In his 20 years of dealing with bugs, Nick Castro, owner of Nick’s Extreme Pest Control in California, has made a surprising discovery. He was called to a house to address a woodpecker-damaged wall, and then he saw a startling sight—an endless stream of acorns from the wall hole.
‘Crazy ‘ Bird
He has witnessed many strange occurrences in his profession, so the discovery astounded him. A woodpecker was storing acorns in the walls of a house, causing damage, so the homeowner called for him. Because the bird has access to plentiful food everywhere, woodpecker holes exist. The holes have nearly completely damaged the house’s façade.
Acorns were heaped from the first floor to the attic’s uppermost 20 feet or more. He encountered an endless stream of acorns when he cut into the wall to extract the nuts. Castro claimed that acorns never stopped sprouting.
Unexpectedly, he could gather almost 700 pounds of acorns—enough to fill eight huge trash bags. Acorns were piled high up into the house’s attic but were only believed to be roughly a fifth of the way up the wall.
After drilling countless holes in the wood siding surrounding the chimney stack with acorns, the bird flew via the attic ventilation port holes. Castro was there and saw the bird store food on the wall.
It was hoped that by installing new vinyl siding, the bird would be inspired to choose a new location to keep its food. This would be beneficial for the bird because all of its hard work searching for acorns was in vain.
Woodpeckers Cause Damage
Concrete or steel poles are used by some North American utilities. Hydro One still employs wood, but has recently started using composites in swampy places. It is in areas where woodpeckers are prevalent and in distant locations where the less weight makes installing composite poles much simpler.
The entire day is spent by woodpeckers drilling holes in tree trunks with their beaks to scavenge insects for food.
Researchers have speculated that the bone between the bird’s beak and braincase must absorb shocks to protect the brain from concussions because of the birds’ characteristic drumming and drilling.
However, a recent study contends that rather than functioning as a shock-absorbing device to protect the brain, their head and beak function as a firm hammer for the best pecking performance.
