Purple Riversi Beech peeling bark, antholes - what to do

[Cpiercew]

Hey folks, hoping for a save for one of my favorite trees, a purple riversi beech. Some background: I planted it two years ago and it seemed to do really well. Soon after I planted it I noticed the nursery had inflicted an injury I didn't notice until after it was delivered. The trunk was strapped tight with rope and burlap for too long. I lost the debate with the nursery over replacement so I decided to just take very good care of it. It was fine until I noticed this spring (unusually warm) bark was starting to peel from the base of the trunk.

 

Doing some research I was told to use a knife to remove the effected bark until I saw healthy bark (green). I started and it didn't look good. I noticed recently (about a week after the original discovery) a few small holes develop with what look like ants inside.

 

Any advice is appreciated, it is budding out now as you can see.

 

Thanks in advance !

[Tony Croft aka hamadryad]

cant see the image