Strange Hole

[Chuck Miller]

What kind of beetle would make these holes. Carpenter bees make a nice smooth hole. No tunnels for termites, too big for powder post. Carpenter ants? What else could it be?

[John Arnold]

Woodpeckers?

[Chuck Miller]

I think you might be right. I didn't think of them because the one location (no good pics) was about 3 inches off the patio. This location is about a foot or so, but yes it does look like a woodpecker. This log home is in the middle of 12 wooded acres.
Thanks for the insight.

[James Duffin]

I sure ain't no woodpecker expert but don;t they needs a perch to sit on when they peck?

[Chuck Miller]

I have seen small woodpeckers walk up the side of a dead tree and down the other side. So some must have sharp talons to grip.

[wayne soper]

woodpeckers eat carpenter ants, right?
It's either that or a broker looking for her lost commission

[Chuck Miller]

Sometime those commissions are hard to dig out, you know the inspectors always try to kill the deal. ;)

[Jack Feldmann]

Looks like a woodpecker to me to. It could hang off the bottom lip of the board, or on the cables, or just on the side of the board.
We have lots of woodpeckers visit our feeder and suet feeder. They never use the perch on the seed feeder.

[John Kogel]

It looks like woodpecker holes. They eat insects, and they aren't too selective. And yes, they all can walk up the side of a house, no problem.
It could be just sow bugs, pill bugs or whatever you'all call them, nesting behind that plank.
But the wood pecker must have heard them rustling around, so carpenter ants is a good possibility. I would suggest having a pest control contractor take a look there.

[Jerry Martin]

It's not one of the Powder Post beetles or an Old House Borer. Woodpeckers around here make several holes in rows close together so I don't think it is any woodpecker I've seen here. Other than that that's all I can tell from the pictures.

[John Kogel]

Woodpeckers around here make several holes in rows close together so I don't think it is any woodpecker I've seen here. I don't want to sound like a know-it-all, but holes in a row are from sap-suckers, which a relative of the woodpecker. They break through to where the sap is, move over and peck a fresh hole.
Flickers are relatives too, but they only make holes for nesting, AFAIK. You see flickers picking up ants on the ground sometimes.
Woodpeckers go after insects in wood and they will hammer out as big a hole as they need until they get what they're after. Long holes are created in cedar by splitting out chunks along the grain. Round deep holes are for nesting. Sometimes the males will drum on the side of a house just to attract a female. But he wouldn't be working that close to the ground unless there was a good reason.

The point is, there are insects behind that plank, and the woodpecker heard them in there.