Yellow bellied sap sucker

[BobinCt]

Anyone ever have a problem with this bird? I’m starting to as I see a few of my pear and apple trees with holes in them due to this bird. Does anyone know of a herbicide or deterrent I can use on the trees? I can post a pic of what these birds do to the tree Saturday if anyone wanted to see the damage. I’m interested in how to keep them away. They are a member of the woodpecker family.

 

[Buckly]

I’m inundated with them. So far tough they attack larger trees and it doesn’t seem to kill them. They work over everything from apples to oaks. Then some flying insects lay eggs in all the holes and then the woodpeckers make the holes larger after the larvae hatch. Makes me nervous but i have not lost a tree yet that I know of. I know of no remedy. Fun fact: a woodpeckers tongue can be almost as long as their body .

 

[BobinCt]

What I have done on some is wrap aluminum window screen around them as much as I can.

 

[Bill]

I'm loosing/lost the battle with them on an old apple tree in the yard of the farm. Don't know what kind of tree it is but man it used to produce bushels of apples from sept through November.

I grafted some of it to an apple tree that was girdled by voles and the root stock re sprouted. hopefully I can save it.

 

[b116757]

I’ve had a small bit of issues with some sort of woodpecker that drills the lines of holes but not enough to worry about as of yet no real damage. I could see how they could do real harm if they had a real affinity for a particular tree. Wonder if the white latex paint some guys use to discourage sun scalding would help??

 

[Teeder]

One of my best English oaks looks like Swiss cheese. Unfortunately, I didn't see it until it was already pretty bad. So far the tree still looks healthy, but I'm not sure what to do with it. There's no way I could cover all the holes now.

 

[Telemark]

They have killed a few apple trees near my place. I used to shoot them with a .22 or a .410

 

[BobinCt]

These birds got me upside down. They will wipe out all my fruit trees over time.

 

[Derek Reese 29]

I remember they were a pretty easy target for a pellet gun when I was a kid....

 

[Diesel5610]

Sapsucker Damage?

I was running the dog today and walking through one of my tree plots I noticed something on one of my Apple Trees. I have never seen anything like this and I am sick to my stomach. This is on 2 of my trees, which are about 25 years old. Quick search revealed maybe Sapsucker damage? Looked to be...

habitat-talk.com

Lost two 25 year old Liberty trees to them and have damage on several more. Last year they eased up on me a bit and damage was very light. When they find a tree it is hard to keep them off it based on my experience. The few trees that have gotten past the bears and a few little birds kill them, frustrating.

 

[BobinCt]

Im just going to have to cut out small pieces of aluminum window screen and staple them around the tree all the way up to the top. It seems as tho they are hitting my old trees and not my young ones.

 

[homerj]

Sapsuckers seek out the same trees year after year. They are likely seeking out the trees with the sweetest sap. Wrapping the trunks with burlap or aluminum window screen is probably the most successful deterrent outside of killing the birds. Coating the existing holes and the rest of the trunks with Tanglefoot or similar has also been shown to be effective.