Sorry Woody Woodpecker

In my city, there is the emerald ash borer beetle:

In my front yard there is was a large ash tree. As their name implies, emerald ash borers like to bore into ash trees. Once there, they lay their eggs. And the little buggers (pun intended) have found their way to our ash tree. 

How do I know this? 

Woody and his friends recently became very interested in our tree. As it turns out, woodpeckers love to eat the grubs of the emerald ash borer:

Not only do the resulting flying bark chips make a mess:

The beetles will eventually kill the tree. 

Bottom line? 

Goodbye, ash tree. Today the tree was removed. Sorry, Woody: 

There’s no point in planting another ash tree for the beetles to find. Therefore, we’ll be replacing it with a less inviting (according to the beetles) autumn blaze maple tree. This was an easy decision. I love a colourful tree in the fall, which the autumn blaze is supposed to be. 

It will be sometime before we have a full-grown colourful tree to enjoy. But my husband pointed out that this also means, for a while at least, birds won’t be able to perch on a branch overhanging our car and crap on it. So, there’s that.