Sometimes things can get a bit crazy when you work for a pest control company. One California business recently got a call to visit a home in Sonoma County. The family called and said they had a pesky woodpecker that had decided their home would make a perfect storage site for its winter food supply. But what no one could know at first, was just how efficient at finding and storing food this particular woodpecker was.
Nick’s Extreme Pest Control arrived at the home, expecting a simple job. But when workers started inspecting the walls inside as well as outside of the home, they began to suspect that this particular job would take more than just a quick fix to solve the issue. And they weren’t wrong.
A woodpecker decided to use a family’s walls as storage space for it’s winter supply of acorns. Photo by Nick’s Extreme Pest Control
The homeowners had said the house had some damage from the pesky bird. The siding, Nick Castro said, had been damaged by holes the woodpecker had drilled into the siding.
Typically, Castro said, when the woodpecker will drill the hole, it then stores food, mostly acorns, into the space. Unfortunately this time for the bird, as well as the homeowners, the food wasn’t staying where the woodpecker had left it.
Instead, Castro found that the food was falling into empty spots inside the wall. He said he expected to find some acorns when they made the first cut into the wall inside the house.
But what he didn’t expect was what came next: An absolute explosion of thousands of acorns – 700 pounds worth, Castro told The Dodo.
A woodpecker decided to use a family’s walls as storage space for it’s winter supply of acorns. Photo by Nick’s Extreme Pest Control
The acorns just kept coming and coming, nonstop,” Castro said. “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.”
As Castro and the stunned employees continued making holes in the walls around the house, more and more acorns kept pouring out into the home. By the time they were done, it was enough to fill eight large trash bags.
I never saw anything like that before,” Castro said.
He said that they decided the best course would be to leave the woodpecker alone.
Workers closed up the holes, and Castro told the homeowner to add additional siding which would help the bird be on its way to finding a new spot for its food collection – one that doesn’t leave the homeowner living on top of piles of acorns.
