Woodpecker damage on cedar tree

[AT sawyer]

The woodpeckers are tearing up the cedars around my cabin. One tree was so pecker-holed that I had to take it down. I'd like to save this tree, but I don't know if there is anything I can put in the "excavation". Any thoughts?

Shotgun would manage some of the damage if I could be there when the d@mn birds came around......

(Young man is an aspiring woodsman)

 

[treeseer]

Are you saying a bird made that big hole 1' off the ground???

Attached are weird vertical lines of bird holes--a spruce near Maidens VA--anyone ever seen em travel thataway before?

 

[Tree Pig]

May sound a little wacky but you can try an owl decoy. They have worked to keep the bastards off my redwood sided house.

 

[BC WetCoast]

As a cavity, that one isn't large enough warrant removal. However, it looks like there may be decay (heart rot) in the centre of the tree. Woodpeckers are insect eating birds, so they are pecking (drumming) to excavate areas where they can find grubs and other insects. Are you noticing any kind of insect activity around this hole?

Woodpeckers usually don't peck at trees just for the fun of it (although I've seen them hammering away on a metal protective cap on top of a telephone pole), and is an indication of some kind of insect activity in the tree(s). If you do indeed have insect problems, getting rid of the birds won't solve your problem.

I think you need to do a little more investigation around the tree and report back.

 

[hanniedog]

I love it you build a cabin in the woods then ##### about the critters that inhabit the woods.

 

[asthesun]

get rid of the bugs and the birds will leave. that doesnt look like pecker wood to me though.

 

[tree MDS]

Pignut Hickory? Those trees are often hollow.

I'll bet thats one of them big a$$ed woody woodpecker (piliated??) looking ones, probably eating the ants?? I've seen those things make swiss cheese out of white pines before, so bad that I wouldnt even think of climbing them when they were done. Not often, but I have seen it.

 

[A. Stanton]

AT, these birds spook pretty easy. I would recommend getting some big plastic trash bags and shred em up so that they make a lot of movement in the wind, or make them to look like ghosts: with a head and loose ends hanging down. Hang em around your area up in the trees. They sell mylar ballons to do this, but trash bags are cheaper.

 

[AT sawyer]

It's a summer cabin, so I can't chase them off on a regular basis. I hadn't thought of the insect-as-food reason, though if I bomb the tree with insecticide, it will still be hollow and invite the woodpeckers I suspect.

As for who was there first, that doesn't matter since I'm there now. Woodpeckers will get the same welcome as red squirrels.

 

[Toddppm]

I had to drop a couple of my fathers Loblolly pines near his summer house that the wood peckers put such big holes in they almost went through in a couple spots.
I ended up notching above the holes about 6 ft. high. Kind of hairy, I thought they might break and kick back near the holes.

 

[ddhlakebound]

It's a summer cabin, so I can't chase them off on a regular basis. I hadn't thought of the insect-as-food reason, though if I bomb the tree with insecticide, it will still be hollow and invite the woodpeckers I suspect.

As for who was there first, that doesn't matter since I'm there now. Woodpeckers will get the same welcome as red squirrels.

Sounds to me like you're more well suited to staying in the city.

I've never thought much of people who display the attitude "As for who was there first, that doesn't matter since I'm there now."

Wether you want to realize and accept it or not, you've got a responsibility to CARE for the land, and leave it better than you found it. Learn how to live with the critters in the woods, and you'll be better off in the long run.

It's an ecosystem, and spreading around a bunch of insecticide won't solve your problems. You'll probably kill some bugs, some good, some bad, but you won't make a dent in what the woodpeckers are eating with insecticide. Blasting the woodpeckers will probably result in more bugs killing more trees next year, and drawing in even more woodpeckers later on. It's all about balance, and nature's got much better balance than man.

 

[jrietkerk]

(Young man is an aspiring woodsman)

maybe you can find someone to teach the young feller to understand ecology and appreciate nature, instead of looking to kill birds and spray insecticides. In the mean time, look up some info about cedars and appreciate that they will have to be pretty good and rotten to be a hazard. Are you cutting them down because you don't like the 'look' of the woodpecker excavations?

 

[AT sawyer]

I would much prefer to save the trees, and since I can't always be there to shoo(t) away the woodpeckers, I'd prefer to deprive them of their food source. The one's that I've cut were pecked through in multiple places and were unstable.

As for mastery of my domain, man has been clearing varmints out of his living space since he chased the first bear out of the first cave.

 

[ddhlakebound]

I would much prefer to save the trees, and since I can't always be there to shoo(t) away the woodpeckers, I'd prefer to deprive them of their food source. The one's that I've cut were pecked through in multiple places and were unstable.

As for mastery of my domain, man has been clearing varmints out of his living space since he chased the first bear out of the first cave.

:monkey:

What does it matter if they were pecked through and unstable, unless they have targets?

So since you cut down the woodpeckers favorite tree, I'm wondering, did they get the message? (Apparently the message is "stop doing what you were progammed to do....peck on trees and eat bugs, cause it's YOUR land now") Show 'em the deed, that'll really stick it to those pesky birds. Maybe have the sherriff out to warn them off for trespassing.

I'm sure you're still getting the message.....(tap tap tap......tap tap tap tap).....and you probably will be until you decide that bugs and woodpeckers are just too damn much trouble and clearcut the whole thing.

If you really do want to make the woodpeckers go elsewhere for dinner, then improve the health of your trees, and they'll have a lot less bugs for the woodpeckers to chase. (This will require learning, not fertilizing.)

As far as master of your domain.....pfft.....yeah, I'm sure you're a legend in your own mind.

 

[jrietkerk]

I would much prefer to save the trees, and since I can't always be there to shoo(t) away the woodpeckers, I'd prefer to deprive them of their food source. The one's that I've cut were pecked through in multiple places and were unstable.

As for mastery of my domain, man has been clearing varmints out of his living space since he chased the first bear out of the first cave.

I was hoping you would at least use something from the bible or the republican party to validate your fear of the environment and your addiction to gunpowder and petrochemicals - but you got this dense all on your own. Poor kid. .

 

[Rftreeman]

I love it you build a cabin in the woods then ##### about the critters that inhabit the woods.

or move to the city and plant trees so you can't see the neighbor's house.

 

[pdqdl]

Myself, I like the woodpeckers as much as the trees, so I just let each fend for themselves.

If I had a pileated woodpecker digging a nest in a tree (never seen one around here), I would politely ask it if I could help in any way.

 

[treeseer]

They do make nesting boxes, or you can--why not put one up so they be stoppin their choppin?

Pileateds are way cool to watch. Beauteous.

 

[tree md]

They do make nesting boxes, or you can--why not put one up so they be stoppin their choppin?

Pileateds are way cool to watch. Beauteous.

I agree. I love to watch them. I was out in the woods onetime and found where someone had shot a large red headed wood packer and a large hoot owl in the same location and just left them on the ground. I was thinking that the woodpeckers and owls were protected. Anyway, it burnt me up to see them shot and wantonly wasted, left on the ground. I am a hunter myself but my number 1 rule is to eat anything I shoot.

 

[squad143]

I end up doing quite a few removals in cottage country of trees that have been attacked by woodpeckers seeking the "bugs within". If the setting is right, I'll even suggest that they leave a 12' stump so the birds can continue to have a food source and that they (the customers) can enjoy the nature.