Im-peck-able hoarding: Woodpecker stores 700 pounds of acorns in walls of Calif. home

Unlike Woody Woodpecker, this bird probably didn’t laugh when its hoard was discovered.

What appeared to be a routine house call for one Santa Rosa, Calif., pest control company turned into something never before seen when 700 pounds of acorns were discovered inside the walls of a residential home.

When Nick Castro of Nick’s Extreme Pest Control cut into the wall, a flood of acorns spilled out and covered the floors.

Castro shared photos of the acorn avalanche on Facebook, where he called the situation “unreal.”

Castro said a woodpecker stashed the acorns. He claimed the exterior of his client’s home was “completely destroyed” and covered in “clear woodpecker holes.”

“The bird put acorns through the chimney stack after making 100s of holes in wood siding surrounding it,” Castro wrote. “He came through attic ventilation port holes.”

Castro added that the bird also stored acorns all over the home’s siding and trim.

He said the “crazy” woodpecker was seen stuffing even more acorns in holes while he worked to remove the existing nuts.

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The acorns filled eight large garbage bags and weighed 700 pounds, according to Castro.

“Bird was a bit of a hoarder,” he wrote. “Never came across something like this.”

Castro said the home’s residents noticed something was wrong with the property when they spotted “little worms coming out of the wall that looked like maggots.” The maggots turned out to be mealworms apparently feasting on the hoard of a lifetime.

Castro told CNN he believed the nuts were stashed by a pair of aptly named acorn woodpeckers. He believes the hoard is two to five years old.

“On a scale from one to 10, this is a 10. It’s a one-in-a-million chance to find something this significant,” Castro told CNN. “I expected to find a few handfuls, nothing like this.”

It took three employees a full day to remove the acorns. The nuts had to be disposed of because they were covered in bits of fibreglass from the destroyed insulation.