A Woodpecker Is Drilling Holes in My Siding

Three different reasons, and they need different responses. Feeding — it can hear insect larvae in the wood, most often carpenter bees, and is excavating to reach them. Drumming — a fast rhythmic tapping on something resonant like metal flashing, a gutter or hollow siding, which is territorial display in spring and does little damage. Or nesting — a large round cavity, usually in soft or rotting wood. Feeding damage is irregular and follows the galleries; a nest hole is a neat circle. Working out which one you have is the whole job.

Native woodpeckers are protected birds, and that materially limits what may lawfully be done about them — harming them or disturbing an active nest is not an option. This is exactly why the practical answer is to remove the reason the bird is there rather than to target the bird. Source: Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources wildlife regulations and federal migratory bird protections. Reviewed by Brian Zahringer, WI Commercial Applicator #103689 — August 2026. Check current rules before acting, and call us rather than improvising.

Briefly, and then not at all. Woodpeckers habituate to visual deterrents within days once they learn nothing bad happens — reflective tape, balloons, plastic owls and hawk silhouettes all buy you a short reprieve at best. They work slightly better if moved frequently and deployed the moment damage starts rather than weeks later. But if the bird is feeding on larvae in your siding, no deterrent competes with a food source it can hear. Remove the food and the bird loses interest.

Look for what the woodpecker is following. Perfectly round half-inch holes on the underside of fascia or trim mean carpenter bees, and their larvae are the classic target. Coarse sawdust below holes, yellowish staining, or damage that runs in lines rather than randomly all point the same way. If the pecking is concentrated on one board while the rest of the wall is untouched, that board almost certainly has something in it. We check the wood before talking about deterrents at all.

Cedar and other soft natural wood siding, by a wide margin — it is easy to excavate, it hosts insects, and it is resonant enough for drumming. Board-and-batten, cedar shakes, and stained-not-painted surfaces are the usual victims here. Damaged or rotting wood is more attractive again, because it is softer and more likely to hold larvae. Well-maintained painted surfaces get hit least, which is one of several reasons keeping a finish on exposed wood pays for itself.

Probably not much. Fast rhythmic drumming on gutters, flashing, or a resonant hollow spot is territorial and mating display, concentrated in spring, and it does little or no structural damage — it is mainly a noise problem, and an early-morning one. It usually eases once the breeding season passes. If it is genuinely unbearable you can dampen the resonance of the specific surface being used, which removes the appeal without touching the bird.

It happens, particularly in soft or rotting wood, and a nest cavity is a much bigger repair than feeding damage — a neat round hole leading into a hollowed chamber. Once a nest is active the legal position tightens considerably and options narrow to waiting it out and then repairing and excluding. This is a strong argument for acting on feeding damage early, before a hole gets enlarged into somewhere worth nesting in.

Deal with the cause first. Filling holes while larvae remain in the wood just means the bird reopens them, and you have spent the money twice. The sequence is: identify what is in the wood, treat it, let the treatment work, then repair properly with a filler suited to exterior wood, then finish the surface. Repairing promptly after that matters, because open holes admit water, and water starts the rot that makes the wood more attractive next time.

Occasionally. Some woodpeckers will work at foam-insulated sheathing or a resonant void with nothing living in it, and juveniles sometimes probe more or less at random. But in this part of Wisconsin, persistent focused damage to one area of cedar siding or fascia most often traces back to carpenter bees or another wood-boring insect. We look before assuming — telling you there is nothing in the wood is a perfectly good outcome, and it changes the plan to deterrents and repair.

We handle the reason they are there, which is the part that actually works and the part that is lawful. We inspect the wood, identify and treat what the bird is feeding on, advise on repair, and where deterrents genuinely have a role we say which and where. Native woodpeckers are protected, so anyone offering to simply remove the bird should be treated with caution. In practice, taking away the food source ends the great majority of these calls.