Answered for Pittsboro, Hendricks County.
Carpenter ants do not eat wood and cannot chew sound heartwood. They hollow galleries in wood already softened by moisture and decay fungi. Their presence tells you a decay pocket exists inside the trunk, usually larger than it appears from outside, and that it stays wet. The ants are tenants, not the cause of the damage — but they are a dependable indicator that the interior is not solid. In Pittsboro — Jefferson Park, Hidden Hills and Brixton Woods included, that's normally a hazardous tree removal job at $800–$5,000. Within weeks.
A tiny 19th-century plat (laid out 1834, incorporated 1906) that exploded late: 815 people in 1990, 1,588 in 2000, 2,928 in 2010 and 3,682 in 2020. That means a few blocks of genuinely old housing around Meridian Street and a very large majority of the town built after 1997.
Two completely different tree populations in one small town: the original grid near Meridian and Main carries full-size 80-100 year old shade trees over the roofline, while the post-1997 subdivisions that hold most of Pittsboro's houses are still on 20-to-30-year-old nursery stock planted at the ordinance minimum of 2.5-inch caliper. No municipal tree inventory or canopy study for Pittsboro was found, so species dominance is inferred from housing age and the UDO's planting standards rather than measured.
Pittsboro does NOT require a permit to remove a tree on your own private property. The town's code of ordinances has no tree or urban-forestry chapter at all — vegetation only shows up under Nuisances (Ch. 92) and Streets and Sidewalks (Ch. 94). What IS regulated is new development: the Unified Development Ordinance sets minimum caliper (2.5 in. shade trees, 1.5 in. ornamentals), greenbelt and parking-lot planting counts, and bars anything on the Indiana DNR invasive list, the Federal Noxious Weed List, or the Indiana Noxious Weed List. Work in the public right-of-way needs a separate permit to work in the public right of way from Town Hall.
The strip between sidewalk and curb is dedicated public right-of-way held by the Town of Pittsboro — residential streets carry a 54-foot minimum right-of-way, and the UDO requires a 5- to 8-foot planting strip between the walk and the pavement depending on street classification. The UDO also treats shade trees already standing in the right-of-way as town-side trees that can be credited toward a developer's landscaping obligation. No ordinance assigning routine maintenance of that strip to the abutting homeowner was located, so confirm with Town Hall before touching a curb-strip tree; a right-of-way work permit is required regardless.
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Distance measured from Pittsboro.