Don't know where you live, but the principles are the same everywhere.

See the link below ...

Here is a link that might be useful: living w/ wildlife - woodpeckers

cakbu, I know very little about birds but it made sense when I was told that woodpeckers do not damage wood by feeding on it; but they peck at wood to flush out insects which they suspect of living therein.

True that they don't feed on it.
But when pounding out their mating messages, or attempting to make a nest in the "dead" wood, they can make sizable holes.

Can you ID the species of woodpecker? They tend to be pretty distinctive looking and there can be different behaviors; perhaps yours is a seasonal visitor and temporarily covering up his pecking spot will be good enough.

This sounds like a flicker. We have fought them for 30 years. They like to put holes in the side of the house, usually up and under an eave, but they can peck elsewhere. One of the space shuttle launches was delayed because of flicker damage to tank insulation; future launches took active measures to keep them away. We put up a metal mesh over the outside walls where the flickers want to put their holes. Sometimes even the mesh will not deter them from pecking, but it does protect the wall. If mesh is not an option, I usually put tanglefoot in the area of the hole, and wherever the bird perches. This is a quite effective treatment; the tanglefoot is pretty colorless, and does not leave a mess. You can tell it is working because you will see a few feathers in it. Our extension office recommends hanging rat traps. I bait them with a piece of apple and peanut butter. Interestingly enough, we have never caught a flicker in these traps, but they do appear to give the rascals a good scare, and have discouraged them. I encourage you to get them off the house. The holes can become quite large, and serve as nesting sites for birds and other animals.
Renais

Rat traps for a flicker, recommended by an extension office? I am involved with an EO office and never heard of such a thing. How about a woodpecker house to help roosting instead of rat traps. If you can stand it hang something glittery (old CD's) to frighten them away instead of tanglefoot and traps. Golly.

Extension offices need to follow pretty strict rules on what can be recommended. So, their recommendations need to be based on some well-trusted source like university research. See the link for the four university (Cornell, Utah State, Clemson and Nebraska) fact sheet on control. This looks like what I've seen in the past in printed form for us. An extension office which does not have to deal often with this problem could probably safely use the material linked for clients who inquired. Note that the rat traps are really a scare measure, and we've never seen a bird trapped. The action of the trap does seem to be an effective deterrent. Flickers are a very significant pest in our area. They lead to very expensive house damage, and open the way for many other pests to enter, as well as allowing rain and snow to come in. Telephone poles and similar structures are damaged regularly. They are not deterred by glittering materials or noise makers. I have stood and thrown sticks at them, and it takes a lot of effort to get them to even move away from a hole. I can stand and spray water at them and they just look at me. Tangletrap is indeed effective in deterring damage, and does not harm the bird. There really are not other effective methods that impact the birds less. Roosting boxes are strongly discouraged here; there are already many roosting sites, and boxes are thought to just encourage a greater population density.
Renais

Here is a link that might be useful: Flicker control

I had a similar problem. I was told that a repellant wouldn't work, because the woodpecker would just move over, which made sense to me. But the alternative to the $275 professionally applied repellant (that they painted on with a brush) was $8k for woodpecker-proof replacement boards.

So I gave it a try.

The woodpecker left after the repellant and has not returnedâ¦

By the way, there is a LOT of helpful info on woodpeckers in this forum. google "gardenweb woodpeckers"