Use them as baseballs? They might be fun when the bat hits them.

i dont get the insect repellant joke????

ken

People once thought keeping the fruit in a basement or garage would keep out spiders and insects. Probably has no merit. I still see older people collecting the fruit along the roadside. Jay

We get them here every fall, they are locally called "Monkey balls". If you want to start a impenitral hedge, use the seeds.

We used to hurl them at each other as kids. There was a gnarly old specimen in our subdivision that wasn't cut down when the houses were built. More than once I got surprised with a thud on the back as one of those ugly, green orbs was hurled in my general direction, quickly reciprocated, of course.

throw them away.

I've seen something, somewhere, some time ago, where folks sliced them on a bandsaw, dried them, and made crafts with them - don't remember what, though 'flowers' seem to come to mind...

There aren't enough crafters on earth to deal with all the hedge apples around this area. They're not on our property, but the farm in back of us has a long tree line along the road -- all Osage orange. The road is totally littered with them now.

I'd try to find one of those punkin-chunkin machines and retrofit it for hedgeapples. Better still, let them dry and then burn 'em. The fewer of those things, the better.

I've tried growing Osage orange trees four times, but they must not like my soil, they just sit there a couple of years then die. I've heard they prefer alkaline soil, so that could be the problem, my soil is very acidic.

Feed them to elephants. Apparently elephants are the only animal that will eat them.

I read an article about how these fruit evolved to be dispersed by mammoths. With the mammoths gone, nothing in North America eats them.

Turn them into compost? I bet there are a lot of nutrients in them, and the fiber would probably hold water once the rest of them rot away.

Hollow them out, dry them, and use them in flower arrangements? Or mini Jack-Olanterns?

Use them as Christmas tree ornaments?

Elephants and squirrels. The squirrels dig them up from under the snow every winter. I'm sure plenty of other animals like them also but I only see the squirrels go after them outside my window.

If any site would show what to do with them regarding crafts, Pinterest.com will. Start thinking outside the box in how they could be used, even if they don't retain that "look".

Glad you asked the question. I've always wondered, too. You'll need to try any number of word combinations.

http://www.folkfibers.com/blogs/news/7250546-natural-dyes-osage-orange

http://wendyfe.wordpress.com/tag/dyeing-with-osage-orange/

http://www.pinterest.com/pin/32510428531309773/

http://ibonsaiclub.forumotion.com/t9533-osage-orange-whip-1-year

Cows will eat them, as well. I've seen them chewing on sodden, bletted fruit, wallowing them around in their mouths 'til they mash them up enough to swallow. But, I've also seen them 'choke' on them - if they don't chew them adequately, they can lodge in their esophagus, precluding eructation of rumen gases, causing bloat - and potentially death.

Alabamatreehugger, My area is slightly acid to neutral and they are common here as hedges gone wild. There is one that isn't tall and beautiful but the trunk has become nice and showy. I will try to get a picture of it, it is orange and deeply ridged bark, has been there all my life that I can recall. They are native to Texas as I recall reading, named after the Osage Indians in Texas.