Here I will help you select the best woodpecker deterrent for your particular situation!
The key to success in getting rid of woodpeckers is a quality woodpecker deterrent and/or woodpecker repellent. This page will serve as an ongoing list of the woodpecker products that I find to be effective as well as not-so-effective.
The terms Woodpecker Deterrent and Woodpecker Repellent are often used interchangeably. Technically, deterrents engage the bird’s sense of sight, sound, and/or touch while a woodpecker repellent targets smell and/or taste. But for the intent of our product search, think of them as the same thing.
The best way to ward off these birds is to engage more than one of the bird’s senses. Although not always necessary, this has proven to be one of the most effective methods in woodpecker removal.
It is also important to know why the woodpecker is pecking so you can address any underlying problems such as a bug infestation.
Below I have provided the names and review links to these woodpecker deterrents (in no particular order). While most of these products will get rid of nuisance birds altogether, these deterrents are specifically effective for all types of woodpeckers.
If you have any questions, concerns, or comments, please feel free to leave a comment at the bottom of the page or contact me and I will get back to you as soon as I can.
Effective Woodpecker Deterrents and Repellents:
Reflective discs that will scare woodpeckers away for good! My personal favorite.
Cut lengths of this shiny tape to frighten woodpeckers away from your property.
Predator eye balloons scare woodpeckers away with their scary appearance and reflective materials.
Electronic woodpecker devices which use distress calls to ward woodpeckers off.
Feeding woodpeckers will keep them by the suet feeder and away from your house.
Providing shelter for these birds will keep them away. Best when used in conjunction with a suet feeder.
Woodpeckers find this paint’s odor and taste repulsive and will surely not return.
Prevents these birds from accessing the areas they like to damage.
Provides a physical barrier to prevent woodpeckers from pecking anything.
Not-so-Effective Woodpecker Deterrents and Repellents (when used alone):
This stuff will only give you frustration and lead to more damage before inevitably turning to a reputable woodpecker deterrent.
Will repel woodpeckers for a day or 2 if you’re lucky. See the review for a video of a woodpecker pecking on one of these things!
I hope the reviews above will help you choose the best woodpecker deterrent for your needs!
Now head over to the Repair Woodpecker Damage page if you need assistance with fixing any damage they may have caused. You’ll be good as new in no time!
Please feel free to leave comments below!
Last spring, we painted our c.1840 house, changing it’s color from a real, to it’s historically accurate white. Ever since, we have had Downy woodpeckers pecking at the siding. They’ve done a fair amount of damage. The twirling silver tape provided some help, last summer, but we’ve just today, realized they’re back, and pecking full force. What do you recommend?
I would highly recommend you try Bird Repellent Discs as they have a very high success rate in getting rid of woodpeckers.
I live in Arizona and I have two saguaro cactus in my front yard. The birds have been making holes in the cactus to have their babies. Not only are they making a huge mess of black cactus juice and bird poop all over my driveway but they are also pecking holes in the stucco of my house! I have had the holes patched in the past but they are still making more. Before I can get my house re-painted I need to get rid of these birds! Cactus removal is quite expensive – any suggestions that will hopefully work other than that? Please help!
I would begin by placing Bird Repellent Discs around your cactus as well as your home. I had great success in lining them from the ground to the roof on all 4 corners of the house about every 6ft.
I have a 30 x 10’ area of cedar siding. I’ve been fighting a woodpecker that has made multiple holes. As soon as I repair one, it makes another. Would you recommend the tape or discs?
I find that they are both equally effective. However, I generally prefer the discs over the tape because they are much more shiny.
Tried them all, none work. The discs were a total waste other than banging into the house and wearing away stain. Woodpecker made holes not a foot away. Tape, balloons, streamers ineffective. Will try netting next.I have repaired over 30 holes in past three years.
I’m very sorry to hear this. Unfortunately not every woodpecker responds to the same deterrents otherwise there would only be 1 product out there that solved all of our woodpecker-related problems.
If reflective materials haven’t helped you at all, I’d certainly consider trying an Electronic Woodpecker Repellent, Woodpecker Netting, or Woodpecker Spikes.
Please feel free to visit our page on Repairing Woodpecker Damage if you need assistance.
I really hope this helps!
How does a person know if the woodpeckers are drilling because there are insects in the wood? I have cedar siding. The holes are about the size of a large meatball. I have lived in my home for 21 years and have never had woodpecker issues. This past year I have had 5 large holes.
Inspect the hole and see if there is nesting material and/or eggs in there. The fact that the hole is large enough for them to fit their bodies into tells me that they’re most likely nesting in those holes.
We put a reflective film on the windows here in florida to mitigate heat and also it’s reflective for privacy. We have a woodpecker who I assume is thinking they see a challenger in the reflection. It pecks non-stop at the windows. I don’t want to remove the film if at all possible and the fake owl only worked for a day or two. Any recommendations?
For your particular situation, I would highly advise implementing an electronic woodpecker repellent. This should hopefully do the trick! Please let us know how you make it.
This product is showing as unavailable, is it still being made? If so, where do I buy it?
Which product are you referring to exactly?
If you’re referring to the Beakguard woodpecker deterrent paint, it has been out of stock on Amazon for a little bit now. To the best of my knowledge it is still being produced and will hopefully be available again shortly!
If you’d like, you can contact Bird-B-Gone directly at their toll-free number: 866-296-6708. Hope this helps!
I just spoke with Stucoflex.com 1-800-305-1045 They will direct ship BeakGuard to you. Custom colors available with a one time charge $25/color for matching service. This product is pricey $92.46/gal or $420.30/5gal. They suggest starting with a gallon to judge effectiveness. The person I spoke with estimates effectiveness varies by region: Seattle 50% effective, Florida 90% effective, Michigan maybe 70% effective. 2/2019
This is very useful information. Thanks for sharing!
Hello, I have been struggling with a woodpecker for 11/2 years. I have tried the bird noise machine that I put in my yard that a wildlife company sold to me but it doesn’t work at all and bothers my neighbors. They also sold me two mylar owls to hang on the house and they didn’t work either. I bought a chemical that I put in the house paint to paint over the holes after they had been filled with Putty called Methyl Anthranilate. That also doesn’t seem to be working. I even tried shooting the woodpecker with an air soft gun to scar it away but it just flies to a higher branch. I don’t know what else to do now.
It sounds like you have some pretty resilient woodpeckers on your hands. The one thing that I see you haven’t tried is one of the cheapest and most effective options, reflective materials.
I highly recommend the use of bird repellent discs to scare these birds away. Woodpeckers are absolutely petrified by shiny materials so I think you’ll have success with these discs. Just place them around the area they’re attacking and that should hopefully solve your problem.
Please let us know if this helps!
Thanks for your help in repairing siding damaged by the woodpeckers.
Anything shiny and hanging are great when the wind blows, but useless when it’s not. If you stuff the hole with curly steel wool, they will try to pull it out
or drill a new hole close by.
I respectfully disagree that wind is required to make reflective woodpecker deterrents useful. While wind certainly helps, bird repellent discs and bird repellent tape do a great job at reflecting light and scaring woodpeckers even when stationary.
I will however state that they aren’t nearly as effective at night. This is why I recommend the use of a reflective woodpecker deterrent in conjunction with an electronic woodpecker repellent to cover all bases!
I’m glad you were able to fix your woodpecker holes and hope they won’t return!
So how do I use the zip ties on the J hooks? Can they be attached to gutters this way?
I recommend drilling a hole in the curved portion of the J-Hook so that you can feed the zip tie through it. Then you can attach it directly to your gutter. Pull the zip tie tight but be careful to not crush the gutter! Then affix the Bird Repellent Discs to one of the holes in the J-Hook.
Please let me know if you need further assistance!
Just how many woodpeckers will one of these houses accommodate?
It largely depends on the species and size of the woodpeckers.
I have personally seen 4 woodpeckers sharing one of these homes.
Hope this helps!
Thanks for your woodpecker article, very informative. We are currently considering the electronic versions but noticed some of the distress calls can be heard by humans. Have you tried one of these and are they annoying?
The reason this grasped our attention regards placing a similar device in the garden to frighten cats away through their high pitched bleep, this is unnoticeable to adults although the kids could hear the bleep, they were annoyed, we were fine – ha!
Moving the cats away worked through this device, it would be great to find a similar solution to disperse woodpeckers plus with an approximate distance of a 1.6 acres span more than accommodates our garden, thanks,
Simon.
I’ve used these devices before and I don’t find them particularly bothersome. However, you may not share the same opinion.
People have experienced a lot of success with getting rid of woodpeckers with these devices. I honestly can’t say enough good things about them.
Amazon has a pretty stellar return policy so you could always try it out and return it if it doesn’t do what it claims to do.
All species of woodpeckers have the ability to destroy homes. The woodpeckers by you are definitely causing damage, you’re just fortunate enough that they aren’t doing it to your home!
Perhaps you intimidate them 🙂
I am rather bemused by these deterrents and am wondering what these birds do to your houses. I can’t understand why we do not get this problem here in the UK. We have an abundance of woodpeckers in our garden but we never have them land on the house or do any damage.
I’m wondering if it’s because of the different species. Our birds are Great Spotted, Lesser Spotted and the Green woodpecker. Which species does the damage to your homes?
We do have a large array of bird feeders and the woodpeckers always use them rather than come anywhere near the buildings. It can be an expensive pastime though, woodpeckers seem to have veracious appetites! Great post. Ches
Oh! Before reading your post I have always thought that woodpeckers eat the wood, and I thought it’s the reason why they’re pecking! I didn’t know that it could be a sign of pest infestation.
I like that you have offered tips only to deter and not kill the birds, as they are still living things. Thanks for sharing!
You learn something new everyday right? Thanks for stopping by!
You give such good info on this page! I didn’t know where to turn with my problem but now I have so many options!!! I think I’m going to try the bird discs and see how things go! Thanx for the help!
I created this blog because I have experienced woodpecker related damage and didn’t have a reputable resource to turn to for getting rid of woodpeckers or repairing the damage they caused.
Since getting rid of my woodpecker issue, I’ve been able to successfully help people from all over the world with their woodpecker problems. This website has allowed me to connect with so many different people and I’m genuinely thrilled that I can be of assistance!
I live in the Northeast US but woodpecker problems are prevalent on virtually every continent. That’s why I set out to make this a global resource for everyone encountering woodpecker troubles. I hope this page serves as a good guide for people to choose the best woodpecker deterrent for them!
If you ever need help or know of anyone that does, just send them my way and I’ll be more than happy to help them out!
I live in SW Florida and I have mirror reflective windows to keep the heat out. For three years I have had 2 woodpeckers tap and fly against my windows for 12 hours a day. They are driving me nuts. I put moth balls in a suet basket to no avail. It worked for about
2 days. Any suggestions would be appreciated. The window frames are metal and the sills are concrete which they sit on while they peck. Bird poop completely covers two east side windows.
In this case I would advise placing an electronic woodpecker repellent outside of these windows. These particular woodpeckers clearly don’t seem to be frightened by reflective materials so I would try to target their sense of sound instead.
Please let us know how this works out!
Four years ago we had to replace the cedar siding on the entire north side of our house because the woodpeckers drilled holes between the wood where ??? mold/moss was growing. For 4 years we had no woodpeckers, but this year they are back with their friends and I can only assume it is because the moss is growing again. Can I spray these groves between the wood pieees to remove the moss or are they after something else? The peak of htis side is 2 1/2 stories off the ground and soooo difficult to reach. Many years ago we tried several owls on surrounding trees which did nothing, even with their heads which bobbed.
Before attempting something as dangerous and tedious as this, I would certainly experiment with other forms of woodpecker repellents such as Bird Repellent Discs. Many people find that these are able to solve their woodpecker problems. However, you may want to get them in the vicinity of the areas they are currently attacking.
Thanks for this great article about woodpeckers. A real eye opener for me.
But since we are talking birds do you perhaps also know a way how to get rid of bats.
I have a few bats at my house and I have to put a net under my gazebo other white thy sleep their every day and all the droppings is a problem.
Thanks,
Cees
Although it’s off-topic, I have dealt with this issue before. I recommended this product to a friend of mine and he swears by it to this day. Check out the reviews on Amazon, people tend to find it effective!