Gardening for Trees & Plants : Repel Woodpeckers

Hi this is Yolanda Vanveen, and in this segment we're going to talk about how to repel woodpeckers. Now woodpeckers are really cute. They have little red heads and they make lots of noises because they're pecking on the wood. You hear them because they live in old trees and so they like to peck at the trees and they're actually going for the insects inside of the trees. They're not really meaning to kill your trees. They want the insects that are inside of the dead trees. That's their goal. But the problem is a lot of times in the suburbs and in the city there's not a lot of trees so they're going for the houses. So a lot of people are finding woodpeckers in their attics and on their eves and all over their houses pecking holes. So there's a few things that you can do to try to deter them or repel them from your house. And probably the easiest thing that you can do is just hang CD's. They don't like the shininess of the CD's. So if you know that you have a woodpecker in a certain area or in a certain tree, if you get a used CD or some kind of, something that you're not using at the moment, you just hang that from the tree, the color in the CD will a lot of times scare them. And if that doesn't work, a lot of times loud noises will work too. They don't really like loud noises. So, if you have a horn or you hear them in your tree, you can always blare at them. And then, it's not always nice. I don't like to hurt them in any way. So you never want to hurt your woodpeckers. You just want to encourage them to find a new home. So if you find them in an area that you don't want them, just spray them with a hose too. I know it sounds mean, but it doesn't hurt them. And a lot of times they will take off if you keep spraying them with your hose. And they will realize that they are not wanted in that area and they are doing damage. And other people swear by the fact that if you have an area in your house that they're pecking at, if you mix cayenne pepper or red hot chili pepper or curry powder or anything that's really really strong. You mix that with oil and you coat the area where they're at or the tree that they're in with that smell and with that oil, they hate that smell, and it will discourage them, and they'll find a new home. And of course if you're doing that to your house, you want to be careful because you don't want oil stains or and all types of stain on your house. But there's a lot of different tricks. A lot of times eucalyptus oil, they don't like the smell of eucalyptus oil sometimes. So just putting some of that in an area that they're pecking at works too. But in the end, I realize that we need to live together with other animals and other birds. And so by just deterring them to another area, whether you just take a spray bottle and just spray them with water, or take a hose or put some red hot chili pepper in their morning tea, then they will find a new place to live and they won't be the problem that they were in the past.