Squirrels in hole in oak tree

[Woodedlots]

Hello Everybody
There is an oak tree overlooking my house, it is maybe 22" diameter near the base, quite tall, maybe 75-100'. The tree looks healthy (keep in mind I am not an arborist), meaning the leaves look green, there is no obvious rot, no dead branches etc.

About 12 feet up from the ground, where the tree is about 18" in diameter, there is hole with the diameter of a tennis ball. I have seen a full sized adult squirrel go in this hole, and his whole body and tail fits inside. Maybe there is a nest in there, I am not sure. I have no idea what caused the hole.

How common is this? Should I be very concerned about it? If it fell, there is a very high chance that it would hit one or more of the following: house, car, shed, deck, power line. Thanks in advance for your reply!

 

[A. Stanton]

Wood,
I would bet that that sucker has a tunnel going all the from that hole at the top to the bottom of the tree. I would predict that that tree is on borrowed time.

 

[Adkpk]

Welcome!

We can tell you more if could send in some photos. If you could measure the high, depth and width of the cavity it would help too because photos don't tell the whole story. Hahaha!

Would that be first class or regular mail. :jester:

 

[treeseer]

that tree is on borrowed time.

so are you and me.

Hollowness is not a huge deal for many trees; oaks commonly have some heartrot/squirrel condominium elevators. It would be good to

1. send in a pic (I think dan meant e-, not snail mail), and

2. get a local arborist to look it over while pruning dead branches.

 

[stihl sawing]

I have an old Blackjack oak that is hollow up to a fork and squirrels and even coons have been nesting in it for years. They haven't killed it yet. But it is not near my house and it's not very tall. The fear of it hitting something if it fell is not there. If you are worried about it too much just get an expert to look at it. If you wanna see some kinda ruckus just throw a rubber snake in the hole and sit back and watch the fun. Yeah, I did it.LOL

 

[CLEARVIEW TREE]

Hello Everybody
There is an oak tree overlooking my house, it is maybe 22" diameter near the base, quite tall, maybe 75-100'. The tree looks healthy (keep in mind I am not an arborist), meaning the leaves look green, there is no obvious rot, no dead branches etc.

About 12 feet up from the ground, where the tree is about 18" in diameter, there is hole with the diameter of a tennis ball. I have seen a full sized adult squirrel go in this hole, and his whole body and tail fits inside. Maybe there is a nest in there, I am not sure. I have no idea what caused the hole.

How common is this? Should I be very concerned about it? If it fell, there is a very high chance that it would hit one or more of the following: house, car, shed, deck, power line. Thanks in advance for your reply!

Sounds like the hole indicates core/heart rot. Perhaps a wood pecker made it while dining on ants or boring insects. I've seen many trees with the type of hole you mention and always was a large cavity in there. The squirrels being there indicate extra room and coziness. Better take that one out soon.:monkey:

 

[Woodedlots]

Thanks for posts everybody. Here is a photo. As far as measuring the cavity, it is about 12 feet up, I could get on a ladder and try and put a thin, flexible stick up and down to see how far it extends. The hole is not big enough to put a hand in, or look into very easily.

The tree has been like this for a while, but I guess I am still freaked out a bit about what happened during the last storm right next door to my house: a very large oak, maybe 30"+ at the base, broke off about 20 feet up from the ground, below even the first branch. I inspected the fallen wood and bucked some of it up. The tree looked healthy, and the leaves were fine looking. But inside the big trunk, where the break happened, the wood was like soft, mushy mulch. And the higher limbs that I cut had some kind of disease, the wood was not as hard, solid and heavy as a normal healthy tree. Very scary!

 

[treeseer]

I could get on a ladder and try and put a thin, flexible stick up and down to see how far it extends.

:agree2: good idea. Try a yardstick and post your measurements, okay?

Was the oak next door the same species?

Reducing (not topping) trees makes them much less likely to break. :biggrinbounce2:

 

[Dadatwins]

:agree2: good idea. Try a yardstick and post your measurements, okay?

Just make sure no one is home before you get on a ladder and start poking in the hole, no fun having pissed off tree rat running down your back while on a ladder.

 

[ATS/TexasTree]

The cavity in the tree is the result of a flush cut- the picture shows it.

Flush cuts were the industry standard up until about 1972 when researchers discovered it was one of the worse things man kind has ever perpetrated on trees. Flush cuts remove the branch collar and allow decay to spread more rapidly.

Having said all of that, oaks are relatively good compartmentalizers of decay meaning they can wall off the decay and slow its spread by chemicals produced within the tree.

Do not be too quick to condemn the tree. Have a pro do a hazard tree assessment ( American Society of Consulting Arborists is a good place to start.)

I suspect your tree is OK and doesn't have to be removed

 

[stihl sawing]

The cavity in the tree is the result of a flush cut- the picture shows it.

Flush cuts were the industry standard up until about 1972 when researchers discovered it was one of the worse things man kind has ever perpetrated on trees. Flush cuts remove the branch collar and allow decay to spread more rapidly.

Having said all of that, oaks are relatively good compartmentalizers of decay meaning they can wall off the decay and slow its spread by chemicals produced within the tree.

Do not be too quick to condemn the tree. Have a pro do a hazard tree assessment ( American Society of Consulting Arborists is a good place to start.)

I suspect your tree is OK and doesn't have to be removed

That's interesting, What was the purpose of the flush cut other than to kill the tree.

 

[ATS/TexasTree]

Flush cuts, rather than proper branch collar cuts seemed to have gotten started largely with the advent of the chainsaw.

Certainly flush cuts were thought to be proper before chainsaws but were not made as frequently on large cuts due to the amount of effort involved.

There are still companies around my part of the world that think flush cuts are still proper.

The US government as late as 1994 still had flush cuts in their pruning standards for a project on a military base here in Central Texas.

 

[stihl sawing]

Thanks for the explanation. Much appreciated.

 

[Woodedlots]

Thanks everybody for the new posts! I got up on a ladder today and looked in the hole, and took a thin piece of flexible bamboo and stuck it in the hole. Fortunately, there were no angry "tree rats" in there!

Anyways, at the height of the tree where this hole is, there is basically about 3-4" of solid wood, then maybe 12" of air, then another 3-4" of wood. So there is basically a 3"-4" thick collar/ring that is holding this tree up. I jammed the bamboo down the hole towards the ground, was able to go down about 2 feet. I jammed the bamboo up towards the sky, was able to go about one foot up. That seems like a pretty big cavity to me - maybe 3' tall by 12" wide.

I am not sure the hole was caused by someone cutting a limb flush with the trunk - here's why: I have lived here 5 years, and the prior owner was there for 10 (from when the house was built new). The prior owner never did any kind of house/yard work, to the trees, bushes etc. They were "hands off" kind of people. Who would have pruned this branch? Not the utility company either. I suppose the builder could have. Maybe there was a branch there that broke off, and then somehow that spot rotted, and maybe woodpeckers started to eat it, etc. And then, somehow that became the cavity.

BTW, the big tree that I mentioned that broke off next door during the storm was a similar kind of oak. Maybe there is a disease going round.

 

[BayouTree]

The hole looks kinda unimpressive, but the measurements of the cavity you gave would have me worried. If the tree is exposed to much wind it could definitely fail at that point. It being as tall as you describe I would imagine that would be the case. I would probably opt for removal considering the targets you have involved with the tree.

 

[Jkebxjunke]

and your insurance company might have a fit if it failed and probably not wanna pay up and leave you with the bill. I have heard the Ins companies are getting tighter on their policies with regards to houses with trees near them