Nick Castro, the owner of Nick’s Extreme Pest Control in California, has been in the pest control industry for over 20 years.
He has seen many bizarre things in his career, but recently he came across a discovery that left him stunned.
Castro was called to a house to deal with a woodpecker that was causing damage to the siding by storing acorns in the holes it created.
When he cut into the wall to remove the acorns, he was met with a never-ending stream of acorns pouring out.
“They just kept coming and coming, non-stop,” Castro told The Dodo.
“Acorns were thought to be only about a quarter of the way up the wall. Turned out, they were piled high up to the attic of the house.”
Castro opened more holes around the house, but the acorns kept spilling out, totalling around 320 kilograms, which ultimately filled eight large rubbish bags.
According to the pest controller, the bird had stored acorns all over the house, creating clear woodpecker holes everywhere.
“You would think this bird had stored food all over,” Castro said.
“The bird had completely destroyed the exterior of the house with the holes it had made. Acorns were stored all over siding and trim.”
Castro said that the bird was “crazy”.
“We actually saw him there when we were there putting more in the holes he created,” he said.
The bird had put acorns through the chimney stack after making hundreds of holes in the wood siding surrounding it, and then it came through the attic ventilation port holes.
“Acorns were piled from the lower floor to about 20 feet [six metres] up into the attic,” Castro said.
At Nick’s Extreme Pest Control, “All animals are handled humanely and never euthanised,” and this case was no exception.
The woodpecker was left alone, and the homeowners simply patched the holes outside the house.
It was hoped that adding new vinyl siding would encourage the bird to find a new place to store its food, which would ultimately be best for the bird, whose hard work finding acorns was going to waste.
“I never saw anything like that before,” Castro said.
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