Since moving out to 18 acres of rural country we discovered that this old house is infested with Brown Recluse spiders! So far we have not gotten bitten by one, but we frequently find them in our clothes, bedding, etc. I have only heard of two "successful" ways of ridding ones place of Brown Recluse spiders. One is to seal off the walls, floors, and seiling so that there are no cracks in which the spiders may live. As ours is a typical country house (and yet interiorly unfinished) this is impossible! The other solution is to place OSAGE ORANGES here and there throughout the house. There is even a web sight selling these OSAGE ORANGES - MONKEY BALLS - HEDGE APPLES....for exorbitant prices! I have heard that they are easy bushes/small trees to grow. DOES ANY ONE KNOW WHERE I CAN GET A PLANT? I am also interested in hearing anyone’s experiences for or against these Osage Oranges. Hoping to get rid of these spiders soon. Adrienne

-- Adrienne (AdrienneA_Grass@hotmail.com), June 23, 2001

Answers

"Osage Oranges" are nothing but the seed fruits from the Bois D'Arc tree,that grow wild all over everywhere. You really dont want one close to your home,they are extremely messy,grow to about 75 feet tall,and the fruit falls off and rots.Nothing will eat them,the squirrels will eat a few seeds,but not many. Where I grew up,they are called "Horse Apples." There are stories that they will rid your house of roaches,mice,snakes,and yes,spiders...They won't ! The best thing you could do for brown recluse spiders is get an exterminator to spray,then keep everything super cleaned up for a couple of months.They only live and breed in dark,secluded areas,like closets,trash piles,barns etc. Keep all trash cleaned up,clothes not in the floor of closets,etc, and they will dissapear. Bolivar Missouri passed a "trash" ordinance that prohibits any trash of any kind being allowed to sit for over a day,inside or outside,simply to get rid of brown recluse spiders. Good luck,but dont pay anyone for an osage orange.It will not help you ! Don

-- Don (twosloans@texoma.net), June 23, 2001.

Mellingers.

"http://www.mellingers.com">http://www.mellingers.com

-- Sojourner (sojournr@missouri.org), June 23, 2001.

Ooops, typo messed that hyperlink up. Try again

I had my pasture mowed last year and the neighbor came out and walked the field with me, saw a black locust of a fairly good size out there, and immediately told me I was going to "have to" get rid of it. I wonder what he'd think if he knew I'm planning on planting a whole bunch more of them.

-- Sojourner (sojournr@missouri.org), June 23, 2001.

Ooops, typo messed that hyperlink up. Try again

http://www.mellingers.com

As was mentioned, its the same plant as Bois d'Arc, and the wood is in some demand by people who handmake bows (you know like bows and arrows). It also makes excellent fenceposts, and isn't half bad as a hedge. It is thorny and most folks think its ugly, but its also a pretty useful plant. Black locust is another often maligned but very useful tree. It too is thorny and "ugly", but its also tough, hardy, makes great fenceposts and firewood (I'm told osage orange is NOT good for firewood, it makes a nasty snarly snappy fire I'm told), and fixes nitrogen to boot.

I had my pasture mowed last year and the neighbor came out and walked the field with me, saw a black locust of a fairly good size out there, and immediately told me I was going to "have to" get rid of it. I wonder what he'd think if he knew I'm planning on planting a whole bunch more of them.

-- Sojourner (sojournr@missouri.org), June 23, 2001.

Osage Orange wood provides more BTUs than any other wood.

-- Walt (longyear@shentel.net), June 23, 2001.

Well, Walt, when you're right, you're right. Took me awhile but I finally dug up a table I'd seen before with relative value of different woods for fuel. Here it is:

http://www.ianr. unl.edu/pubs/forestry/g881.htm

And sure enough Osage Orange is at the top of the list. Now I'm REALLY going to have to get serious about planting some, LOL!

In second place is either black locust (which is what I expected) or persimmon (which I never would have guessed in a million years).

Now I'm left wondering just what wood it is that is notoriously bad for sparking and spitting ...

Apparently the stuff is not only used by bowyers (sp? Guys who hand make bows) but also to make musical instruments. It's a very pretty wood.

And here's a whole website devoted to Osage Orange:

http://hedgeapple.com/

There are instructions here for how to grow it from seed. Growing Osage Orange from seed is usually a tough proposition, but apparently the method described there works pretty well. I'm going to have to try to find some trees to harvest fruits from this fall and see if I can get it to work.

HAH!!! There it is - on the above webpage is found the following statement:

Green Hedge puts on the most spectacular light show when burned in a fireplace.

So it sure sounds like GREEN osage orange does probably spit up a storm. You might want to avoid burning it unless its well seasoned.

-- Sojourner (sojournr@missouri.org), June 24, 2001.

Have well over 100 osage orange trees that have come up wild on 80 acres. The "hedge-balls" that you're referring to wouldn't be available until October, but if anyone wants one then I'd be glad to send you one or several for the postage. Have never tried planting one as the trees seem to be very good at propagating theirselves with no help from me.

-- fred (fred@mddc.com), June 29, 2001.