A red squirrel keeps taking a shine to Fargo resident Bill Fischer's Chevy pickup truck, storing enough walnuts there to get it through the winter.
Just recently, Fischer cleared out about 80kg of nuts from his truck over four days.
One red squirrel has targeted Fargo resident Bill Fischer's pickup truck for nut storage. Photo: Supplied / Bill Fischer
As this has been going on since 2013, Fischer tells Kathryn Ryan he has become used to it. Every time the tree bears nuts, he's prepared.
"There's this one certain red squirrel that decides it's going to start hanging around my pickup, I know the gig is up, that the walnuts are starting to get stored under the hood and I start watching and before I even drive it, I'll pop the hood and make sure there's not walnuts stashed there."
But it's not just the hood, this squirrel likes to find all sorts of avenues for storage in Fischer's truck, including in the fenders.
North Dakota resident Bill Fischer says a red squirrel has filled up his car with 80kg of nuts over four days. Photo: Supplied / Bill Fischer
He says there was enough nuts to fill a six-gallon bucket just in the wheel wells.
"This squirrel is very industrious, he actually starts on the inside of the frame rail as well, so when I drive down the road, I can hear them thumping away."
Usually he waits until the tree is finished of walnuts before cleaning out his car.
"It was quite the record year as far as how many walnuts were underneath it this year.
"[The squirrel] will sit there and watch me in the walnut tree while I'm cleaning out the walnuts, and we kind of stare each other down."
He's tried different ways of dealing with the pesky creature, including taking its nest off three times just this year.
"I've had plenty of contact of people worried about the squirrel, well the squirrel does have many other places where it stores its nuts, so that's why it keeps coming back.
"You'll see how I've seen him for eight years now, the squirrel definitely is industrious, over the top industrious and it's never going to starve."
A seasoning solution he found on the internet was also given a go to deter the squirrel.
"Up until this year, something that worked very well was a spray that I got on the internet and found, it was a combination of cayenne pepper and also tobacco sauce, you boil it up, put it in a spray bottle and spray it underneath the hood.
The squirrel has managed to even store nuts in Bill Fischer's truck's wheel well too. Photo: Supplied / Bill Fischer
"I ended up spraying well underneath the hood of my Avalanche about three or four times this year, and every other year this has occurred it worked very well to deter the squirrel, unfortunately I think this year the seasoning was a little extra spice on top of the walnuts, so it probably enjoyed it."
Fischer reckons it's the spacious area in his Avalanche that attracts the squirrel.
"I have other vehicles that are sitting in the driveaway, they never get walnuts stored in them.
"I've even taken this avalanche and parked it out away from the tree, quite a way's away, but that squirrel still finds where that Avalanche is and will store the nuts in there."
Fischer has often been posting pictures online of the storage of nuts in his car, and it's gone viral.
"I've had contact from people all over the world, news organisations from all over the world.
"I think it's just one of those feel good stories you can laugh about and hopefully enjoy instead of looking at the doom and gloom that's going on."
Bill Fischer waits until the season is over before committing to a full clean up of one squirrel's storage of nuts in his truck. Photo: Supplied / Bill Fischer
