Woody the Woodpecker Comes to Call

One afternoon, very early in our trip out west, I received a text from my friend Sara, who was checking on Skye and Kensi back at home. Just receiving a text from her sent me into a panic. The opening lines of it did little to calm my nerves.

I don’t know if you can receive texts or if they cost extra, but I figured it was the fastest and easiest way to reach you…

Oh, my God.

The kitties are fine…

Phew!

But what do I do about the woodpecker???

To which I texted back, “WHAT WOODPECKER?”

I was picturing Woody loose in my house with the cats trashing the place trying to catch the laughing little fool.

http://youtu.be/5Xan2dkMouM

Sara assured me the woodpecker was on the OUTSIDE of the house, so I didn’t think much more about it. We’ve had them drum on our log house before from time to time.

I put the whole woodpecker issue out of my mind. Until the morning after we returned home. Then I took a stroll around the house…and nearly fainted.

We’ve battled bore bees AKA carpenter bees for years. The large, but stinger-less insects drill perfect little holes in our logs and lay their eggs. During our absence, a pair of woodpeckers discovered the bee larvae smorgasbord and turned those little holes into BIG GAPING holes.

Over the next several days, I heard them out there rat-a-tat-tatting on my house. I’d chase them away. They’d fly to another corner of the house. I’d run after them. Three or four laps around the house later, they would either fly off into the woods in a huff, or they’d fly into the trees across the road and sit there scolding me.

I used to like woodpeckers.

Hubby tried to scare them away with mouse traps. 

No, we never planned on catching one. But we figures the drumming would set off the trap. The snap would scare off the woodpeckers. No such luck. They just moved to another bore bee hole. By the way, the reddish stuff you might see on the holes? Hot sauce. We tried everything to discourage the winged beasts.

The only option (legal option, at least) we had open to us was to bring in an exterminator to treat the house for the bees. No larvae, no smorgasbord, woodpeckers move on.

And I think it’s worked. I haven’t seen them back for a few days. I did hear them in our big maple the other day, squawking. I guess they weren’t happy that their favorite fast food joint went out of business.