I was at a local Farmer's market a couple of weeks ago and saw someone selling a fruit called - "Spider Apple". They said it can be used to keep spiders away from areas of the house. Does anyone know what the real name of the fruit or vegetable is. It is about the size of an green apple, and has a wrinkly looking skin.

Thanks,
Dan

"Daniel" dcxdanATyahooDOTcom wrote in message
...
I was at a local Farmer's market a couple of weeks ago and saw someone
selling a fruit called - "Spider Apple". They said it can be used to keep
spiders
away from areas of the house. Does anyone know what the real name of the
fruit or vegetable is. It is about the size of an green apple, and has a
wrinkly looking skin.

Google doesn't seem to know anything about a spider apple
http://www.google.com/search?q=%22spider+apple%22

I suspect it's a gimic that someone came up with to sell some extra apples,
I can't imagine a reason why spiders would shun an area just because an
apple was in the area.

-S

Daniel said:

I was at a local Farmer's market a couple of weeks ago and saw someone =
selling a fruit called - "Spider Apple". They said it can be used to =
keep spiders away from areas of the house. Does anyone know what the =
real name of the fruit or vegetable is. It is about the size of an green =
apple, and has a wrinkly looking skin.

The fruit of the Osage orange or hedge apple (Maclura pomifera) has the
folk-reputation of being an pest repellent. That might be morphable into
"spider apple" I suppose.

According to this article, the fruit of the Osage orange actually contains
a chemical that has insect repellant properties, so maybe there's a
nugget of truth in the folk tale--but the fruit should be crushed before
being set out as a repellant.

http://weather.nmsu.edu/AbqPlantList...sageOrange.htm

Every fall the hedge apples lay thick under a pair of trees I regularly
drive by, sizes ranging from apple up beyond large grapefruit.
--
Pat in Plymouth MI ('someplace.net' is comcast)

Any technology distinguishable from magic is insufficiently advanced.
(attributed to Don Marti)

Better read what this article has to say about this:

http://www.hort.purdue.edu/ext/hedgeapple.html


Hemma

Hi Hemma,
Yes, that sounds like what I saw at the Farmer's market. Too bad I could not find a photo of the fruit on the website. But it is about 3-4 inches in diameter, and has a very interesting looking outer skin - wrinkly.

Oh... you are a Hemmaholic? :-) That is too bad. Is there a support group I can donate to?

Dan
"Hemmaholic" wrote in message oups.com...
Better read what this article has to say about this:

http://www.hort.purdue.edu/ext/hedgeapple.html


Hemma