Woodpecker Question

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What is doing more harm to my trees, the insects inside or the woodpeckers looking to eat the insects?

Should I shoot the wood peckers? Is that legal?

[Tom7227]

Don't know. No. Yes.

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I should add that my lot is very heavily wooded with 75' trees, I cut down a few that were dead and starting to hang towards the house, after I cut them up I noticed that the insides were sawdust for the first 15 feet or so and they had a bunch of what looked like grubs in there. It seems like the Popples are the dinner of choice..

[B. Amish]

the woodepeckers wouldn't be there if there wasn't anything to eat.

trees get old, insects move in, they die, insects feed woodpeckers, woodpeckers make cavaites, other birds use cavaties to nest in... the whole circle of life thing.

[deerminator]

Actually, federal law prohibits killing woodpeckers and other non-game migratory birds. That said, my dad did it when I was a young child. A few were decimating our Austrian pines but he took care of them. I say this now because he has passed on so no possibility of prosecution. I remember putting one in the freezer after he had shot it and when he found it, he asked what I was planning to do with it. I told him I was planning to bring it to show and tell at school and you could imagine I got chewed out pretty good on that one. A fond memory now, though. Not of a dead woodpecker of a kid callind dad on something he shouldn't have done!

I wonder if you couldn't put out lots of suet feeders and see if they go after that instead. And if you have a lot of trees and they off a few over the years, what's the harm?

[10,000 Casts]

the harm would be the tree falling on my house. I already had a tree come down and it missed the house but it hit my grill on my deck.

I thought about the suet feeders but I was thinking that it would just attract more woodpeckers.

[Steve Foss]

the harm would be the tree falling on my house. I already had a tree come down and it missed the house but it hit my grill on my deck.

I thought about the suet feeders but I was thinking that it would just attract more woodpeckers.

If the woodpeckers are drilling into those trees, they're already heavily infested with some type of insect/grub and are on their way toward dying. I'm not sure if all the trees in question are aspen, but even healthy mature aspen are prone to shearing off in strong winds, and once they start rotting or getting hollowed by insects, they are a homeowner's nightmare.

Now, I'm a bird guy, as well as a homeowner and chainsawyer, so in your situation I'd satisfy all three needs by cutting down any weak/dying trees within reach of the house and leaving others farther out so the natural succession of things still goes on around you.

Just the way I'd do it.