wrote in message
...
Back a few years ago, I had an oak tree fall against this much small
tree. Were the tree hit, a large chunk of the bark was taken off.
Well, I left it, not knowing what to do.

Well, just today, I noticed that something has been eating the tree,
with these big holes. It seems to have happened recently, as I have
not noticed it before and there are still some wood pieces on the
ground. It could be a woodpecker or something. What did this and is
there any way to help the tree. the wound seems pretty deep, but less
than half of the depth of the trunk. The trunk is about 8" in
diameter. You can see where the bark was beginning to form around the
scraped area.

Here is a link to a pictu

http://spilledwhine.com/pics/IMG_2681.JPG

Thanks,

Tom

Carpenter ants, acrobat ants, or termites are probable.

About 3 years ago, I had similar problem with 2 live oaks. Carpenter ants
ate out some insides of both of these oaks, then, were driven out by acrobat
ants. These ants compounded the problem by their nesting habits of creating
frass and enlarging the pathways already there from the carpenter ants. So
said an exterminator company that I hired.

An exterminator company was called in. It was late spring. They used a
squeeze bottle to expel some kind of very fine dust in these cavities.
Buttload tons of acrobat ants exited in apparent death near. The following
week, one more treatment, very few ants left. I kept an eye on it, some
were stubbornly still around. I just used some boric acid at these entry
points, refreshed every 2 weeks. There may be entry points that are not
readily visible My concern at this point is what you don't readily see and
may be difficult to access and pinpoint.

After treating and barring entry, that winter, I got most of the mottled
wood out of the trees that were treated. Its been 3 years, both live oaks
are okay as far as I can see.
--
Dave