Do Hedge Apples Really Keep Bugs Out of Your Illinois Home?

Have you ever walked through an Illinois farm market in the fall and spotted people selling strange, green, bumpy balls that look like apples that have aged past their prime?

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Those green bumpy balls are actually hedge apples, also known as Osage oranges, and many people swear they work wonders at keeping pests out of your home in the fall and winter... but do they really work?

Why Do People Put Hedge Apples Around Their Houses?

For generations, people have placed hedge apples around basements, garages, porches and the outside of their homes to keep unwanted visitors like spiders, boxelder bugs, and mice out.

FYI, I am one of those people.

READ MORE: Over 200 Pumpkins Stolen From Illinois Farm

A few years ago, I started buying hedge apples at fall farm markets to place around the windows in my basement and foundation of my house. I was tired of vacuuming up spider webs and dealing with boxelder bugs in my basement all winter long, and I swear they help keep my insect problems under control.

Some people think using hedge apples as pest control is just an old wives tale, but what does the research actually say?

A green, bumpy fruit rests on fallen leaves

Do Hedge Apples Actually Work?

Researchers at Iowa State University have found the Osage-orange fruit does repel some insects, but there's a catch:

chemicals extracted from the fruit can be repellant to tested insects (German cockroaches, mosquitoes, and houseflies).  In addition, sliced hedge apples placed in enclosed, small spaces did repel insects.  However, there is still no evidence that putting whole fruit around the house or in the basement will have any effect on insect pests.

So, does this mean that the whole hedge apples I place in bowls by my basement windows aren't in fact creating a magical bug-free force field?

Evidence suggests the compounds responsible for the repellent effect aren't necessarily enough to make whole hedge apples effective when they're sitting in a large space.

I guess hedge apples might not be the spider-repelling superheroes I thought they were, but I will keep buying them and using them in my home... just in case.