What are the health risks of having woodpeckers on my residential or commercial building?
A. Woodpeckers carry a variety of mites, ticks, fleas and other insects, especially woodpecker bugs. Woodpecker bugs are blood-sucking and known to bite humans and pets. The bugs access your home through tiny cracks from nest sites in the walls and end up in your beds or on the kitchen table. Remember, getting rid of woodpeckers must mean also getting rid of their nests and accompanying trash, or you will have in infestation of hungry insects looking for new hosts. Once a woodpecker opens hole in your building, it is an invitation for bats or starlings. These creatures bring their bugs and disease with them when they move into vacated woodpecker holes or nests. Also, while a typical infestation of woodpeckers involves, perhaps, 4 individuals, their followers, the starlings, quickly multiply to the hundreds. The noise created by woodpeckers leads to sleep difficulties, headaches, difficulty concentrating, a decrease in worker productivity and reduced morale due to stress. If your home i
