Hedge Apples: A Natural Alternative to Pesticides

I was at the grocery store the other day on the hunt for some fresh mushrooms when I passed a box of odd looking fruit. The sign said “Hedge fruit: 2 for $1.00 not edible.” Huh? What on earth was it and what was it for? I picked up a piece of the strange bumpy looking fruit and as I was inspecting its strange surface, an old lady walked passed me and said “they are just great for keeping out the spiders.”

So of course, I had to do some research and discovered yet another to reduce carbon emissions and avoid the use of harsh chemical pesticides. And all I wanted was a few mushrooms.

Osage Orange, hedge apple, horse apple, bodark or more correctly Maclura pomifera is a small tree that was once used to indicate property boundaries in the days before barbed wire. They are a favorite of squirrels but not a good eating choice for humans.

Depending on who you to talk to, hedge apples deter spiders, crickets, bugs and cockroaches. It seems one university study showed that a natural chemical with the hedge apple to deter cock roaches. People put the hedge apples in dark corners, by doorways and porch steps to prevent insects entering the house. Everyone that uses them swears that they work.

Perhaps they are not the best natural insecticide out there (and I will continue to look for others) but they are a step in the right direction. And the cool thing is they aren’t anything new. People have utilized hedge apples for over a century in this capacity.

Sometimes being green isn’t a matter of coming up with new ways to do things, its about remembering how we used to do them.

Pesticides carry dangerous and deadly chemicals that give off carbon emissions during the manufacturing process. They can destroy farm side ecosystems and add unnecessary toxins to our food supply. So if an crinkly green apple thing in the corner of the room will reduce my dependence on such things? Well? I’m all for it.