Need help identifying what's wrong

[Snoopcad]

Hello everyone. I joined this forum seeking help with what's wrong with my queen palm tree. I've gone to a local pest control place and all they recommended putting a insecticide around the base and the affected area. My tree company that trims the palm obviously just wants to remove the tree. Any ideas what is wrong with it and what if anything I can do to save it? Here are a few pics of the tree. I have notice some small ants traveling up the tree in the evening but haven't seen many since I applied the insecticide. Thanks. 

[Steve Mac]

I don't know what is wrong with the palm but you may need someone else to get up there and inspect it properly to see the extent and reason for the damage.

It may be some chainsaw clumsiness causing a bit of local damage. If it is no more extensive than it looks it may be ok.

It looks to me that there has been some damage done be some sharp tool

[kurt decker]

No, here's what happened. I had the exact same thing happen on a syagrus amara I sold this year. Soft tissue got damaged by one of the hurricanes in the past couple of years. Insects got into the damaged tissue. The tree kept growing, the tissue hardened up. When the boots came off the damage was obvious. On the amara, they removed some of the boots on the job site and found what look like somebody had hit with a machete. But that was impossible under the boots, the tree was perfect when I left my farm. And it was healed up. I couldn't figure it out. Ken Johnson responded to a picture I sent him, and recognized it for what it was. You can live with it, battle scars from the weather war, or replace the tree. It won't ever get better. But it may not get any worse. Here is the cut on my Amara. If you look closely you can see it's healed up. And that'll happened under the boots. Those big heavy heads on syagrus get whipped around in high wind, it does some damage to that soft tissue up in the crown. And it's not visible until the boots are off.

Edited March 7, 2019 by kurt decker