What tree do these come from?

[Lunachick]

Quote:
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/thumb/b/b9/Osage_orange_2.jpg/244px-Osage_orange_2.jpg

Mine must have been sitting around too long.......it looked different than that! yuck

 

[chrisf]

Osage orange. I have those here in NY.....I wish they were edible....................................................Chrisf

 

[I have WHAT in my yard?]

They're osage oranges here too. But the local kids all call them monkey balls! Don't ask me why.....

It is great fire wood but the trees are a pain to live with. The seed pods are huge and the mower does not like them. The seed pods are huge and become slippery when smashed so you end up on the ground on your back wet and sticky staring at the sky wondering what just hit you....... The seed pods are huge so they hurt when they fall, they'll dent your car!

They line the street up the bend (not on our property) and every year there is at least one crash as a car comes round the bend and slides on smashed osage oranges.....



If you cut one open be ready for the clean up it's sticky!!



My birds will not eat them and I don't open any for them because I am not sure they should eat the insides, anyone know?? Something must eat them but I don't see squirrels eat them.

 

[EweSheep]

I remember my Mom put them all around the farmhouse foundations to keep the bugs away. Not sure if it really worked.

I do know this.....it is HORRIBLE for the lawnmower, those flying projectilies are something else!

 

[ChooksChick]

Quote:
A nut like looking round thing. My kids use to use them to throw at each other.....they thought the partially rotted ones made the best ammo.

We have had cows that tried to swallow them whole tho and they've gotten stuck in their thoats. Then you have to stick the garden hose down them to push it on down.....not a fun thing. Ours are loaded with apples this year which the old timers always said meant a bad, long winter.

My great-grandmothers grew up in Russell and Hayes and the folklore always said the wooly caterpillars in numbers meant the same thing- long, wet, hard winter...and I've seen tons of them this year- still seeing them and saw them way early in the year. I conferred with my mom, who confirmed that her G-mas would be very worried about what we're about to face.

Yuck.

 

[EweSheep]

So the wooley worms and overabundance of apples meaning we are going to have a hard winter?

Its been very dry so far this fall.

 

[ChooksChick]

Quote:
I'm thinking we need to consult our beetle in the matchbox- anyone else remember that episode of Beverly Hillbillies?

 

[Katy]

I have WHAT in my yard? :

My birds will not eat them and I don't open any for them because I am not sure they should eat the insides, anyone know?? Something must eat them but I don't see squirrels eat them.

The squirrels here eat them. They "shell" off the outside layer to get to the middle part.​

 

[SallyF]

People around here swear by them to keep bugs out of your house.

 

[I have WHAT in my yard?]

I heard the stripe width on woolies tells you about the coming winter and all of our woolies are one big brown stripe with little bits on black at each end. If you hadn't seen them striped before you would never call them striped.

But an entomologist said their stripes and numbers had more to do with the amount of rainfall in the summer than what will come in the winter.

I dunno - I tend to believe in grandmas!