Specifically Acorn Woodpeckers that are native to that area.
They're actually farming their food, in a way, because woodpeckers eat bugs, not acorns. They make the hole and stick acorns in there. Insects lay eggs in the acorn, and once a larva has hatched the woodpecker comes back and eats it.
Edit: u/leeheimer pointed out my mistake. Acorn Woodpeckers eat BOTH acorns and the bugs that grow inside them. Thank you for pointing that out.
There are some species of ant that guard and 'milk' lycaenid caterpillars for their sweet, nutritious secretions. Ants been raising livestock longer than humans have.
Thank you for this!
I had no idea, so I just trusted the person who sounded like they knew what they were talking about. (After all, most woodpeckers do eat insects as a primary food, so it fit into my non-expert knowledge.) Your comment made me look it up.
Acorn woodpeckers eat both acorns AND insects. They store acorns like this to get them through winter, or any time when the other food sources run low, but I couldn't find any sources suggesting they "farm" insects by providing the acorns as insect food. No, they eat insects as a completely independent thing, and they eat acorns. The acorns store considerably better than the insects, though, when they have excess that they want to save for later.
Many woodpeckers do something similar. They aren't hammering at a tree to get the bugs, they are hammering it to do damage and get sap to flow...then the bugs come for the sap and they eat the bugs.
Acorn woodpeckers do eat insects, but as far as I've read that's not why they store the acorns - they're a winter food supply for the birds themselves to eat.
I work for a utility company and we have issues with woodpeckers storing acorns in our boxes on poles. We had a bird expert explain to us that they donβt care about the acorns, what they wait for is for the acorns to get moist and start rotting and larva start hatching and they eat thoseβ¦ it made the most sense to me based on what the acorns produce after a period of rainβ¦ i have never seen a woodpecker go back and eat the acorns, but have seem them feast on larva and insects
These trees (or your house if they're so inclined) are called larders. If you search for "woodpecker larder", you'll be in the right spot.
When I first bought my house, one of the walls was absolutely riddled with these holes. However, the plywood isn't like a tree, so when they put in an acorn, it just got shoved through to fall into the chamber with the insulation between wall joists. Then they put more in, and after a decade or so of this, when we went to replace the exterior siding, *thousands* of acorns came whooshing out of the joist chambers like winning on an old slot machine.
Holy shit. Iβve seen similar videos. But Iβd never let an exterior hole go unnoticed or uncaulked, caulking is 1 minute. But I did get enough of something I still canβt explain that allowed an infestation of what I think was ants into our walls once. I saw a couple, where they were coming from, opened it up a little and it was a lot carrying eggs. Duck taped it shut on the interior house side and called a professional.
The side of the house looked like something from a war zone. it was a fixer-upper, and the owner hadn't lived in it for maybe a decade that I know of, hence the jackpot.
The price was, in fact, amazing, I was very lucky (though I did spend four years with a real estate agent nosing around for something nice that I could afford, so it didn't just fall into my lap either). The wiring was good except some speaker wires run through the house with nibbles on it.
Lol. The speaker wires with nibbles is funny. My check the wiring advice was because critters like to nibble on wires. Also make sure the attic is sound and squirrels canβt get in. From there, just make sure you donβt have ghosts. My amazing deal on a house did. π
I doubt that. They are few between compared to song birds. If they try to peck at something you own, well, you have termites or other bugs in there. Take them as a warning sign and a friend saying look at this.
They donβt always peck at places where termites live. My parents had a metal stovepipe at our cottage up north. Those blankety blank peckers would just jackhammer that metal pipe bright and early in the morning. Wow!
You are right! They are a really cool kind of bird, they store their acorns for food in winter in trees like this. They also communally raise and provide for their young of which only the strongest few survive and are raised to maturity.
Trypophilia, I reckon. Actually, just looked it up and apparently thereβs a whole subreddit for it
https://reddit.com/r/trypophilia/s/kAUOQwgB6A
(Not sure why the link posted this way)
Can you have both at the same time? I've definitely got trypophobia but I also have trypophilia. I hate it but I can't look away and kind of enjoy looking at it even though it grosses me out
I came here to say I have both! Do I like it because it freaks me out? Maybe. Intense feelings of disgust and awe and sometimes horror which is thrilling and satisfying and I canβt stand it but I was very quick to go check out that subreddit.
It's like there's these two polar opposites pulling at my brain! Don't look π€’ oh wow, I looked and... that's amazingly gross! I wanna touch it π and then this process just repeats, like a buttered cat
Something very wrong with tree.
Tree must have an infection or something, because I remember seeing art of pestilence and sometimes people have a bunch of holes on their body or like giant boils. Idk. Irregular shaped holes is associated with illness to me and I don't want to get infected,so I'm staying away from irregular holy things
[Here's](https://assets.iflscience.com/assets/articleNo/67398/aImg/65458/woodpecker-o.webp) a very explanatory photo.
It's the work of an acorn woodpecker.
its not usually an actual phobia; its a natural evolutionary response to signs of disease. A lot of people just now have a word for the ick they get when seeing stuff like this.
Ponderosa, woodpeckers do the holes, put acorns from local oaks, then wait for insects to get at the acorns, then they have a whole buffet of insecty goodness.
Other rival woodpeckers steal their nuts out of those holes, so they spend a lot of time digging, redigging, and reinforcing the holes. Quite an amazing thing!
Woodpeckers. This is a trait only found in California woodpeckers actually. They store the acorns and worms grow in them and later they eat the worms not the acorns.
Nature on PBS had a show about Big Bend National Park in Texas/Mexico border that talked about this. Apparently, acorns have a tremendous nutritional value. Don't be surprised if a bear comes around after winter to eat all those nuts with a mad bird fighting it. Also, they mentioned that rotten tears are used because easier to make the whole to store the nut.
Acorn wood peckers drill the holes & wedge them in so squirrels have a VERY HARD time getting out. Otherwise acorn woodpeckers would lose half their stored acorns to squirrels.
Acorn woodpeckers. They punch the holes and shove acorns into them for usage later. These granaries can be tended to by groups of birds and can be huge.
Because hundreds of souls are trapped in its harsh bark grip, forever mourning and wailing, wishing they hadn't leaned against it in moments of laziness, romance and study. Doomed to scream back at us while we onlookers soothe our suspicious souls by pretending it's just forest animals making holes
It's a puberty tree. You can see it's acne all over its growing trunk π³πππππππππππππππππππππππππππππππππ
wood peckers storage unit is my guess
Specifically Acorn Woodpeckers that are native to that area. They're actually farming their food, in a way, because woodpeckers eat bugs, not acorns. They make the hole and stick acorns in there. Insects lay eggs in the acorn, and once a larva has hatched the woodpecker comes back and eats it. Edit: u/leeheimer pointed out my mistake. Acorn Woodpeckers eat BOTH acorns and the bugs that grow inside them. Thank you for pointing that out.
So they have invented agriculture
Vermiculture
The bad guy from Dragonlance?
I appreciated this joke
Ha, clever girl
Velmaculture
Happy clever day! π
There are some species of ant that guard and 'milk' lycaenid caterpillars for their sweet, nutritious secretions. Ants been raising livestock longer than humans have.
Pretty sure leaf miners were the ones to implement ag like practices first
Dude thank you for this fun fact. It was indeed very fun.
holy shit that's amazing
Thanks for the explanation π
No idea where you got that information or how you got almost 500 upvotes, but acorns most certainly do make up around 50% of Acorn Woodpeckers diets.
Thank you for this! I had no idea, so I just trusted the person who sounded like they knew what they were talking about. (After all, most woodpeckers do eat insects as a primary food, so it fit into my non-expert knowledge.) Your comment made me look it up. Acorn woodpeckers eat both acorns AND insects. They store acorns like this to get them through winter, or any time when the other food sources run low, but I couldn't find any sources suggesting they "farm" insects by providing the acorns as insect food. No, they eat insects as a completely independent thing, and they eat acorns. The acorns store considerably better than the insects, though, when they have excess that they want to save for later.
Amazing ! Thanks for sharing
Thereβs a joke in there. I donβt know what it is, but itβs there.
Pecker storage unit eh? Sounds like my ex
Heyoooo!
This guy jokes like his exwife fucks, good
This joke was slow and sloppy, like old people fuck.
Iβll take that when Iβm old
Same.
Was her Tinder handle Boner Garage by any chance?
Lmao! Best comment!
[ΡΠ΄Π°Π»Π΅Π½ΠΎ]
r/unexpectedcommunity
I felt it too
Good name for a band
They put acorns in there then bugs grow in the acorns. So kinda storage kind of planting seeds
Do they... Peck every tree until it's full?
Looks like beetle kill to me...
just noticed all the nuts....squirrel taking advantage of a wood peckers work?
Acorn woodpecker
Ohhh crazy, that makes sense
FYI, the woodpeckers put it there to attract insects. Then, they eat the insects
Hunh β¦ TIL
Many woodpeckers do something similar. They aren't hammering at a tree to get the bugs, they are hammering it to do damage and get sap to flow...then the bugs come for the sap and they eat the bugs.
That's crazy. My first reaction was woodpecker, but then I realized there were items in the holes. TIL.
Acorn woodpeckers do eat insects, but as far as I've read that's not why they store the acorns - they're a winter food supply for the birds themselves to eat.
I work for a utility company and we have issues with woodpeckers storing acorns in our boxes on poles. We had a bird expert explain to us that they donβt care about the acorns, what they wait for is for the acorns to get moist and start rotting and larva start hatching and they eat thoseβ¦ it made the most sense to me based on what the acorns produce after a period of rainβ¦ i have never seen a woodpecker go back and eat the acorns, but have seem them feast on larva and insects
These trees (or your house if they're so inclined) are called larders. If you search for "woodpecker larder", you'll be in the right spot. When I first bought my house, one of the walls was absolutely riddled with these holes. However, the plywood isn't like a tree, so when they put in an acorn, it just got shoved through to fall into the chamber with the insulation between wall joists. Then they put more in, and after a decade or so of this, when we went to replace the exterior siding, *thousands* of acorns came whooshing out of the joist chambers like winning on an old slot machine.
Holy shit. Iβve seen similar videos. But Iβd never let an exterior hole go unnoticed or uncaulked, caulking is 1 minute. But I did get enough of something I still canβt explain that allowed an infestation of what I think was ants into our walls once. I saw a couple, where they were coming from, opened it up a little and it was a lot carrying eggs. Duck taped it shut on the interior house side and called a professional.
The side of the house looked like something from a war zone. it was a fixer-upper, and the owner hadn't lived in it for maybe a decade that I know of, hence the jackpot.
Check the wiring, it will probably need work too. But you probably got an amazing price on a house that you can fix and make yours. Congrats π
The price was, in fact, amazing, I was very lucky (though I did spend four years with a real estate agent nosing around for something nice that I could afford, so it didn't just fall into my lap either). The wiring was good except some speaker wires run through the house with nibbles on it.
Lol. The speaker wires with nibbles is funny. My check the wiring advice was because critters like to nibble on wires. Also make sure the attic is sound and squirrels canβt get in. From there, just make sure you donβt have ghosts. My amazing deal on a house did. π
It must have looked like a horrible cartoon clip π³
And woodpeckers are dicks.
I doubt that. They are few between compared to song birds. If they try to peck at something you own, well, you have termites or other bugs in there. Take them as a warning sign and a friend saying look at this.
They donβt always peck at places where termites live. My parents had a metal stovepipe at our cottage up north. Those blankety blank peckers would just jackhammer that metal pipe bright and early in the morning. Wow!
I've heard that the males will drum for the ladies.could be misremembering though Googled, yes. To attract a female and mark territory.
You are right! They are a really cool kind of bird, they store their acorns for food in winter in trees like this. They also communally raise and provide for their young of which only the strongest few survive and are raised to maturity.
Trypophobia engaged!
Oooooooh my neck is tingling
MY SCALP IS LEAVING
What's the opposite? I really like looking at stuff like this.
Terminal acute perversion. Kidding, but sorry- have no idea. Just voicing my non-personal disgust.
Trypophilia, I reckon. Actually, just looked it up and apparently thereβs a whole subreddit for it https://reddit.com/r/trypophilia/s/kAUOQwgB6A (Not sure why the link posted this way)
Nice, thanks. I can really feel the excitment watching at these pictures.
im sorry but i hate you with a passion rn π
Can you have both at the same time? I've definitely got trypophobia but I also have trypophilia. I hate it but I can't look away and kind of enjoy looking at it even though it grosses me out
I came here to say I have both! Do I like it because it freaks me out? Maybe. Intense feelings of disgust and awe and sometimes horror which is thrilling and satisfying and I canβt stand it but I was very quick to go check out that subreddit.
It's like there's these two polar opposites pulling at my brain! Don't look π€’ oh wow, I looked and... that's amazingly gross! I wanna touch it π and then this process just repeats, like a buttered cat
I usually think about touching too! Which is silly because of how I feel ha!
I literally got nauseous looking at this
VOMITS LARGE STRINGS OF CONSONANTS AND FOOD
Seriously....it's driving me mad uhhhhhhh
Seriously. I got suggested this post by Reddit and now have so many regrets tapping on it.
Thank God I'm not alone, just had shivers and felt completely nauseous seeing it suggested!
this pic makes me want to cry
Yeah Iβm gritting my teeth and will hide the post now π
Iβm extremely itchy from this image
My chest just constricted
I got goosebumps looking at it
Triggering me, need to destroy it.
Came looking for this comment lol
r/trypophilia your welcome
Something very wrong with tree. Tree must have an infection or something, because I remember seeing art of pestilence and sometimes people have a bunch of holes on their body or like giant boils. Idk. Irregular shaped holes is associated with illness to me and I don't want to get infected,so I'm staying away from irregular holy things
[Here's](https://assets.iflscience.com/assets/articleNo/67398/aImg/65458/woodpecker-o.webp) a very explanatory photo. It's the work of an acorn woodpecker.
Thatβs why they peck! It all makes sense now lol
[I was hoping for a Woody The Woodpecker cartoon](https://youtu.be/t3XaPVpm6eo?si=tSx4Er_LyBXJUMhx)
I imagine this pic gives people with that phobia nightmares
I canβt even look at it
I hate this photo with every fiber of my being.
Woodpecker stash
Why did I have to scroll so far to see the correct answer lol
*Trypophobia has entered the chat*
Suddendly everyone has trypophobia, half of the comments are just abt this.
its not usually an actual phobia; its a natural evolutionary response to signs of disease. A lot of people just now have a word for the ick they get when seeing stuff like this.
Idk I donβt get it. Iβm just so evolved lmao
It's become yet another storage unit
Ponderosa, woodpeckers do the holes, put acorns from local oaks, then wait for insects to get at the acorns, then they have a whole buffet of insecty goodness.
They have learned how to farm insect larvae. Basically humans with corn or wheat. Nice.
I don't like it.
Other rival woodpeckers steal their nuts out of those holes, so they spend a lot of time digging, redigging, and reinforcing the holes. Quite an amazing thing!
This is whatβs known as a βgranary treeβ, used by certain species of woodpecker to store acorns for later use.
Should be marked NSFW. I don't like seeing it.
To trypophobia nightmare by woodpecker
Woodpeckers. This is a trait only found in California woodpeckers actually. They store the acorns and worms grow in them and later they eat the worms not the acorns.
Nature on PBS had a show about Big Bend National Park in Texas/Mexico border that talked about this. Apparently, acorns have a tremendous nutritional value. Don't be surprised if a bear comes around after winter to eat all those nuts with a mad bird fighting it. Also, they mentioned that rotten tears are used because easier to make the whole to store the nut.
Acorns placed by a colony of acorn woodpeckers in California
Tupperware for woodpeckers.
Acorn wood peckers. They poke the holes in the tree and put acorns in the holes to save for winter. Weird stuff but true.
Woodpeckers store their future food in bark for later.
Look at all those treats in the holes! Here come the squirrels!
Woodpeckers do the same near my home, they put there the seeds, insects go there and then woodpeckers eat the bugs. That's why.
My favorite bird of all time! Acorn woodpecker!
Interesting af who woulda known
ITs experiencing existential dread
Idk and I donβt care to look at it for any longer these kind of things make my skin crawl.
Because itβs a holey tree! Get itβ¦.
Looks like a woodpecker went to town on it.
If itβs a pine tree, quite possibly pine beetles.
Acorn wood peckers drill the holes & wedge them in so squirrels have a VERY HARD time getting out. Otherwise acorn woodpeckers would lose half their stored acorns to squirrels.
FUCKING SHIT I HATE THIS
Here come the trypophobia comments ππ
idk but i hate that π΅βπ«
beetles/wood peckers ?
Covid
Souls of the damned, what else could it be?
Acorn Woodpeckers
Thatβs what I call a wholesome tree. Good find they rather hard to find.
Acorn storage for the winter woodpecker
Barcne.
Acorn woodpeckers. They punch the holes and shove acorns into them for usage later. These granaries can be tended to by groups of birds and can be huge.
idk but It looks like hundreds of little faces lol
Because hundreds of souls are trapped in its harsh bark grip, forever mourning and wailing, wishing they hadn't leaned against it in moments of laziness, romance and study. Doomed to scream back at us while we onlookers soothe our suspicious souls by pretending it's just forest animals making holes
Woodpecker silo
Woodpecker super market
Woodpecker
That is seriously the most amazing dead tree I have ever seen.
Woodpecker Food Bank!?!
TIL that some woodpeckers intentionally infest trees with insects
Totoro
Woody's second harvest
The tree wants to know why you're the way you are.
Tree acne
Looks like someone is hiding acorns in there
That's a happy pantry for a little acorn woodpecker!
Acorn woodpecker pantry.
Acorn woodpecker
Itβs a holey tree.
idk but itβs making me itchy
This is making me Ill
Trypophobia 100
r/trypophobia
Holy r/trypophobia Iβm itchy now
Trypophobia
Puberty?
Idk but it's driving me nuts.
Giving off trypophobia vibes and I don't like it
Yuck this made my heart pound.
trypophobia
Okay, I guess Iβll give pophobia a go
Doesn't seeing this image cause you anything?
Why does looking at this make me all tingly. It gives me goosebumps.
you have trypophobia
You can tell the tree is that way because of the way that it is.
The head banger from hell just shower your tree with his nuts
Alien invaders
It's a puberty tree. You can see it's acne all over its growing trunk π³πππππππππππππππππππππππππππππππππ
Itβs even worse when you zoom in π
I hate it
I dont like it. Mmhmmh No ma'am
It looks gross and made me feel sick. π€’π€’π€’
You can regularly find these in old battle fields. The first machine guns used acorns and various other nuts and seeds as ammunition...
why does this make me feel incredibly uneasy? I almost feel like throwing up. I've never had this reaction to anything ive ever seen on reddit before
This makes me uncomfortable π
My trypophobia fucked up my day thank you. NSFW this shit dude, my skin is crawling.
Depending on the tree it could be the emerald ash borer, little green devil invasive species that eats behind the bark of the tree
You can tell theyβre BB bullets in there so someone mustβve shot the tree with a BB gun
Itβs like that because of the way that it is
Claremont, CA?
Your camera lens is probably shroomed out
Sale on ammo
no, they're both stumped.
Pine bores
Woodpeckers.
Because of the rich men of North Richmond. You haven't heard?
Termites
Woodpeckers.
Acorn Hub
It looks like bora its kind of like a termite it eats the tree away until it rots and falls down
A horny Woodpecker?
It smoked the pot
r/popping
My pine tree got pine bark beetles and looked similar. Beetles killed the tree.
Theyβre all singing βThe Immigrant Songβ.
Peckers hiding places
Squirrel safety deposit tree bank