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10/06/06, 07:37 AM
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Soli Deo Gloria
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Join Date: Feb 2006
Location: SW Missouri
Posts: 692
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What eats hedge apples?
I know that they are inedible to humans, and that they can be used as cockroach control, but in the animal world, does anyone eat hedge apples? I have seen the trees over a cattle field, and the cattle didn't seem to want anything to do with them. They don't seem edible, especially with their thick glue, but I don't know for sure if some critter doesn't eat them.
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The best way to PREDICT the future is to help CREATE it.
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10/06/06, 08:00 AM
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Join Date: Mar 2005
Posts: 2,040
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squirrels love them! If you want some I have tons to give away if you want to pay postage! 
Last edited by holleegee; 10/06/06 at 08:52 AM.
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10/06/06, 08:13 AM
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Join Date: Feb 2006
Location: Gainesville Florida
Posts: 124
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According to the Wikipedia http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Osage-orange article on Osage orange (Maclura pomifera):
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The fruits are sometimes torn apart by squirrels to get at the seeds, but few other native animals make use of it as a food source. This is unusual, as most large fleshy fruits serve the function of seed dispersal, accomplished by their consumption by large animals. One recent hypothesis is that the Osage-orange fruit was eaten by a giant sloth that became extinct shortly after the first human settlement of North America. An equine species that went extinct at the same time also has been suggested as the plant's original dispersal mechanism because modern horses and other livestock will sometimes eat the fruit.
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These people sell them!
http://www.osagehedgeballs.com/Default.htm
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10/06/06, 09:09 AM
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Join Date: Mar 2005
Posts: 2,040
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My husband said deer will eat them when there is nothing else to eat in the winter.
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10/06/06, 09:17 AM
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Join Date: Dec 2005
Posts: 1,064
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a funny note
We have an over-priced "fruit stand" near my house that sells produce, cheese etc. They had a display of fall items, indian corn, etc. and had hedge apples for THREE DOLLARS each! (and a sign that said inedible, ha ha).
I thought it was pretty funny since you can pick them up off the ground all over town. I'm sure somebody bought them though!
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10/06/06, 09:23 AM
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Join Date: Jun 2006
Location: Tennessee
Posts: 236
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I have heard that you can place them under and in your home and pest like fleas don't like them and will leave. Anyone else heard that?
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10/06/06, 09:28 AM
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Join Date: Apr 2005
Location: Arkansas
Posts: 59
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We had a German Shepherd who chewed them (they looked like the yellow tennis balls he was used to playing with) and it killed him. Made his throat swell shut.
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10/06/06, 10:18 AM
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Join Date: Jun 2002
Posts: 5,240
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Yep, people swear they keep spiders and insects OUT of your house.
I used to work in a greenhouse, and the owners knew where there was a tree and picked all they could. They brought them to the greenhouse and sold them as hedge apples that were to keep spiders and insects out of a house. They sold them for about $1.00 each, and sold out of them EVERY time!
holleegee is going to send me some! I just like the looks of them and YES, we do keep them around the house to repel spiders and such!
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Michael W. Smith in North-West Pennsylvania
"Everything happens for a reason."
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10/06/06, 11:45 AM
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Scotties rule!
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Join Date: Mar 2005
Location: IL
Posts: 1,614
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My horses love them. They even pick them off the tree!
Kathie
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www.littlebitfarm.net
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10/06/06, 12:27 PM
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Join Date: Sep 2005
Location: SE Oklahoma
Posts: 188
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Quote:
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Originally Posted by zealot
I know that they are inedible to humans, and that they can be used as cockroach control, but in the animal world, does anyone eat hedge apples? I have seen the trees over a cattle field, and the cattle didn't seem to want anything to do with them. They don't seem edible, especially with their thick glue, but I don't know for sure if some critter doesn't eat them.
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Some cows DO eat them, some don't. It seems to be a roughly 50/50 thing. And yes, squirrels love them..... I think turkeys do as well. Some insects just love them to death, as well.
They contain latex (natural rubber, just like Rubber Trees & Guayale plants do) in fairly high levels. Commercial extraction of it has occasionally been looked into.
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10/06/06, 03:44 PM
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Join Date: Mar 2005
Posts: 2,040
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go to www.hedgeapple.com they have a lot of information on them.
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10/06/06, 05:29 PM
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Banned
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Join Date: Mar 2004
Location: wyoming/ now tennessee
Posts: 559
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I cut them in half and put them all under the house. We hardly evere see a spider or bug. Now if I could get something put there to git the mice out.
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10/06/06, 07:22 PM
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Tweety
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Join Date: Oct 2005
Posts: 164
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When I had a Camp Fire Girls troop we would cut hedge apples into slices and let them dry a bit, they look like big daisies, then we would stick them on wires and make bouquets. They don't last forever but they are big and pretty and have a nice fragrance.
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10/06/06, 07:29 PM
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Join Date: Oct 2004
Location: Ohio
Posts: 4,325
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Originally Posted by holleegee
squirrels love them! If you want some I have tons to give away if you want to pay postage! |
How do you get the squirrels to stay in the envelope? 
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10/07/06, 09:40 AM
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Join Date: Aug 2003
Location: Arkansas
Posts: 5,553
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Osage Orange wood is some of the most beautiful I've ever seen. I've heard that you can still find old fence post that were made from Osage Orange wood that are still in great shape. It's a very hard wood, so I'm thinking if you plan some of those "hedge apples" now...your great-grandchildren might have enough to make fence post later?
Hugs
marlene
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It is the one with persistence and determination that brings great ideas into being.
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10/07/06, 11:53 AM
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Registered User
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Join Date: Jun 2004
Posts: 5,662
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Osage orange is also one of the best bow woods -- but you all knew that already, didn't you?
Kathleen
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10/07/06, 12:08 PM
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Banned
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Join Date: Nov 2003
Location: Dysfunction Junction, SW PA
Posts: 4,808
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with a large sling shot, you can use them as artillery ammo to attack the neighbors.
they will think they are being attacked by aliens.
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10/07/06, 03:03 PM
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Join Date: Aug 2002
Location: southern New Jersey
Posts: 2,250
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I had a horse who considered them a great delicacy. There was an old hedgerow near his pasture, he would hang out there in the fall, waiting for them to fall so he could gobble them up!
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[COLOR="Blue"]Expect Little - That way you will be seldom disappointed.../COLOR]
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10/08/06, 03:38 PM
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Join Date: Sep 2005
Location: SE Oklahoma
Posts: 188
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Quote:
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Originally Posted by MarleneS
Osage Orange wood is some of the most beautiful I've ever seen. I've heard that you can still find old fence post that were made from Osage Orange wood that are still in great shape. It's a very hard wood, so I'm thinking if you plan some of those "hedge apples" now...your great-grandchildren might have enough to make fence post later?
Hugs
marlene
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Plant them now, and YOU will have enough to make fence posts. It's a fast growing wood. (The "hedge" part of the name refers to just that, it's use in managed hedges..... where you'd go in and cut the regrowth every 5 or so years for use as fenceposts).
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10/08/06, 03:41 PM
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Join Date: Sep 2005
Location: SE Oklahoma
Posts: 188
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Quote:
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Originally Posted by comfortablynumb
with a large sling shot, you can use them as artillery ammo to attack the neighbors.
they will think they are being attacked by aliens.
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That gives me a great idea.... make a cannon to fire them out of. The only problem might be if the latex starts fouling the barrel..... or will the burning powder scour it clean?
This way, if revenuers or ravaging hordes from the city ever show up, you'll be prepared! Works on tax collectors, salesmen, and scientologists as well!
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