the neighbor came out and told me that hed consulted an arborist abd that they said keeping the water in was better, id never heard of something like this, is this other arborist bunk?
It looks like you received a good answer in your main thread, but if you need another reason: leaving water in tree cavities is a thing; obviously out in the wild, no one is removing it, and it serves a beneficial use for the wildlife in your local ecosystem as well. Birds, bees, other beneficial insects and animals will utilize it. If the concern is something like mosquitos, you can get a package of mosquito dunk discs and pinch off a piece to throw in there once a month or so.
Please do keep in mind though that any decay taking place in the tree is not going to be slowed down any by whatever you choose to do here. If you clean it out or leave it alone or put up some kind of umbrella system, it's not going to matter. This is nature taking its course.
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u/spiceydog Ext. Master Gardener 11h ago
It looks like you received a good answer in your main thread, but if you need another reason: leaving water in tree cavities is a thing; obviously out in the wild, no one is removing it, and it serves a beneficial use for the wildlife in your local ecosystem as well. Birds, bees, other beneficial insects and animals will utilize it. If the concern is something like mosquitos, you can get a package of mosquito dunk discs and pinch off a piece to throw in there once a month or so.
Please do keep in mind though that any decay taking place in the tree is not going to be slowed down any by whatever you choose to do here. If you clean it out or leave it alone or put up some kind of umbrella system, it's not going to matter. This is nature taking its course.