Snakes & Owls

One of the challenges of owning a mountain home (or any home for that matter) is keeping the woodpeckers from destroying it. Our house, like most of the others in the area, is composed almost entirely of wood. Naturally, the woodpeckers love us!  They are beautiful birds, but they can be quite destructive. Every fall we have to hire a man to come repair holes in the side of our house. Since we didn't want to keep pouring money into those holes, Keith went to the internet in search of a better solution. (Don't you just love the internet? You can find the answer for just about everything there!)

He discovered that woodpeckers don't like owls or snakes. Unfortunately, neither do I!  But wait!  They sell fake owls and snakes that are made specifically for deterring birds!  So off to Amazon I went. (Don't you just love Amazon?  You can buy just about anything there!)  

We started with one owl. We wanted to see if this would work before we committed to covering the house with fake birds. We put him on the side the woodpeckers seem to favor.  He's quite an amazing bird. He has a solar powered battery that rotates his head 360 degrees every few minutes. (Think Linda Blair in The Exorcist). Meet Hooty #1. 

Apparently, the movement convinced the woodpeckers that he was the real deal because they don't bother that side of the house anymore!  Unfortunately, the house has four sides, so the woodpeckers just moved to the back deck area. So much wood, so little time!  They seem to favor the shade so their new favorite spot is the wood support under the deck. This made the problem even more serious. I certainly wouldn't want to have the deck come tumbling down!  Especially if I was on it at the time! It was time to tackle the woodpecker problem head on!

We bought Hooty #2 to guard the deck. He's also a bobble headed, solar powered bird. 

 For complete house coverage, we added lots of snakes in key wooden areas. I must say, from a distance they look quite real!  Hopefully, this will solve our woodpecker problem. 

So if you come to visit us, be advised that the bears are real, but the snakes and owls are fake!