Sugar maple damage from sap suckers

[highlandcattle]

When we moved here I found grubs of some kind in the holes in trunk. We have lots of woodpeckers. Over tge winter this is what happened. Trees had been trimmed last summer because of power lunes and dead branches.

[buck3m]

Definitely woodpecker work but it doesn't look like standard sapsucker damage to good wood, but woodpeckers going after bugs in the dead wood of a tree.

[DrTimPerkins]

Piliated woodpecker. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pileated_woodpecker

Sapsuckers tend to make lots of little shallow holes. Piliated woodpeckers make big holes.

That tree appears to have problems other than just woodpeckers. Bark is flaking off in several areas, probably more beetle larvae.

Take a couple of close photos of the holes with a ruler nearby for scale and post them. Are there lots of dead limbs? Might want to call your town or county forester to look it over and check nearby trees.

[highlandcattle]

Thanks. More woodpeckers here than I've ever seen. Yes,the sap suckers made little holes all aroynd the trunk. We have the pileated here also. And about every kind you can think of. The tree had grubs when we moved here. At some point it will need to sadly be cut down.