Sealers and fillers are seriously out-of-date. Often make things worse.

Contact several Certified Arborists for an on-site look-see. You need a person who is qualified to evaluate potentially hazardous trees.

IME pileated woodpeckers don't go to town on healthy trees, so the advice to get an arborist to look at it is a good idea.

if this tree is overhanging a house.. or anything valuable ... it most likely needs to go ... it is a severe danger to you and your stuff .. and perhaps the neighbors.. but that would depend if you like them .....

see above about a local trained professional .. and to be clear.. not every monkey with a chainsaw is a trained asa cert'd professional

of course.. if you already know the answer ... and were just hoping we came up with another answer .... then all you need is an INSURED monkey with a chainsaw.. and be done with this nightmare ....

i totally agree .. that there is something significantly.. structurally .... wrong with the interior of the tree.. for the pecker of wood to do that ... it needs to go ... and now that giant holes have been introduced.. its going to rot even faster than it probably was ....

ken

I've seen pileateds dig out cavities in perfectly healthy trees. I think they sometimes just like to chop away at something, like a picture-window frame on my house yrs ago. In late winter/spring the males are fired up, so might explain its exuberance.

Catalpa wood is very rot-resistant even if wet. So it may be OK given time.

This post was edited by beng on Tue, May 13, 14 at 10:50

To add, a pileated woodpecker carved out a big cavity about shoulder-height in a healthy scarlet oak trunk when I was in Virginia. I was very surprised how fast the opening calloused over -- just a few yrs.