Nature's Extermintor

Liz and I were discussing woodpeckers. Why you may ask, well b/c that is what we do. We discuss any and all things that catch our interest. On this particular day she was working from home and took a break to gaze longingly at her backyard nature scene. She spied a woodpecker, peck peck pecking on one of her trees, took a picture and sent it my way (ain't technology grand?) I mentioned that she might not want to get too friendly with said woodpecker and relayed the agonizing tale of a friend who was repeatedly woken up around 6am by a Woody, pecking. Thankfully her bedroom is in the front of the house and the tree, currently being assaulted, is in the back of the house.

Then we got to talking (b/c this is what you do on IM all day long when you're so good/bored at your job it only takes up 25% of your brain power) about the chance of Woody redirecting his little pointy beak at the wood on her home. I assured her (despite any real knowledge of woodpecker habits) that a woodpecker wouldn't just randomly peck at any old wood. They only assail wood containing insects. She's smart and doesn't always take my word for things (by "doesn't always" I mean "mostly never") so we started a google search. What we discovered was that although it might be annoying to have a woodpecker pecking away at your wooden shingles or trim, it's probably a lot less annoying than having your house disintegrate due to unknown termite infestation.

So what is the lesson here? If there is a woodpecker pecking on your house and not on your trees you probably have bugs living in the lovely wood parts of your house. Or you need to plant some trees in your yard.

In case you were wondering, here is the woodpecker that prompted this post. . .