[EarthBound?]

Originally Posted by thevez2

What are hedgeapples for?

In regards to OK scorpions, I wouldn't worry about them. First of all they are tiny, around 2". They don't have medically significant venom, and their sting is only about a 2 (out of 5) on the pain scale for scorpions. About the same as a bee sting, just may last a little longer.

Hedgeapple (osage oranges) or (monkey balls as we call them) are good for keeping spiders out of the house . You place them in areas (outside) that might be openings for spiders to enter, i.e. both sides of the doors, basement windows, crawl spaces and garage door openings. If you are camping, place a couple around your tent as well.
Don't handle them without gloves on, because they are sticky and never place them inside the house, there are knats that like to live in them and fill your home in no time.
Now I don't know if they have any effect on Tarantulas, you'll just have to find that out on your own . LOL

[Mattie Jo]

Just got this from a friend:

Mosquito spray.....

I can't wait to try this in the summer!

I was at a deck party awhile back, and the bugs were having a ball
biting everyone. A man at the party sprayed the lawn and deck floor with
Listerine, and the little demons disappeared.
The next year I filled a 4-ounce spray bottle and used it around my
seat whenever I saw mosquitoes. And voila! That worked as well. It worked
at a picnic where we sprayed the area around the food table, the children's swing area, and the water nearby.
During the summer, I don't leave home without it.....Pass it on.
------------------
OUR FRIEND'S COMMENTS:
I tried this on my deck and around all of my doors. It works - in
fact, it killed them instantly. I bought my bottle from Target and it
cost me $1.89. It really doesn't take much, and it is a big bottle, too;
so it is not as expensive to use as the can of spray yo u buy that
doesn't last 30 minutes. So, try this, please. It will last a couple of
days. Don't spray directly on a wood door (like your front door), but
spray around the frame. Spray around the window frames, and even inside
the dog house.

[Goodpasture]

Originally Posted by SeabeeBolt

Hedgeapple (osage oranges) or (monkey balls as we call them) are good for keeping spiders out of the house . You place them in areas (outside) that might be openings for spiders to enter, i.e. both sides of the doors, basement windows, crawl spaces and garage door openings. If you are camping, place a couple around your tent as well.
Don't handle them without gloves on, because they are sticky and never place them inside the house, there are knats that like to live in them and fill your home in no time.
Now I don't know if they have any effect on Tarantulas, you'll just have to find that out on your own . LOL

They can also make a very tough impenetrable fence in a few short years. Dig a trench where you want them, crush the osage orange balls into a slurry, add enough water to make is soupy, pour in the ditch and cover it up. It does not have to be deep.....a couple of inches will do. In a few short years you will have a thick, prickly hedgerow that rabbits can't penetrate. You can trim it if you want, to keep it a hedge, or it will grow to a large 40'+ tree. The wood from this tree is very hard and resilient and is a preferred wood for both recurved bows and longbows.

[LEFT]Osage orange trees are a common sight on the Great Plains today although they were not a widespread member of the prairie community originally. Found primarily in a limited area centered on the Red River valley in southern Oklahoma and northern Texas, they were planted as living fences - or hedges - along the boundaries of farms, and have spread widely from these restricted, linear beginnings. The trees are easily recognized by their glossy, lance-shaped leaves (see illustration), and their short, stout thorns.[/LEFT]

The name of the tree comes from the Osage tribe, which lived near the home range of the tree, and the aroma of the fruit after it is ripe. (Find one of the fruit that has been sitting in the sun on a balmy Indian Summer day and notice the pleasant, orange-peel smell of the skin.) Not all of the trees will have fruit because Osage Orange are either male or female, and only the females will bear fruit.

Before the invention of barbed wire in the 1880's, many thousands of miles of hedge were constructed by planting young Osage Orange trees closely together in a line. The saplings were aggressively pruned to promote bushy growth. "Horse high, bull strong and hog tight." Those were the criteria for a good hedge made with Osage Orange. Tall enough that a horse would not jump it, stout enough that a bull would not push through it and woven so tightly that even a hog could not find its way through! After barbed wire made hedge fences obsolete, the trees still found use as a source of unbeatable fence posts. The wood is strong and so dense that it will neither rot nor succumb to the attacks of termites or other insects for decades. The trees also found use as an effective component of windbreaks and shelterbelts.

Osage Orange is a cousin to the mulberry tree. The family resemblance can be seen in:
A Papery orange colored skin on the roots
The structure of the fruit. (Look carefully at a hedge apple and you will see basically a big overgrown green mulberry!)

Its strong yet limber branches were prized for the construction of bows by the Native Americans. The common name "Bodark" is an altered version of the French "bois d'arc" or "bow wood". Hunters who are interested in the use of the wood for bows can check out OsageOrange.com.

Osage Orange

Are Osage Oranges edible?
Chop one in half and you will see a pithy core surrounded by up to 200 small seeds (smaller than sunflower seeds) that are much sought-after by squirrels. Try to harvest these seeds for yourself and you will get a clear understanding of how much the squirrels must like them! In addition to ripping apart the tough, stringy fruit, there is a slimy husk around each individual seed that must also be removed before the seed can be eaten. Nonetheless, Osage Orange trees are a magnet for every squirrel in the neighborhood. They typically sit on the ground at the base of the tree or on a wide branch up in the tree to disassemble their prize, making a big mess in the process. Piles of shredded hedge apple are a sure sign of squirrels in the area.

The seeds are edible by people, but one must do like the squirrels and pick them out of the pulpy matrix and remove the slimy husk. This is the only part of the fruit that people can eat. Cattle are sometimes tempted to eat the fruit and may choke on them if they do not chew them up sufficiently.

[EarthBound?]

Thanks Goodpasture,

Thats alot of stuff about the osage that I didn't know, but now I do . Now I did know about its usage to make bows by Native Americans, we learned about that in our Ohio history back in school. And I did know about them using it for fences but I wasn't sure "how they did it". Putting a natural fence of osage around the homestead is one sure-fire way to keep spiders and dirtbags out of your home, I like it. I may just have to do that when we move to Oklahoma.

[Mattie Jo]

That is all I need. Someone here said to cut the osage balls in half and put them around my house, and so what is it that I really, really need. Hedge Apples growing all along my house. LOL. But I did find two sources for them as they do grow here. One person said that they really don't work at keeping spiders out, but then somone else said they did. Then there was talk of how hard it is to cut them in half. Do you have to cut them in half?

[Mattie Jo]

You put hedgeapples, i.e. osage oranges, around your house to keep bugs and spiders out.

[LadyRobyn]

Well, Spring is officially here... Had my first Red Wasp of the year in the den. Every year it is a battle and I hate them! http://bestsmileys.com/paranoid/2.gif (broken link)

Always in the same room, and always around 2 or 3 in the afternoon...we've tried sealing off every opening we can find and I make SURE there are no nests around the eaves or in the shed out back... but they STILL get in! (usually one or two a day)

Any helpful ideas??

[mkfarnam]

Originally Posted by LadyRobyn

Well, Spring is officially here... Had my first Red Wasp of the year in the den. Every year it is a battle and I hate them! http://bestsmileys.com/paranoid/2.gif (broken link)

Always in the same room, and always around 2 or 3 in the afternoon...we've tried sealing off every opening we can find and I make SURE there are no nests around the eaves or in the shed out back... but they STILL get in! (usually one or two a day)

Any helpful ideas??

Red body and black wings,,right? I took out a nest last year in the shed out back, I went to get my mower the other day, open the shed door(s) and a swarm of them come flying out. I looked above the door where the nest use to be and now they have 2 of them there twice the size. They could have at least thanked me for cutting the weeds and grass to make it easier for them to get their food.

BTW, LadyRobyn, I meant to tell you,,,, I'm having a "Garage Sale" today thru Saturday.


Synopsis,,I'll get back to you on the DM.

[EarthBound?]

Just a little bug tip. Around here the farmers like to use "SEVIN" dusting powder. We suck it up into a old turkey bestir and shoot the powder into the nests in the evening when they are less likely to attack. I promise that in 2 or 3 days the whole hive will be dead. It works on all kinds of flying stinging insects and its the same powder that you use on the garden.
And the best part is that the insect won't return to build a new nest in the same spot, ever and it doesn't hurt other animals. The down side is that when you take out a hive of ground hornets the skunks love to dig up the dead nest to eat the larva.

[LadyRobyn]

Originally Posted by mkfarnam

Red body and black wings,,right? I took out a nest last year in the shed out back, I went to get my mower the other day, open the shed door(s) and a swarm of them come flying out. I looked above the door where the nest use to be and now they have 2 of them there twice the size. They could have at least thanked me for cutting the weeds and grass to make it easier for them to get their food.

BTW, LadyRobyn, I meant to tell you,,,, I'm having a "Garage Sale" today thru Saturday.
.

Yep...those are the ones. I get those AND the yellow/orange ones... usually they fly slow enough to hit 'em with spray inside the house, but last year I came home from the store to find 2 red wasps and 1 of the orange ones flying around the den. They are natural enemies so they were freaking out and dive bombing anything that moved... I sprayed so much wasp killer onto the ceiling trying to hit them that I almost needed an umbrella till it all stopped dripping. (Me paranoid? nah! )

(Cool! We'll try to stop by! )

Originally Posted by SeabeeBolt

Just a little bug tip. Around here the farmers like to use "SEVIN" dusting powder. We suck it up into a old turkey bestir and shoot the powder into the nests in the evening when they are less likely to attack. I promise that in 2 or 3 days the whole hive will be dead. It works on all kinds of flying stinging insects and its the same powder that you use on the garden.

I LOVE Sevin, liquid OR powder and I use it every year. I use the liquid and do a perimeter spray around the outside of the house every two or three months. I try to spray up under the eaves at least twice a year, but the Oklahoma wind makes that a little difficult... I tend to wind up taking a bath in it when the wind shifts. (Same problem with the powder )