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tuesday_tues

HUGE raccoon living in hollow of my tree

tuesday_tues
15 years ago

HI, here I am again, was just in Kitchen and then Plumbing, now have a new issue-living in an old house in the woods is fun....

Ok, so i live in Chicago, but on the NW side near a forest preserve so the trees are HUGE and plentiful, some are in the middle of the street in my neighborhood, yes, i know that does not sound like chicago but it is, the neighborhood is called Edgebrook.--all neighborhoods of chicago have a name.

one of my many trees, my huge oak tree in front of my house--literally 2 steps from my front door -- the squirrelys jump from my tree to my house--just to give you an idea how close it is. we think the tree is 80-100 years old,

well one of the large branches that extends out over the front yard has a hole in it--the hole is on the top of the branch so i cannot visually see it but those guys that came to trim the tree has seen it and i have seen enough critters enter/exit the hole that i am sure it is quite large.

i have had a raccoon live in it, i used to see her. then i had squirrel family live in it. was cute to see baby squirrels practice climbing the tree. well, now a raccoon is back and it is the largest raccoon i have ever seen, must be at least 35 lbs. i am concerned about 3 things--maybe there is something else i should be concerned about but have not even thought of yet.

ok, so

1--could this hole be getting so big that it is rotting out the tree and the limb will fall?

2--how dangerous is it to have a raccoon live so close? it climbs up and down and, like last night when i came home, i was walking by the tree and--yikes-right there was the raccoon making its treck home.

3--could this cause any diseases of the tree or neighboring trees?

i love nature and do not like to do anything to keep it from being just that, nature, but after the dead animal under my front concrete slab porch that is still decaying--smell is not as bad as it was a few weeks ago--i am starting to think i might be going overboard.

i hope you can help me out here.

tuesday_tues

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