Homeowner question -- what critter is eating my eaves?

For the second year in a row, something has chewed a hole in the eaves in the side of my house. Last year the holes didn’t go all the way through – they were maybe 1/2 inch in diameter and the edges of the eave near the holes were chewed. With some difficulty, I got close enough to examine the damage. The wood didn’t appear rotted or insect infested so I puttied it over and restained. In the last day or two it happened again. This time it looks like the hole went entirely through the board. More damage at the edges of the eave as well. I’ve examined the hole with binoculars – haven’t seen anything flying (or crawling) in and out yet.

This is in New England, a 140 year old house. No known current insect infestations. No evidence of leaks in the roof near the damage. On the inside of the house there’s a massive beam so I can’t examine damage from there.

Has anyone encountered anything like this? My best theory is a woodpecker (although I haven’t heard nor seen one.) If so, would this imply an insect infestation? Next theory is something like a carpenter bee, but it seems like a lot of damage in a short time for an insect.

Sounds like you have carpenter bees. I’m dealing with the same problem. Damn things have chewed at least two dozen holes in our house this year.

Does the hole look anything like Acute Pest Control - Hole exhibit?

Kind of a funky looking bee if you look at the first picture.

Hmmmm. Doesn’t really look like the carpenter bee hole. It’s more tapered, wide on the outside tapering towards the inside. And there’s a lot of damage to the bottome of the trim (eave is kind of a misnomer because it’s the side of the house, so it just has a board for trim). The damage to the bottom of the trim makes me favor about the woodpecker hypothesis because it seems like the damage that talons might do while it pecks at the trim. Still, I’ll keep watching it and see if I can detect bees.

(This might be one of those rare non-prurient uses for an X10-Cam -- I could set it up with a motion detector to 

monitor the trim. )

I’ve got them and the tell-tale signs are the wood flakes (not sawdust obviously but looks like it).

Now how do you get rid of the critters?