Are you or your clients battling with some kind of wildlife critter? There are ways to fix these pesky problems. Call in the professionals!
My husband and I recently bought a house and inherited a most unusual problem. AND of course, the problem arrived, so to speak, literally days after we had the house inspected. I don’t think it would have affected our decision to purchase the house (hmmmm…) but I wonder how we would have handled it nonetheless.
Just a few days after closing, I took a coworker by to show her the house. We were inside walking from room to room, when I heard this knock, knock, tap, tap, tap. We stopped. She looked at me and said immediately, “You have a woodpecker!” What? We went outside to the back deck to investigate. We had scared the little red-headed bird away, but we easily found where he’d left his mark. A hole the size of a golf ball in the siding around an upper floor window! There were also wood chips on the deck below the window. What the …?
We took a few weeks to do a little work to our house and move in. I would go inside and stand quietly by the back door. Sure enough, each time: knock, knock, tap, tap tap. I would rush out the door just in time to see woody-woodpecker fly off. His bright red head turning back to look at me, probably humming his “Woody Woodpecker” song.
I searched Google for any information I could find about woodpeckers. It seems they peck for two reasons: 1) to attract a mate and 2) to get at insects. I kept praying that this little guy was pecking for his future wife – please! I called numerous people and places to try to find help. Finally, I found someone (a wildlife specialist) who specifically deals with all wildlife (squirrels, raccoons, rabbits, moles, woodpeckers and more critters). By the way, he covers the South Puget Sound area.
After his inspection of the now numerous holes in the side of my house, he concluded that there didn’t seem to be any insects and that the little guy must be pecking out of loneliness. (That is a CD in the upper middle tacked on the the wood.) Could I sign him up for a woodpecker dating service? Anyway, his suggested solution was to install giant spiders that hang from the eaves and are motion activated. When the woodpecker lands and starts to tap, tap, the spider drops down and then crawls its way back up the string it hangs from (they operate on a battery). This, supposedly, will scare Mr. Woodpecker away.
Okay, we installed the mechanical spiders; four big black hairy things are now hanging from the eaves of our house. Guess what? I haven’t seen that woodpecker show up even once. I think the mating season is over. So we still don’t know if the spiders actually work!
All in all, they have provided some good entertainment value. Right after they were installed, my husband went out on the back deck and threw down an ice bag to break it up. Well, it set off the spiders and he, forgetting they were there, just about jumped out of his skin! So for the next month, ANYONE who came over was fair game. My husband would say, “Hey, come out and see this. We’ve got a big spider problem here.” Then as soon as they would get out the door, he would clap his hands and down the spiders would drop. He got the biggest kick out of that. I keep imagining that woodpecker sitting in a nearby tree laughing his little red head off.
Now I just need to figure out what to do about the mole that’s making funny dirt piles in my yard. Call in the professional!
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