ok figure this one out

[snowstorm]

when i got home today my boy asked what kind of animal would chew a hole in the roof. under the eves on the front of the house there is now a hole about 4" across it. and all the pieces of the pine board are on the deck. most are a 1/4 wide by an inch or so. with no teeth marks that i could see. the house has a double roof with Styrofoam and 11/2" air space. none of the eve vents are missing and the ridge vent looks fine. what do ya think??

[32vld]

Possum and Raccoon.

[32vld]

Unless if the house is a log cabin or timber frame. Then it's a Beaver!  :laugh:

[Reddog]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pileated_woodpecker

Would be my guess, based on your description.

[dsgsr]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pileated_woodpecker

Would be my guess, based on your description.

Yup, my guess would be the woodpecker, No teeth marks:)

David

[snowstorm]

yes its a log cabin. i am thinking its a grey squirrel. i did find some small claw marks and another hole way up high. there hasnt been a lot of squirrels since i made her stop feeding the birds. looks like its time for some bird seed and a pellet gun

[ely]

that or a yellow hammer woodpecker

[beenthere]

A pic would help....

[Holmes]

Does the hole go thru so an animal can enter? or just a woodpecker hole.  Flying squirrels will gnaw a hole.

[MJD]

I say woodpecker (Downy), I have 4 bluebird boxes and the added a extra entry hole on all the sides that had no hole. We know a couple who has a vacation cottage close to us and woodpeckers put holes in all the eve boards.

[Autocar]

Pine squirrel that's what happens when you cut his den tree  :D

[Ed_K]

 I'm with MJD, they leave scratch marks. I've had problems with them chewing on my sofit's on our log cabin.Their after some grubs.

[barbender]

I'm going with squirrel.

[Red Clay Hound]

I'd say squirrels also.  I used to have a house with cedar siding.  Squirrels chewed through the wooden gable vents to get into the attic.  Sounded like they were playing soccer up there! :D

[snowstorm]

the strange thing was the hole didnt look like they chewed it. more like they got there claws into the board and pulled it apart. its time to declare war 

[treeslayer2003]

fried squirrel is good

[beenthere]

the strange thing was the hole didnt look like they chewed it

Help us out with a pic or two. 

[thecfarm]

My bet is on one of those big woodpeckers.I have pictures of the silvers those birds can make.

[Southside]

Sons chemistry experiment gone bad?  I can recall a few "modified" chemistry projects that left a mark or two. 

[David-L]

Wood pecker going for grubs, ants. Had a Downy one time who got smart and would bang on the gutters to magnify the sound to make the girls think he was the big guy. I say that was pretty smart unless you were trying to sleep in. Sounded like rapid gun fire.

                       David l

[Ken]

Squirrels = rats with bushy tails.  I would think however that if is squirrels the hole(s) would only be big enough for them to get in and out.  Good luck

[HiTech]

To big for a squirrel. I would imagine it was a woodpecker of some species.

[BargeMonkey]

 I could send the wife's orange cat up fed-ex, he would have it resolved in 24-48hrs. Im waiting for it to drag home a fawn, hes cleaned the neighborhood of rabbits.  :D   have you ever seen what a porcupine does with T-1 11 plywood ? We have a customer who had the first 2-3' cleaned off the house, he was shooting 2-3 a day for a while.

[WmFritz]

Woodpeckers have my cedar siding punched full of holes. Only on the sunny sides though.  >:(

[snowstorm]

I could send the wife's orange cat up fed-ex, he would have it resolved in 24-48hrs. Im waiting for it to drag home a fawn, hes cleaned the neighborhood of rabbits.  :D   have you ever seen what a porcupine does with T-1 11 plywood ? We have a customer who had the first 2-3' cleaned off the house, he was shooting 2-3 a day for a while.

send him up. i could use him

[enigmaT120]

I have a local pileated woodpecker, but luckily he just bangs on my electrical transformer.  Noisy though.  My house has aluminum siding, maybe he doesn't know how easily he could peck through that.  Not noisy enough to suit him, I bet.

[terry f]

   Like thecfarm said, I've seen some large splinters from woodpeckers, but you have to love them.

[luvmexfood]

To me woodpeckers are sort of amazing in a way. We have some standing dead locust. We all know how hard they are. Some have holes you could easily put your whole fist in. How that beak holds up is amazing. Looks like that constant hammering against such hard wood would cause a massive headache. :D

[g_man]

Sounds like a pileated wood pecker to me too. I would check that roof structure out pretty close for carpenter ants. Back in the 70's I put a couple rooves on some log cabins per the recommendations of the time. Back then they didn't have the air space. Just Styrofoam laid on the ceiling boards then covered with plywood and shingled. After a couple years condensation in there they were full of rot and carpenter ants. A huge mess. There was a constant trail of ants going up and down the siding.
We fixed them by stripping everything and putting in an air space vented top and bottom like you have. So your probably OK but I would check. It was a mess I can never forget.

[beenthere]

This hole sounds related to rotten boards falling out. Would be easy to tell if the wood that came out was decayed, and pretty tough for woodpecker or squirrel to remove solid wood.

[snowstorm]

it was not rotten wood. no none. its a ward log cabin. and has 6' of over hang in the front. one hole was right up against one of the spruce purlins. so whatever did it had to do it while being pretty much upside down. stand on the deck and look up thats where they are

[SliverPicker]

Woodpecker.  My soffits look like swiss cheese from the blighters.

[SwampDonkey]

No idea myself, but I have seen grey squirrels make holes in house eves. When I lived in the city, I saw a grey squirrel make residence in one hole and on the other side was a family of pigeons using another hole.  ;D