The Osage orange tree, also known as a hedge apple has been a part of the landscape of Missouri, Texas, Oklahoma and Arkansas long before the white settlers moved in. Historically speaking the wood has been used as an excellent heating fuel, fence posts and in the making of the world’s best archery bows. However, Bronaugh, Mo., student and local FFA chapter member Cole Diggins got an idea from his grandfather and revived using the hedge apple as a green alternative for home insect control.
Cole’s hedge apple journey started when he voiced some concerns about some of his family members being allergic to bees. He wanted a way to repel the insects without killing them so he sought his grandfather, Ivan Diggins’ advice. “I asked him what I could do other than spraying them with pesticides because spraying is a leading cause for the collapse of the bee colonies,” remembered Cole. “He told me what his mom used to do with bugs in the house is cut up a hedge apple and spread them out all over the basement.”
Following his granddad’s advice, Cole cut up some hedge apples and dropped them around the house and found the results amazing. “We live in a brick home and we get them all over the bricks. We couldn’t get rid of them,” he said. “Not long after I started putting out the hedge apples all the mud daubers were gone.”
Being a member of FFA, Cole found a new project for his agri-science studies. Cole competed at the 2013 National FFA Convention with his project and won first place division one of Environmental Services/Natural Resource Systems.
He reviewed 100 surveys on hedge apples to see what others experienced in using the odd fruit as a natural insect deterrent as his starting point then used that for his experiments. After a series of tests where insects like bees, mud daubers, crickets, spiders and ants were exposed to the hedge apples Cole found something rather interesting on why the old home remedy worked.
“I was watching the crickets one day, making observations, and I noticed one of them attacked another cricket and killed it,” he recalled. “I notice they seemed to go schizophrenic. It doesn’t repel them or kill them like most pesticides do. The hedge apples just agitated them to the point where they don’t like where they’re at so they just try to leave.”
Cole later learned another lesson from the hedge apple trees near his home that verified what he had tested in controlled studies. First he noticed when the trees were in bloom that bees did not linger when pollinating. “As a natural defense the bees will go in and do their work and just get out of there,” he noted.
He also found that even the number of spiders that would normally be hanging out in the trees suddenly were gone. “After I did all of these studies I found there aren’t any bugs that really come around the hedge apple trees during their fruit season,” Diggins said, “When I was out picking up a crop I noticed all the spider webs near the trees and not many webs were there too, but there were no spiders.”
According to Cole and loads of research available online, the hedge apple is completely non-toxic to humans, pets and other animals. “The only thing I’ve seen is that it can cause a rash so just wear plastic gloves on your hands when you’re handling them,” he said. “It’s the elemol that the apple excretes that can cause irritation. Your hands will just itch, so just use soap and water to wash off the sticky juice from the apples.”
Hedge apples are odorless making them a perfect solution for indoor and outdoor use. They can be had by going to the nearest hedge apple trees or purchased online. Cole does advise the best time to get them is when the fruit is on the ground and begins to change from green to brown or black. “Of course if you can get to them before the squirrels do,” he warned.
To use the hedge apples Cole explained that the fruit must be cut into halves and placed in a container so the juices from the fruit will not stain the floor or carpet. It can then be strategically located in a central point in the house, under a cabinet or table so it is out of sight and out of mind.
“They’re effective from 30 to 50 feet so you can essentially put them in the center of the house. If you put them in your largest area the bugs will tend to stay out. You just need to cut the hedge apple in half. You can also put them in the attic to get rid of the mud daubers,” said Cole.
For outdoor uses, the effective range of the halved fruit is about the same. He added, “If you put them outside just take a small bucket full of them after they’ve been cut in half and drop them around the house every 30 or 50 feet.”
With the focus in these days on natural rather than man-made pesticides and promoting a healthier environment hedge apples may be an effective alternative to chemical pesticides for home and garden use. “I won’t say 100 percent effective,” said Cole. “I can effectively say that it works as well as any pesticide works.”
Cole has since turned his hedge apple project into a business venture selling hedge apples online year round.
