infiniteMPG wrote:
A week ago we were leaving for a hike and head a banging on the far
end of the house. Running around I saw a large red headed wood pecker
flying away from the gable part of the side of the house. The house
is a block house with wooden paneling above the stucco. The wood
pecker had damaged several areas of the wood and in one spot you could
see the foil insulation. I sprayed the whole end with bug spray
thinking he was after potential bugs in the wood. This past weekend I
heard him again and went around to find he had managed a fairly decent
hole in the paneling. We are planning a replacement on all the
paneling so not overly concerned about his handiwork except we don’t
want it to get worse.

Patched the hole from the inside with a piece of shelving board I had
sitting around. Today I checked to see what was going on only to find
he had torn right thru the shelving board and re-opened the hole.
Seeing this I’m pretty sure he’s looking for nesting spots and not
looking for bugs. So today I replaced the shelving board with a heavy
piece of 3/4" plywood and I sprayed it with oven cleaner hoping the
chemical smell might dissuade him from continuing his quest but I
doubt it.

How do you get rid of a pest like this? I am about to snag a pellet
gun from a neighbor and take care of things myself but being a nature
lover I am not really wanting take that route. Any suggestions would
be greatly appreciated.

I dunno, but I have a question: Why would "HE" be trying to build a nest? In
the middle of winter?

Now "HE" might be trying to "mark" his territory by making woodpecker-noise,
but a nest?