The most common woodpecker damage to houses occurs on houses sided with rough-sawn plywood siding. The woodpeckers damage the plywood siding by drilling a series of evenly-spaced holes through the face of the plywood in long, straight rows. In this situation, the woodpeckers are feeding on the larvae of leafcutter bees that have nested within the siding. This has been a moderately common problem on plywood sided houses throughout the U.S. for the past 15 years or more.
Damage is found in both rural and urban environments.
These gaps may extend all or part way across the plywood sheet. The discovery of nesting sites by these small to medium-sized bees is by a random search process that goes on throughout each spring and summer. The female leafcutter bees cut dime-sized, circular disks of foliage from nearby plants and use these to construct cells or chambers within the plywood gaps. One egg is laid in each cell. As each larva is consumed, the woodpecker moves slightly to one side and repeats the drilling to obtain the next larva.