Small Rowan disease and/or attack?

[JaneH]

Hi

we have a small Rowan which was in our garden when we first moved here.  The attached photo shows a lower area where the bark seems to have opened and there is a hollow area inside.  The top area seems to have been manually damaged, but we’ve never heard or seen a woodpecker in our garden and it seems an unlikely target tree being so small.   Any ideas?
Guessing we’ll have to chop it below this lot and see what happens?  Branches above are fine, surprisingly.

 

thanks

JaneH

 

[Will C]

They are generally not long lived trees in the bigger picture. I wouldn’t stress to much unless it has an expensive item in striking distance should it fail. If the rot gets dramatically worse then yes try to reduce below the damage or if all else fails they will coppice most of the time  (coppice - cut it down to ground level and allow it to regrow)

[openspaceman]

10 hours ago, JaneH said:

never heard or seen a woodpecker in our garden and it seems an unlikely target tree being so small.

It is a the result of a woodpecker boring in after grubs, the eggs would have been laid, probably by a moth, when the wood was already under stress.

[JaneH]

Thank you both for the advice.  Much appreciated.  🙂