Some pics I took today of Pileated woodpecker work. It (or they, there is usually a breeding pair for one large area) started on this tree early last week. Around here, if they work on a tree, you can be sure it has black ants in it, so they are not ruining a good tree normally.
Depending on the size of the ant infestation and the number of holes made, the tree may seal itself with sap and continue living. I doubt this tree will recover.
You can see the ant colony chambers in the heartwood.
They can make lots of holes as long as there are ants to eat.
The tree is alive, 40-45 foot tall and relatively healthy looking. The sweep in the trunk means it was stressed in some way or other during its life. That may have provided the opening for the ants. I'm not sure how the ants choose their trees. I've found them in both hard and soft wood species. It is quite a sight to see the ants come boiling out when you cut through a large colony with a chainsaw.
Wood chips. You can see a few exploratory holes. I don't know if the ants are detected by the resonance of the wood changing due to the ant colony voids, or by taste maybe?
Chapstick for size scale.
