Sapsucker Damage

That normally doesn't cause much issue, as long as it doesn't girdle the tree.

It does have a good bit of damage around the tree trunk and up into the branches, but I don't believe it's girdled all the way around anywhere.

I had both a Mountain Ash and a flowering Crabapple that went into demise after a couple of years of sapsucker damage. It's amazing how much of the cambium layer can die inside from those little holes. My trees continued to grow, just that some branches partially died and rot set in to the dead wood after a while. I removed the Mountain Ash and I think the Crabapple is still alive back at my old place but the trunk looks terrible from the tree trying to close the fissures.

I am in no way condoning the use of the bird repellant advertised in the article in the link, but the rest of the information is 'spot on' on how sapsuckers work.

sapsucker-damage

I bow to your wisdom Bill, I have only seen trees repair the damage (Sugar Maple included), by within a few years the holes look like reverse bullets from wound tissue.

I would think it does open the tree up for traumatic infection/infestation...just haven't actually seen it.

Thank you for the information. I'll check my other three maples, I have one other sugar and two silver just to see if they have comparable damage from sapsuckers.

I'll also try to ward off the birds in a non lethal way.

Anything I can do to help the tree heal?

I've seen minimal damage heal itself too and my Mountain Ash would have recovered after the first year it got hit. I wrapped the trunk with paper tape and it started healing the first season but then the SS moved up into the lower branches and attacked them, hit the tree again the next year. I finally got the SS to quit but by then many of the branches were dead with strips of living bark and the trunk was starting to rot. The third year it looked so bad I decided to removed it.

Once an obsessive SS finds a tree that he likes, he'll spend the summer coming back to the same tree until I suppose the tree declines and he finds one he likes better.

Brian,

Check your tree for buried root flare also. Sometimes is can be a combination of things causing/adding stress to the tree.

Bill,

I went on vacation and came back after about a week and the tree head lost nearly all its leaves.

I have yet to check for root flare.

I wanted to ask, about 2 years ago I began piling my mowed grass around the base of the tree. I let the grass dry out before putting it around the tree and I kept it about six inches away from the tree itself. I did this to two other maple trees as well. The other two trees are growing fine. Could this have an impact on the tree?

Loosing it's leaves isn't the end of the world. Main thing is to find out what's causing the stress. Root flare is a good start because it's the single most thing done wrong when trees are planted. Sap Suckers too have a way of attacking trees that are stressed for some reason. Thinner bark? Thicker sap? Who knows...

Yes, piling finely cut, wet grass deep enough, could suffocate the roots or at least limit the amount of oxygen able to penetrate the ground, adding stress. Also invites various molds to spawn. Limited amounts that are allowed to decompose before more is added wouldn't hurt anything but even then, you don't want to do it so much that it would increase the thickness of the ground above the roots, which puts the roots deeper into the ground than they like to be. Roots need air as well as water. Grass clippings and leaves when decomposed make excellent compost btw.