hey! since you just moved in.. i am going to talk about the prior owner.. and you should take none of it personally ... looking at the first pic.. i see nearly no landscape ... and i am going to bet.. they bought a rather large transplant.. from the bigboxstore.. a few years back.. planted it [i too wonder if it is telephone poled .. no root flare at the ground] ..... i am going to guess ... it was pot bound.. and they did little than dig a hole and stick it in .. and water it at planting .. i am further going to guess ... that they did little if no PROPER followup in regard to PROPER WATERING .... for the 2 or 3 years a large transplant would require ... plus throw in drought if any over that period ... all that resulting in lack of proper moisture.. thru the ensuing few years ... resulting in sunscald.. on the south facing side of the tree ... and if all the above were true.. improper pruning leading to.. or complicating more bark damage ... there!! .. that is just about everything i can think of.. as to what might have caused the problem ... BTW.. ants DO not harm an otherwise healthy tree ... at worst they mess with other bugs.. 'milking' aphids of honeydew' e.g. ... and for sure.. a couple means nothing.. they are just surveying their domain ... what can you do??? .. not much.. trees heal themselves.. if you can restore vigor thru proper watering.. "feeding" it.. will not make a difference.. it is not a child ... besides the fact that the rather weed free lawn tells me.. it is probably fertilized ... so the tree needs nothing else ... if vigor were to return.. it can heal itself thru compartmentalization .... [thats my long word for the day ... lol ..] but if the tree is not proper for your area.. as noted above.. whats the point ... be done with it ... cut it to the ground.. do your research for something new.. and plant it a few feet off to the side ... unless you really want to find out what is going on underground.. simply for the sake of knowledge ... then dig it up.. so you can replant in the same hole ... good luck with your new house ... presumably.. you redid the interior to your taste.. so lets redo this tree.. to your taste.. rather than spending the next decade.. 'dealing' with it.. ken

<Peter (6b SE NY) said: Gumby this is like the third time I have seen you refer to yourself in the third person. Are you serious or are you forgetting which account you are posting from?> Now Gumby is wondering if Fastink is really Peter? Why else would Peter care or know anything about having a different account? Re:<But I'm gonna say I doubt that you can post a link to where you think you saw that.> Peter is one who thinks you should only water tomatoes only once a week to avoid cracking. Gumby thinks Peter needs to learn how to worry about Peter and stop worrying about anyone but Peter. Regis said Gumby is gonna be alright <smile>

When you don't get all the wallpaper adhesive residue off the walls and you paint over it, the water from the water based paint reactivates the adhesive causing the paint to crackle as it dries/cures. It looks just like the crackle finish crafters do on purpose using Elmer's glue. That doesn't look like a classic crackle to me. Residual adhesive would be my last guess for what's going on there.

Frankly, it looks like mechanical damage. Have you got a cat or some domestic bird, like parrot?