To become enabled to wade in and cut, look for helmets with face shields and strap-on arm and leg protectors at outlets that sell safety gear and chain saws. The kids maybe should be wearing similar gear when riding, too, even if all the thorn is cleared away beforehand. Helmets with face protection, if nothing else. Kids on motorcycles here often seem to have these helmets on that come down around the jaw (maybe their eyes and part of their faces could still have something get at them, that is what you are talking about).

Sounds more like honeylocust(Gleditsia triacanthos) than cockspur hawthorn, particularly due to the clusters of thorns you've described on the trunk.

Sharp chainsaw and a good herbicide, labeled for stump or frill treatment is in order. You don't necessarily have to cut them down, unless you want to.
I just make a girdling cut all the way around the trunk with my chainsaw, then squirt Pathway herbicide in, making certain to get it on the cambium layer all the way around the tree. Full-strength Brush-B-Gon &/or Roundup may work as well.

Here is a link that might be useful: {{gwi:334218}}

Thanks for the advice! Lucky, looking at the pic of the honeylocust thorns... I don't think I have noticed any thorns that branch off like that. Mine are all single thorns, even when massed together.

Hmm. It's been a while since I encountered a good-sized cockspur hawthorn(I use them as dwarfing rootstocks for pears, and for topworking mayhaws onto), but I don't recall their trunks having 'masses' of thorns - though one online article did make reference to such. You'll certainly be able to ascertain the difference once they begin leafing out &/or blooming.

They would be good for wildlife and making an hedge to keep predators out, but I wouldn`t want them in my yard. I have many of these trees in fence rows and I try to eliminate them. I don`t consider them as much of a nuisance as honeylocust because they don`t give me as many flat tires.

If they are all over your property, and you have downed limbs, you will have a lot of punctured motorcycle tires.

I'd use a bulldozer or backhoe. Push em' into piles and burn them when you can or leave them in piles for wildlife habitat, although I don't think you'd get much with a motocross between the piles.

My neighbor, on 10 acres, made a motocross for his kids. I sure was glad when they graduated from high school and left.

Could they be hedge apple or Osage Orange trees? They are very thorny, expecially when young. I had to deal with a lot of those and I have the scars to prove it. You'll go through a lot of chain saw blades for those as the wood is extremely hard and you'll probably need chemicals to kill the stumps. Depending on what species the wood is and how large they are, you might consider selling the wood to help offset your costs.

From Botann above:
"My neighbor, on 10 acres, made a motocross for his kids. I sure was glad when they graduated from high school and left."

Lol! I know just how you feel! We moved far away from the city to get away from loud mechanical noises. Some noise is obviously expected as people need to get things done on their propery, but there is a limit.

Looks like I what I have...hedge apple trees. Single thorns and then in the fall there are these huge bumpy "apples." So what's the solution for getting rid of them? The neighbor says you can't cut them down because they grow back from the stump, but I figured someone here would know. Plus, my neighbor thinks the ticks might like the tree and my daughter got a tick in her hair last night. So gone are the trees! Just tell me how.
PLease

Lucy,
The Osage Orange(Maclura pomifera, aka hedge-apple) trees have nothing to do with ticks. While I have OO trees on the farm here, I've not been within a half-mile of them and I've had numerous ticks on me this week, just from walking through my orchard and nursery beds. So...don't blame the trees for a tick on your daughter.
If, however, you want the trees gone, you can cut them down with a chainsaw, but unless you treat the stump with a suitable herbicide(look for something containing picloram & 2,4-D - like Tordon, Pathway, Brush-B-Gon, etc.), they will, indeed resprout.

Plus, my neighbor thinks the ticks might like the tree and my daughter got a tick in her hair last night. So gone are the trees!

luey, your neighbor isn't so bright. A tick will crawl on any plant - any grass, shrub, tree or ornamental, if it thinks it can use it as a launching point. If you live anywhere except the city, you and your kids are gonna pick up ticks. The solution is to check them and their clothes when they come in from being outside.

If you have other reasons for killing your macluras, see lucky p's post above.

Luey, ticks are, unfortunately, an unpleasant part of living in the country. While there are areas that have few of them - I think I saw fewer than 5 total in all my years growing up in VT, having no dogs, but outdoors and in woods almost everyday, riding - most outdoor areas will have ticks. Unless your children never go off a mowed lawn - and even then, probably, there will be ticks - ticks will find them. There are ways of limiting tick exposure - try a search of this or other GW forums for "ticks" and see what you find - off the top of my head, I can remember relatively non-toxic suggestions such as beneficial nematodes applied in fall or early spring against the ground-based young, keeping Guinea fowl, using herbal repellents. There are sprays you can have applied to your yard, but they are relatively non-selective and toxic.

As suggested above, you simply check yourselves and your children, and clothing, carefully every night. Because ticks crawl upward until they encounter an obstacle or can't climb anymore, when they attach themselves, common sites to find them are heads, armpits and around ears. Because of the toxicity of DEET, I would recommend using it only on clothing and not on skin, esp. for children. There are less-toxic, but also less effective repellents. While my dog, who goes through the underbrush a LOT more than I do, can have many ticks on her (2-15/day in the past, many fewer this year for some reason - new, natural food?), I have had only about 5-8 per year on me in the 8 years I have lived here. Dropping them into a jar of water with a few drops of detergent or alcohol (to break the surface tension of the water) will drown them. Don't just drop them down the john, unless you flush - they float and will crawl out to be on the edge of the seat or lid the next time you come in.

Dogs and other outside animals - cats, horses, etc. - should be checked daily as well, although you can use a spot-on treatment for them (my dog gets a skin reaction to the treatments so gets checked daily, sometimes twice).

If you want the Osage orange trees gone, do it for other reasons, such as the thorns - you won't have that many fewer ticks on you, your kids or animals because of their presence or their absence. Follow Lucky P's suggestions if you want to get rid of them.

HI! Original poster here!! It's now spring and I have leaves. Gonna now say it is a honey locust. Anyone up for a bonfire?