Hole in my Sabal

[Keys6505]

I was weeding today so I was crawling around the backside of one of my S. Mexicana and noticed there was more boots hanging off the back than the front.  I initially thought it was just squirrels but upon closer inspection I noticed what seemed to be a deep crack.  I poked around and a small area felt soft so I stuck a short stick in the hole and it went all the way in.  I went in the garage and grabbed a piece of cpvc and using a tape measure I marked off 1" increments.  I slid the pipe in and was surprised to find that the hole was 12" deep into a trunk that's only about 16" wide.  The hole was filled with a lot of soft sand which I'm assuming is from the for ants that I evicted last year that were living behind the boots.  My questions are what could have caused this and does it look fatal?  There was no fluid at any depth in the hole and no "bleeding" stains on the trunk near the hole.  There is a also a shallower 5" deep hole as well a few inches to the left.

[Fusca]

I don't think it's fatal - I've seen photos of palms here with holes that are much bigger.  My guess would be carpenter ants.  I have big ones here that are part red and black that are trying to destroy my front porch railing.  When they get tired of that they try to invade container palms on my porch.  I'm having to keep treating them again and again. 

[Keys6505]

13 hours ago, Fusca said:

I don't think it's fatal - I've seen photos of palms here with holes that are much bigger.  My guess would be carpenter ants.  I have big ones here that are part red and black that are trying to destroy my front porch railing.  When they get tired of that they try to invade container palms on my porch.  I'm having to keep treating them again and again. 

I didn't realize carpenter ants dug into live wood!  You think I should seal it to prevent other critters from going in there or is that creating more problems?

[Fusca]

3 hours ago, Keys6505 said:

I didn't realize carpenter ants dug into live wood!  You think I should seal it to prevent other critters from going in there or is that creating more problems?

I'm not sure about that but it seems to me that I've read on here that sealing would create more problems.  Hopefully someone who has experienced this can chime in.

[Las Palmas Norte]

6 hours ago, Keys6505 said:

I didn't realize carpenter ants dug into live wood!  You think I should seal it to prevent other critters from going in there or is that creating more problems?

Yup they do. I had some get into a western red cedar and created massive holes in it.  I had to take the tree down because of stability issues in windy weather. I used an Ortho product but the carpenter ants returned some time later.