will lose interest. I also note that it might be dangerous to ignore the warning of the hungry birds... many of the insects that may infest a house can do significant damage, a-la termites. -- Wayne Throop at Data General, RTP, NC <the-known-world>!mcnc!rti-sel!rtp47!throopw
rfg@hound.UUCP (R.GRANTGES) (10/31/85)
[] While it is logical that woodpeckers are after some tasty bugs, "It aint necessarily so." I have a friend who had a woodpecker develop a desire to peck on the metal flashing of her chimney every morning around 5 a.m. Seems the bird just loved the sound...very resonant, make sleepers think furnace is exploding, fall out of bed, etc. Remedy was to install screen to keep woodpecker away from chimney. Woodpecker moved to similar house two doors down. Many irate phone calls from neighbor. Why not just shoot the beast? They shoot horses, don't they? -- "It's the thought, if any, that counts!" Dick Grantges hound!rfg
dand@teklds.UUCP (Daniel Dreiszus) (11/01/85)
> attack of woodpeckers on a house is a warning that the wood of the house > is harboring some insect pests. Eliminate the insects, and the > woodpeckers will lose interest. Well, not necessarily. For the past two summers we have been visited by a woodpecker that hammers against all of the metal chimneys in the neighborhood (beginning at pre-dawn -- ting ting ting ting ting ting ting ting ting, . . . ting ting ting ting ting ting ting . . . .). Sounds like a rather light meal to me; sometimes they must peck just to peck.. Also, we have a cedar-sided cabin in an area rife with woodpeckers and trees to peck on -- they have actually pecked clear through the siding in spots, and there simply aren't any bugs in or on the siding to tempt them. As an aside, I would also add that the suggestion to off the little pest with a 22 cal. shot shell is really quite prudent and workable, and I think that anyone familiar with this low velocity, low mass configuration would agree, strange (or dangerous) as it may seem to the uninformed. As with anything potentially dangerous (fireworks, driving, throwing a baseball) safety depends on the experience and common sense of the individual.
rjn@hpfcla.UUCP (11/01/85)
re: "woodpeckers ... sometimes they must peck just to peck.." It may be a form of beak growth control. Parrot beaks are said to grow at up to 3 inches per year. They grind the upper mandible down by chewing on hard materials (lava rock or cuttlebone in the case of pets) and grind the lower against the upper. If a parrot can't control its beak growth, you're faced with beak trimming, which can be very unpleasant, since there are blood vessels surprisingly near the tip. A woodpecker probably has a maximum beak length, or a maximum distance that it likes to maintain between the tip of the beak and the tip of the tongue. If the distance gets too great, the bird may drop the meal before it gets to the back of the beak. If the your region contains mostly soft woods (e.g. pine vs oak), woodpeckers may be experiencing excess beak growth, and using your metal trim to compensate. The pecking could also be to attract a mate. Regards, Hewlett-Packard Bob Niland 3404 East Harmony Road [ihnp4|hplabs]!hpfcla!rjn Fort Collins CO 80525
mike@amdcad.UUCP (Mike Parker) (11/01/85)
This in response to two postings that basically said that woodpeckers eat bugs and the original poster had a bug problem to deal with. There may be no bugs at all. My folks summer house is covered with T-111 ( Fancy plywood ) it has voids like most plywood and at the grooves these voids look like beetle holes. A Woodpecker has been so kind as to drill lines of holes through the face veneers into these voids. After much discussion we decided that the birds find dinner by looking for entry holes, then peck open the tubes, probably following the tubes path by the sound of the pecking being "hollow" over tubes. We were very meticulous, there are no bugs. We don't believe that peckers can smell bugs or ( contrary to some beliefs ) hear them moving. I would ask the original poster if there natural voids in his siding that can be mistaken for bug tubes, and can they be covered or filled. Mike
bennison@clt.DEC (Victor Bennison - DTN 381-2156) (11/04/85)
____
My kids recently made some bird feeders from various scraps and
junk. One of the feeders used old tinker toy wheels as spacers.
The woodpeckers have been after the peg holes in those tinker
toy wheels ever since. There is nothing for birds to eat inside
those peg holes. So this is supporting evidence to the claim that
the woodpeckers are looking for bug entry holes in wood.
Vick Bennison
...decvax!decwrl!rhea!tools!bennison
(603) 881-2156vsh@pixel.UUCP (Steve Harris) (11/04/85)
re: Woodpeckers banging against metal chimneys, etc.
They do it instead of singing, to demark territory.
--
Steve Harris | {allegra|ihnp4|cbosgd|ima|genrad|amd|harvard}\
Pixel Systems Inc. | !wjh12!pixel!vsh
300 Wildwood Street |
Woburn, MA 01801 | 617-933-7735 x2314clouser@binkly.DEC (11/05/85)
Who knows what reasoning lurks in the brains of birds. We used to have a
flicker (a member of the woodpecker family), that would hammer on a metal
(yes, metal) ventilation duct on the roof. Let me tell you, it made an
quite a sound at 5:30 AM. Whoever made up the expression "birdbrain" knew
from whence he spoke.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
/John Clouser/
DEC 32 bit Peripherals Group
(DEC E-NET) BINKLY::CLOUSER
(UUCP) {decvax, ucbvax, allegra}!decwrl!dec-rhea!dec-binkly!clouser
(ARPA) clouser%binkly.DEC@decwrl.ARPA
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------bennison@clt.DEC (Victor Bennison - DTN 381-2156) (11/11/85)
---
The person who said that woodpeckers peck on metal to mark territory
sounded authoritative, so maybe he/she knows. But if I were just guessing
I'd say they do it because it makes a hollow sound, as in "hollow tree",
as in "free bugs, eat all you want". As for shooting them, I see no
contradiction between eating domesticated animals, and not wanting to see
wildlife destroyed unnecessarily. Pests are pests, and I set mousetraps
like most everyone else, and I might even shoot a woodpecker if it was
disrupting my life and I couldn't find another way of dealing with it.
But I take no joy out of killing anything.
(By the way, I put out suet for the woodpeckers. They come by the dozens.
I've never had one peck on my house, and I even have a metal stove pipe.)
Vick Bennison
...decvax!decwrl!rhea!tools!bennison
(603) 881-2156