What's all that banging on the side of your home?

Yes, It’s likely a pesky woodpecker searching for insects, or sourcing a new nest location.

Woodpeckers and Northern Flickers are a common nuisance birds in residential areas all across Metro Vancouver. When we hear them counting on the side of your home it could mean a few different things.

For one, they could be looking to establish a nest. Two, it’s simply a mating call, or 3, the worse case scenario is that they are pecking at your home to reach insects in the wood. Insects in the wood is a sign of water damage. Either a leaky roof, or something more serious like moisture issues in the structure itself.

Our woodpecker control and removal service is an affordable and humane way to prevent these nuisance birds from destroying your property.

What’s all that banging on the side of your home?

Yes, It’s likely a pesky woodpecker searching for insects, or sourcing a new nest location.

Woodpeckers and Northern Flickers are a common nuisance birds in residential areas all across Metro Vancouver. When we hear them counting on the side of your home it could mean a few different things.

For one, they could be looking to establish a nest. Two, it’s simply a mating call, or 3, the worse case scenario is that they are pecking at your home to reach insects in the wood. Insects in the wood is a sign of water damage. Either a leaky roof, or something more serious like moisture issues in the structure itself.

Our woodpecker control and removal service is an affordable and humane way to prevent these nuisance birds from destroying your property.

Bird: Northern Flicker - resident of BC
Northern_Flicker of BC

Types of Woodpeckers In BC

In BC we have a variety of woodpeckers; Downy Woodpeckers, Northern flickers, and the Pileated Woodpecker to name a few.

Downy Woodpeckers in Vancouver are the smallest of the classic woodpecker, identified by their white bellies and checkered black-and-white back. Their straight-backed posture as they lean away from trees is a distinguishing feature of the Downy.

Northern Flickers are beautiful birds and relatively common in BC. These birds are a mid-sized woodpecker reaching approximately 11-12 inches, about the size of an American Robin and feature a black bib and spotted belly.

The Pileated Woodpecker is an average 18″ in length, and is the largest woodpecker in Canada. These beautiful birds, with their striking red crest are majestic in flight, and are thought to be the inspiration for the cartoon character Woody the Woodpecker.

In Metro Vancouver, woodpeckers are at home thanks our diverse, insect-rich environment. They’ll eat ants, beetles, moths, cluster flies, mosquitoes, and other larvae. Although it is nice of them to eat those insects, unfortunately they also love berries and seeds, feeding on fruit-bearing shrubs and trees which is a pain for community garden owners.

Why are they drilling on the side of your home?

So in early spring a flicker counting on the side of the house can actually mean one of three things.

  1. They are trying to establish a nest and they’ll be pecking away to try and find a soft spot to create a hole to do that as they would in a tree.
  2. It’s possible that there’s an underlying issue. Again, it’s usually moisture ingress, which has created the perfect environment for some insects to be residing in that area.
  3. And the third one is.. its mating season. So they will just hammer away on objects, especially aluminum metal. You’ll often hear them on chimneys trying to attract a mate.

Customer review

We wanted to express our thanks to you for the very prompt assistance today. The woodpecker is now free – thanks to Egor! We greatly appreciated your help and can’t thank him enough for the emergency house all on the Saturday of a long weekend! That persistent but beautiful bird will hopefully find somewhere else to peck now.

Thank you to everyone in the office who coordinated the response today. Please thank Jake and Egor for the great work yesterday (under challenging conditions). A special thanks to Egor for his time, expertise, and patience. He went above and beyond! The professionalism of the team is exceptional.

Happy Thanksgiving! Anna

Tell Us About Your Woodpecker Issues

Woodpecker prevention usually consists of temporary Bird Netting to condition the birds to move on and establish elsewhere. Other woodpecker deterrents such as bird spike and galvanized mesh can be included depending on the environment and structure.

It’s important to note that all woodpecker control solutions at Westside Pest Control are humane, meaning they are simply deterrent solutions to keep birds away from a designated area.

Westside Pest Control offers a range of bird control solutions for Residential, Strata, Commercial, Industrial, Manufacturing, and Municipal customers. Big or small, we can do it! Contact us today for a free on-site consultation and quote. Call us on 604-559-9060, submit our webform, or use our webchat to speak with a pest expert.

Let’s eliminate your pest bird problems once and for all!

Our Solutions Include;

  • On-site inspection with consultation

  • Complete Bird Control solutions (spike, netting, shock-track, gels, wire mesh.. etc)

  • Prevent roosting on ledges and on top of buildings

  • Block off access to open areas (rooftop HVAC, warehouses, outdoor stairwells. etc)

  • Highly Skilled – Rigorous in-house training, certified in boom and scissor lift operation, and certified by Bird Barrier and Bird-B-Gone.

  • Quality Guarantee On All Bird Control Products

GET INSTANT QUOTE

CALL NOW: 604-559-9060

Getting Rid of Woodpeckers – with FAQs

Have woodpeckers drilling at your homes siding?
Our technicians share our top tips to help you manage your flicker/woodpecker problems.

One option is actually to do nothing, and it may just go away in the next few weeks.

However, Woodpeckers are simple creatures and usually return to the same spot. So if they are persistent, there are a number of safe solutions to deter them from coming back;

  1. Fixing wooden panels with metal or aluminium siding, (or vinyl sidings in lighter colors)
  2. You may want to investigate to see if there’s an underlying issue and maybe some moisture ingress, which is causing an insect population.
  3. Try reflective streamers – the shiny coating and movement in the wind helps keep the woodpeckers at bay. Hang CDs on a string, or grab a reflective pinwheel from your local hardware store. Or try ScareTape

If you’re looking for some hard evidence, this research study tested six common long-term woodpecker deterrents, and unfortunately found that nothing deterred woodpeckers all the time. The best of the bunch was reflective streamers. The methods tested included;

  • Reflective streamers (most effective)
  • Life-sized plastic owls with paper wings
  • Plastic eyes strung on fishing line
  • Roost boxes
  • Suet feeders
  • Sound system which broadcasts woodpecker distress calls followed by the call of a hawk

Bottom line, unfortunately nothing works all the time

Want to learn more? Check out the 12 types of woodpeckers in BC

Woodpeckers savaging for insects could mean you have wood rot.

The moisture brings insects, and the woodpeckers are digging for insects. Likely water is getting past your roofing system.

If you’ve have humidity issues, the first port of call is to get it inspected. You want to know the extent of the rot, but also also it could indicate other more serious problems, like a carpenter ant problem. Woodpecker love to feed on carpenter ants.

Next you can look to reduce the moisture levels by using a dehumidifier. After that you can look at adding vinyl siding to the target area, which can deter woodpeckers from pecking. Vinyl siding is hard, durable, and insect resistant. 

Woodpeckers are especially active in early spring so home owners shouldn’t be surprised to hear drumming against their walls.

During mating season they communicate via drumming to find a mate. So they will just hammer away on objects, especially aluminum metal. You’ll often hear them on chimneys. roof sidings, and street lamps to try and attract a mate.

Westside Pest Control technicians are here to help!

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Our Bird Control Solutions

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