Woodpecker problem - Need advice in North Phoenix Metro

[CumminsFan]

Bought a place in North Phoenix Metro roughly a year ago. I am a Southern California escapee slowly getting used to Javelina, Rattlesnakes, Pack Rats, and other yard critters. I have the ubiquitous Arizona flat roof. The roof is a membrane over 2” foam insulation, plywood over trusses. For the first few months everything was fine, then the woodpeckers showed up. Every morning around 6:00 AM and again in the afternoon around 4:00 PM the evil little bstds peck away. I rock throwing skills have proven to be less than effective. I try to get up on the roof to repair the pecker hole damage to the membrane every week or two but it is beginning to be a pain in the ***.

So far I have tried pole mounted softwoods near the house, fake owls on the roof, flapping Mylar tape, and the rotary reflectors popular on commercial buildings in Phoenix. The little peckers ignore my pole mounted soft wood “trees” scattered around the perimeter of the house. The Mylar tape or the rotary reflectors blowing in the wind don’t seem to be doing much. The fake owls work OK if I move them around but getting on the roof every couple of days is a major hassle.

I have been thinking about laying sheets of metal down over the membrane to protect it from the peckers. Kind of unsure about how to best affix the “armor” permanently without creating leaks from the fasteners. The wind blows enough that I would need to do something to keep the sheet metal from being the breaking story on the 5:00 pm news. I thought about replacing the foam/membrane roof and putting a true metal roof down. The existing roof is in good shape, kind of hard to justify replacing it.

My limited understanding of local laws regarding critters is that wood peckers are a protected species and that you can’t really eradicate them.

What clever budget friendly ideas/suggestions do my fellow Phoenix Metro GJers have for this problem? Discussions with my neighbors haven’t been very insightful. They are either oblivious to the problem or just recoat the membrane every couple of years and hope the inevitable rain leaks don’t become much of a problem between recoats.

 

[Ralf11]

yes, they are protected under federal law

for a first try - get an owl mannekin - I have one with wings that flap in the breeze

 

[SALIV8]

Not sure this would work with the woodpeckers but is your roof silver coated?

 

[ccrrar]

I had an owl decoy on a string that you mount on hte wall above where the woodpeckers are doing damage and then when the woodpecker starts pecking the vibration causes the owl to drop. Once the woodpecker is gone the string retracts and lifts the owl out of the way.

unfortunately that was about 10 years ago and I have no recollection of where I got the device. It definitely worked well so if you can find one it will solve your problem.

 

[Northislander]

Scary Eye balloons from amazon worked on our Canadian Woodpeckers but they might have better manners

 

[DGersic]

Owl decoy + Roomba. Post videos...


Sent from my iPad using The Garage Journal mobile app

 

[crashmtb]

As you are in Arizona, the only solution is a coyote.

 

[mlyonsdc]

^^LMAO

I had an issue with Finches digging holes in my Dryvit front porch on my house. Little bastards did over $2k in damage to it as I had to get a company to come out to put up scaffolding to repair it.

I tried the Owl it didnt work I think I have a picture of them sitting next to him on the window lol. You need something that makes noise or flashes light.

I got one of these from Amazon and it seems to have worked. It has been 3 months since I had the porch repaired and I put this in along with another Owl and they have not been back.

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B01E66Z0O4/?tag=atomicindus08-20

 

[crawler07]

I was having the same issue with woodpeckers, they were destroying my deck and wooden fence rails. I was also having problems with bore bees, come to find out the wood peckers were attrated to bore bees and would work their way through the wood to get to the bore bees.

I also trained my dog to run out the dog door and chase the woodpecker away, it worked pretty good except in the mornings when he was still in his crate and the woodpecker was out chiseling away at the porch.

 

[e015475]

We had them in Tucson when I lived there. They destroyed the beaverboard over the garage.

The only thing that kept them away was a net stretched over the area they liked to peck on. Mylar stringers, plastic owls, old CDs on a string - nothing worked.

Our species is the gila wood pecker and they're a$$holes. At the break of dawn every day they peck the tin fireplace cap and it make a hell of a racket in the house. They can empty a humingbird feeder in an afternoon.

 

[pepi]

They are after insects, maybe treat the food supply . Call an exterminator

 

[Ralf11]

They are either after insects, or after a way to make a big noise (as a territorial display).

I used to walk to the WSU campus in Pullman and every morning a woodpecker had found the holy grail - a big ventilator shaft sticking up on top of a bldg. at the top of the hill. He made the most hellacious racket you can imagine - carried for miles. And he was king of the hill.

Check for insects, yes.

3rd possibility for some woodpeckers - they want a place to store things for the winter - Acorn Woodpeckers and some others do that.

 

[mepstein]

I had squirrels chewing and woodpeckers pecking on my cedar deck. I bought some large spray bottles of pepper spray on amazon, sprayed the deck and the birds and animals stopped showing up. Yes, you have to be careful treating it. Wear proper face and eye protection.

 

[CumminsFan]

There is no insect infestation in or on my membrane/foam insulation roof. I have seen no evidence of acorn, seed, or other food storage on or in the membrane or the foam. Yes woodpeckers sometimes peck as loudly as possible to demonstrate their virility to potential mates and/or to claim territory. I was hoping that providing a soft wood alternatives would encourage them to leave my roof alone. Didn’t work. We are experiencing record heat, and drought. There has been almost no rain for almost a year locally. Pretty much every desert plant on my property is struggling. Pack rats are attacking anything and everything as a possible food/water source. I don’t irrigate anything. The critter population is down locally. I don’t see the usual quantity of birds but I definitely am experiencing daily attacks to my roof.

I have six separate distinct membrane/foam roof sections. All of them receive direct sun and are not shaded in any way. There is no standing water on the roof and no nearby water sources. No obvious flowering food sources, no acorns in the desert. There does not seem to be any consistency on where the peckers are attacking the roof. No discernible pattern other than time of the day. Cool in the morning, intense heat and sun during late afternoon.

What is it about membrane roofs/foam insulation that attract wood peckers? It is a very common problem in Arizona. Unfortunately there does not appear to be a universally effective deterrent.

Fellow Arizona GJers: What has worked for you to effectively combat local wood pecker species from attacking membrane/foam roofs?

 

[HenryAZ]

Fortunately, we have a pitched tile roof. The only thing the peckers (flickers around here, but in the woodpecker family) find to peck on is the top of my TV antenna, which rises a few feet above the garage roof peak. Sounds like an impact driver from inside the garage. So far (18 years in this house) they have not chosen to attack the side of the house (stucco).

 

[L5wolvesf]

I'm in Northern AZ. The woodpeckers around here like the Manzanitas and haven't touched the house (knock on wood).

 

[Ralf11]

if owls don't work there are various noise makers that wine vineyard owners use - high pitched noises, or powder cannon - one with a proximity detector will only go off when they are near

 

[ace10]

https://www.azgfd.com/wildlife/livingwith/woodpeckers/


https://az.audubon.org/

 

[KEH]

I had trouble with swifts building nests under my porch roof and put out a plastic snake which has worked for 2 or 5 yeqrs.

KEH

 

[floridafarmer]

Maybe call these guys: https://www.sniffnstop.com/
They are based here in the Orlando/Sanford area and started off decades ago when they invented this paste / putty that was used by utility companies to repair woodpecker damage on power poles - I used some of the stuff to stop a horse from cribbing on a wooden gate and it's still there today.
The web site has changed since I last visited and I don't see the woodpecker product - maybe call them if you're interested.