Oh yes, I've heard it many times. I know a gal who had a pretty bad infestation of wolf spiders in her basement and applied the fruits liberally. All it accomplished was having to remove old monkey balls a few months later. Spiders live where there is food. Spider food consists of insects. You remove reasons for insects to be in your house, then you remove the spiders who eat them, for the most part. That's about as organic as it gets, no? I love those old trees, and in fact germinated some and planted them around my property, mostly because it reminds me of my childhood when hedges of them were used as livestock barriers. Now they just erect electric fence.

Let me first say, I love these trees. Yes, they use to be abundant when the area was primarily agricultural. Now with the spreading suburbia, they are quickly disappearing. In part I'm at fault because I cut down a 1/2 mile hedgerow that was slated to for a new subdivision. One tree was over 4' wide. If you're going to use it for firewood, split it as soon as you cut it and never use it in a fireplace. Actually it can burn too hot even for an unlined cast iron stove. Dangerous wood to burn as it is a "sparkling" wood that will spit out embers. LOTS of ash but NOTHING burns as long or as hot other than coal itself. Many bird varieties were in the hedgerow including blue birds, indigo buntings, cardinals, hawks, owls, and even raccoons, possum, but never saw a squirrel! Hedge rows should be protected! They are an amazing wildlife habitant. Sorry to have cut this one down but otherwise they would have bulldozed it and just burnt it in the field. Remarkable wood. Peal off the bark and it will last 100yrs. Farmers made fence posting out of it. Not a great wood to work with as far as furniture or the like. Extremely hard after drying. I've cut old fence posts and had sparks flying while cutting. Full chisel chain works best for cutting this wood when green.

The leaves look right. This is the time of year for the fruits, but immature or male trees wouldn't have them. Thorns are a good clue, and if it is Osage orange, the leaf stalks should also ooze a milky white sap when broken.

Beautiful tree and thanks for sharing. Note what a difference it makes to have a person in the pic for a sense of scale.