- Woodpeckers filled the walls with the tiny nuts after pecking holes
- The determined birds were still hanging around even after the pest control stopped
- Nick’s Extreme Pest Control’s Nick Castro said it was the “craziest” experience
A pest exterminator got more than he bargained for when he received a call claiming worms were coming out of a wall in a California home.
Nick Castro was stunned when he opened the wall and thousands of tiny acorns fell out.
A hungry woodpecker had tried to store the acorns in the chimney of the San Francisco estate.
The bird pecked holes in the chimney, put the nuts in them, but then lost them in the wall cavity.
But instead of stopping, the woodpecker continued to fill the walls with thousands of acorns.
When Castro cut into the wall at Nick’s Extreme Pest Control in California, the nuts fell to the ground.
Nick Castro was stunned when he opened a wall and thousands of tiny acorns fell out – after a hungry woodpecker tried to store them in the San Francisco estate’s chimney. The bird had pecked holes in the chimney and placed the nuts inside but then lost them within the wall cavity
He told The Dodo: “There were some worms that seemed to be coming out of the wall and the worms looked like maggots.
“Everyone kind of thought it was a dead animal in the wall. It was unreal.
“We see strange things all the time, but I’ve never seen anything like it. They came and came, non-stop.
“It was thought that acorns were only about a quarter of the way up the wall. As it turned out, they were stacked up to the attic of the house.
“The bird had completely destroyed the exterior of the house with the holes it had made. Acorns were stored on siding and moldings everywhere.’
His team measured that around eight 40-gallon garbage bags full of tiny nuts contained 700 pounds of acorns and stuffing.
Castro had to open four different holes in the walls to remove the acorns, which were covered with fiberglass insulation.
The process took hours before the acorns were loaded into a van and taken to the landfill.
Castro of Nick’s Extreme Pest Control in California cut into the wall and the nuts fell to the floor. His team measured that around eight 40-gallon garbage bags full of tiny nuts contained 700 pounds of acorns and stuffing, which Castro had to open four different holes in the walls to remove the acorns, which were covered in fiberglass insulation
Pest Control Chief Castro felt guilty for disposing of the birds’ hard-earned foot, adding that they had seen the birds overhead as they exited.
He said: “We actually saw him there when we were there to put more into the holes he created.
They were quite creative, so we knew exactly what they were doing.”
Castro added that the structure was sealed to keep the birds from getting back in, and encouraged the homeowner to install vinyl siding to prevent further damage.
