So the other day I was mowing like a I usually do and I notice a hole in my
tree that I honestly have not noticed before. I'm pretty sure this hole
looks like it has been there for a while, but I wanted to know if it
something that will kill the tree soon and if so, is there anything I can do
about it.

Also, I took pictures of the hole and also got the camera inside the hole, I
wanted to find out, in the last picture, is that a squirrel in there?

http://www.chopinsociety.com/tree.htm

Should I be worried about anything or just let the hole and its inhabitants
be?

Gene

It looks like it's been there for a while. I would not do anything to
it. Keep an eye on it. You don't want water laying in it to rot the
tree.
On Mon, 16 Jun 2003 00:40:21 GMT, "Gene Moon"
wrote:

So the other day I was mowing like a I usually do and I notice a hole in my
tree that I honestly have not noticed before. I'm pretty sure this hole
looks like it has been there for a while, but I wanted to know if it
something that will kill the tree soon and if so, is there anything I can do
about it.

Also, I took pictures of the hole and also got the camera inside the hole, I
wanted to find out, in the last picture, is that a squirrel in there?

http://www.chopinsociety.com/tree.htm

Should I be worried about anything or just let the hole and its inhabitants
be?

Gene

"Dave G" wrote in message
om...
It looks like it's been there for a while. I would not do anything to
it. Keep an eye on it. You don't want water laying in it to rot the
tree.

The whole center of the tree is already rotten. Didn't you notice the other
rotting broken off limb sticking out the other side? If its likely to fall on
something, I'd consider taking it down if it was in my yard.

Tom J

On Mon, 16 Jun 2003 00:40:21 +0000, Gene Moon wrote:

So the other day I was mowing like a I usually do and I notice a hole in
my tree that I honestly have not noticed before. I'm pretty sure this
hole looks like it has been there for a while, but I wanted to know if
it something that will kill the tree soon and if so, is there anything I
can do about it.

Also, I took pictures of the hole and also got the camera inside the
hole, I wanted to find out, in the last picture, is that a squirrel in
there?

http://www.chopinsociety.com/tree.htm

Should I be worried about anything or just let the hole and its
inhabitants be?


Good day Gene. It looks like your tree is being affected by center rot.
This was most likely caused by a branch that was trimmed off and it never
healed correctly. The squirrel picture shows what looks to be 'frass' in
the bottom of the hole. Frass ( a nice way of saying bug poop ) is a sure
sign of insect activity. Now these insects maybe eating the rotten wood
and nothing else. These insects may also be eating at the living wood
also. Hard to tell from your pictures. It's quite possible that these
insects are gone now if they have consumed all the the food available to
them.

What I would tend to do...
Inspect the hole a little better. Look for burrowing holes that go into
the tree. This will tell you if insects have burrowed in to eat the living
tissue. If you discover borrowing holes... break out the chainsaw. I would
also get a rubber hammer and *lightly* tap the tree trunk. Start from the
bottom of the tree and lightly tap the tree while moving up and go as far
as you can reach. Listen for a hollow drum sound. You will hear this sound
where the tree is hollow or damaged from rot. Try to figure out how much
of the tree is hollow or damaged. If a good deal of the lower trunk has
damage, you may wish to take out the tree before it becomes dangerous. All
in all your tree's life has been shortened by this damage. It's really
hard to say how long a tree with this kind of damage may last. A couple
years or 20 years... who knows.

From your pictures I can see that someone has gone and limbed up all your
trees. This was also done to the tree in question. This is not a good
practice and is concidered improper pruning. Your trees needed those
branches for food production and nitrogen and water storage. Your tree
also needed those branches on the lower trunk to increase the trunk's
girth. The branches store carbohydrates at the connection point where the
branchs meets the trunk. With out them, the trunk's girth will increase
very slowly where the branches used to be attached and faster where the
branches are still attached. Not to mention that the tree needs as much
food producing area as possible to maintain it's health and vigor.
Good luck with your trees................