Woodpeckers are destroying my tree — what should I do?
Three distinct patterns that do not mean the same thing. Neat horizontal rows of shallow, evenly spaced holes ringing a trunk or limb is a sapsucker. Scattered pecking with the outer bark chipped away so an ash trunk looks streaked or blonde is woodpeckers stripping bark to reach larvae. Large oval or rectangular holes gouged several inches deep with coarse chips piled at the base is a pileated woodpecker cutting into wood that was already soft. Woodpeckers are reading the tree for you. Apart from sapsuckers they are not attacking it — they follow insects, and insects follow dead or decaying wood. Heavy foraging damage is evidence that something else got there first, so the bird is the alarm rather than the fire. Sapsuckers are the exception: they drill for sap on healthy trees, and while the rows look bad and can occasionally girdle a small limb, they rarely kill an established tree.
What to do about it
Not urgent. Normally a tree trimming job, $250–$1,400 around Indianapolis depending on size and access.
Can the tree be kept
The question is whether the underlying condition can be, not the bird damage. Sapsucker rows need no treatment; burlap or hardware cloth wrapped over the feeding zone deters them if the look bothers you. Blonding on ash sends you straight to the ash borer decision. Deep pileated holes mark an internal decay column that already exists — the tree may be perfectly stable or seriously hollow, and only a hands-on look at remaining wall thickness at that point settles it. Bird deterrents treat none of this.
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