I think it is hopeless. I have had a couple peck holes but nothing major. I think they have discovered all the big trees on my property. I saw a couple pecking away at one of my trees and haven't seen them at my house recently.

do you have a bunch of carpenter bees around? they "drill" a hole into the wood and then lay their eggs in there. the WP hears the larvae squirming around and digs out trenches to get to them. we had them bad until we took care fo the carpenter bees.

I feel your pain. We had the same problem. It got so bad that I contacted the audobon society to ask what I could do. The first thing they told me was "it is illegal to kill a woodpecker" DARN!!!! We purchased something called bird-x. It is a recording of animal noises that keeps the woodpeckers away. It is loud, obnoxius, and expensive but it did the trick. As a matter of fact, the audabon society told me to tent my house. Yeah, right 3800 sq feet house and they want me to tent it....next they told me to hang aluminum foil strips along the roof line and it would scare them. My neighbors would have loved that in my gated community! OY. I know that bird-x is expensive, but it really did work.

Also, someone told us to put poison inside the old holes with peanut butter....but we did not do that...but you may want to ;)
Good luck to you.

scoutjr, I can feel your pain! My DH & I just moved in to our newly built EFIS house 2 weeks ago and a woodpecker has punched 3 holes into my front columns. The local exterminator told me the pecker is doing it as a territorial sign because of the sound he makes while pecking.

We bought this stupid inflatable balloon thingy with dangly strings that flutter in the wind, suppose to scare him off, but he just roosted on the opposite side and pecked a huge hole there.

Thanks for the suggestion of the bird-x, we're going to look in to that!

Had the same problem, tried all the usual stuff , even bought one of the ultra sonic things, no help. Bought a cheap pellet gun, problem solved.