Santa Rosa: When Nick’s Extreme Pest Control owner Nick Castro received a call about an insect problem at a Santa Rosa, California, home, the pest control technician figured a dead animal was stuck inside a wall.
When he cut a hole in the wall to find it, however, Castro saw something he’d never seen in more than 20 years in the business.
Thousands of acorns spilled out of the wall, and more appeared whenever Castro stuck his hand into the hole. He discovered woodpeckers had stored tens of thousands of acorns, which weighed about 308kg, in a wall cavity.
“I was just kind of shocked and just wondering when it was going to end,” said Castro, 42. “We really expected maybe a couple handfuls of it, at most, but nothing like that. There’s no way you can even account for that.”
“You can say this bird was a little bit of a pack rat,” Castro said.
Castro carved four holes to unleash the acorns, which he said filled eight garbage bags. As Castro and his crew carried the bags to their truck, they noticed woodpeckers and acorns scattered outside the house.
The birds had pecked hundreds of holes on the chimney stack, where Castro said he believes they stashed and snacked on acorns for two to five years. - The Washington Post
The Independent on Saturday