Q. Do we have woodpeckers in Las Vegas?  This is the north side on the trunk of my Carob tree, at about chest high. The trunk is 5″ to 6″ in diameter.  The reason that I checked the trunk this morning is that I saw a bird perched there apparently pecking and went out to see if there were ants.  I found no similar pits in another carob tree that is older.  Readers picture of sapsucker damage to carob tree. A. We have sapsuckers that come through Las Vegas this time of year and they cause that type of damage. I wrote about this on my blog a couple of years ago. Trees can live quite a long time with this kind of damage. Birds frequently will come back to this tree in future years. I have had apples with over ten years of damage and still doing okay. Otherwise you have to do something to keep them from getting to the tree. Previous posting on sapsucker damage on Xtremehorticulture