Wednesday, November 12, 2008

Monkey Balls

I've got monkey balls in my basement. Also known as hedge apples or horse apples, these lumpy fruits of the Osage Orange tree are known by many for their use as a spider repellent.

My tweenkin daughter just moved into the basement, for some much sought after teen privacy and "space" so we went a walking to find her some monkey balls.

A few days later, my husband spotted a spider by the fireplace. As he was about to evict the little sucker, a thought occurred to me, and I stopped him dead in his tracks.

"DO NOT TOUCH THAT SPIDER!" I cried.

"Let's do an experiment. I want to see if those monkey balls really work."

So the family gathered round the hearth, with green ball and flashlight in hand, watching the reaction of our little eight legged intruder, as "Deal or No Deal" blared on in the background, ignored.

Nothing.

Ol' spidy did not mind the monkey ball one bit.

So we cut it in half to see if that would do the trick.

Still no reaction.

"I wonder what kind of spider he is?"

"I don't know, but I'll bet he comes from Washington D.C."

"Why?"

"Because he sure is slow to react."

With that, the family consensus was to head off to bead, and resume our research in the morning.

Of course, our little guest was still there the next day, happily spinning his home a mere six inches away from the horrid hedge apple.

Our conclusion: either monkey ball magic is a myth, or we have a spider with the soul of Martin Luther King, for he has surely overcome.


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7 comments:

Gabriele Caruso said...

Wonderful story.
When I was a teen I moved into the basement also.
Gee. I read "halfway" through your post and called a friend to see if Monkey ball oranges were around in Florida.this tendancy did not help me in school.
Then I read the rest of the story and realized that they was not needed.
My friend did not know where to get M.Bs in Florida but did agree that we do have Spiders here, and no real winder to chase them away.:-)

Kel-Bell said...

I am a big fan of holistic medicine and home remedies, but always investigate before advocating.

Gabriele Caruso said...

Well I am glad i visited your blog again.
First i meant no winter not winder. (Not too bright i guess)
Holistic medicine is something I value also.

Kel-Bell said...

I will be posting more holistic remedies in the near future.

I have a whole bag of such tricks to share.

Betty said...

Our neighbors' tree gives us plenty of those. My kids used to call them brain balls.

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