Don't blame woodpeckers if your tree's in bad shape.



woodpecker hole in diseased tree



Red Bellied Woodpecker

Downy Woodpecker

Let’s get real! Woodpeckers may put a few tiny holes in your trees, but they certainly don’t kill them. The woodpeckers in north Texas (including flickers and sapsuckers) are actually looking for bugs and for the sweet sap flowing in a tree’s cambium layer. Bugs are more apt to be in dead or unhealthy trees, and sap in an unhealthy tree is sweeter and thicker than in a healthy tree. So woodpeckers prize unhealthy, diseased trees. Hence, please don’t blame the woodpeckers (who come on the scene after the fact) if your tree isn’t doing well.



Yellow Bellied Sapsucker

 

 Owen Yost, in addition to blogging, is a Landscape Architect emeritus from here, who‘s worked in north Texas for over 30 years.  He is a member of the American Society of Landscape Architects (ASLA), International Society of Landscape Architects, the National BirdFeeding Society, National Wildlife Federation and the Audubon Society. He was honored with a Lifetime Achievement award by the Native Plant Society of Texas. His design office is at northwestern68@yahoo;.com