I went over to take a look at this old tree lying on the ground. Nearby I noticed this fine wood dust piled all around this Incense-cedar and on the plants nearby too. I knelt down to see if I could find what was making all of those fine particles. As I was looking around, I noticed a couple of pieces of dust float away from the tree. Then I observed ants coming to the edge of this crack in the bark and releasing tiny grains of wood.
Not far from this tree there is an arboretum sign that says the soft inner wood of the incense-cedar is prone to pocket rot which opens the door for carpenter ants. The sign also says that this will eventually get the attention of a Pileated Woodpecker and it will excavate the ant nests. So, I am trying to walk by this tree when I am out there to see if the Pileated finds the nest.
One of the trunks of this Incense-cedar broke off and fell to the ground. You can see in it in the second photo below where the inner wood is exposed at the base of the tree and fine grains of wood have been deposited by the ants from building their nest. I imagine it is a cozy, delightfully fragrant home for the ants.
