Question
We have a live oak tree that has rings of holes through the bark from ground
level to about 10 ' high  It appears that the holes only go through the bark.  It
looks like some kind of wood boring beetle.  These same holes are on a
Bradford Pear that occurred last year.  We live in Houston Texas.  Will the tree die
or can you apply some kind of cheical to get rid of the problem?

Answer
These are caused by a woodpecker called a sap sucker. The bird makes the hole in the bark and insects come to feed on the sap in the holes and the bird return to feed on the insects.  I would spray the tree trunk with an insecticide maybe Sevin or Malathion this will kill any insects in the holes and the birds will not return since there will be no insects for them to eat.
If the hole are not in a line and go into the wood I would spray the trunk with an insecticide called Merit which will kill the borers in the trunk. Merit will work on the sap sucker hole insects but it is more expensive than Sevin or Malathion.