“I never saw anything like that before.”
Despite operating Nick’s Extreme Pest Control in California for more than 20 years, Nick Castro has never before come across anything quite like this.
A shocking discovery of epic proportions had been made.
Recently, Castro was called out to a house that had been experiencing damage from a local woodpecker. The bird, as they’re wont to do, had taken to creating holes in the home’s siding — holes in which to store food for later eating.
In this case, that food was mostly acorns. But unfortunately for all involved, the acorns weren’t staying put. Instead, they were falling into the empty cavities inside the walls.
Castro knew he’d find some acorns as he cut into the wall to dig them out. But what he wasn’t expecting was this:
What began as a steady stream of acorns from the hole Castro had cut soon grew to a literal deluge.
It was nuts.
“They just kept coming and coming, nonstop,” 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, and acorns kept flowing.
Amazingly, all told, around 700 pounds of acorns spilled out. It was enough to fill eight large trash bags.
“I never saw anything like that before,” Castro said.
The woodpecker had been busy. Very busy.
According to Nick’s Extreme Pest Control’s policy, “All animals are handled humanely and NEVER euthanized.” And this case was no different.
They let the woodpecker be and simply patched up the holes she’d made outside the house. The addition of some new vinyl siding by the homeowner should be enough to encourage her to find a new place to store her food.
And in the end, that’s the best thing for the bird. After all, her hard work finding acorns had been going for naught.
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