What Do Woodpeckers Eat? Attracting Woodpeckers With Food! Wood-boring insects, larvae, spiders, ants, beetles, you name it – if it’s an arthropod and is nestled within a tree trunk, it’s most likely on a woodpecker’s menu. Besides, they also have a taste for tree sap, fruit, nuts, and seeds – especially during winter when bugs are hard to come by. Ever heard that distinctive ‘tap-tap-tap’ and wondered, “what on earth do woodpeckers eat that they’re so relentlessly hammering away at