# MMM...Locust....



## Corey (Jan 6, 2009)

Well, the wife has taken up a new hobby...Geocaching.  For anyone that hasn't yet experienced it, basically people hide boxes of crap around in the city, woods, countryside, etc and give you the GPS coordinates.  You then get to drive, bike, hike to those coordinates and search for the crap they've hidden.  Basically a giant easter egg hunt - I suppose it shouldn't be too harsh, it is kind of fun and definitely gives the opportunity to scout firewood at the same time.

We were out this past weekend, hiking through the woods and I came across a locust tree...a little small for harvesting right now, but give it a few years.  Oh, did I mention that they sometimes have thorns??


----------



## Jfk4th (Jan 6, 2009)

That is one tree that ain't going nowhere for a while...Damn nice pic!


----------



## Todd (Jan 6, 2009)

Why on earth would a tree need thorns like that?


----------



## Prada (Jan 6, 2009)

I live out in the woods and have never seen anything like that. Amazing!


----------



## firefighterjake (Jan 6, 2009)

Cozy . . . cool tree.

By the way I also geocache . . . although I haven't been out lately since I've been so busy with firewood . . . too many things to do so the hobbies get pushed to the side.

When your wife logs on to do a search for caches have her plug in Firefighterjake in Maine . . . you'll see I actually have several caches that I've put out around my hometown . . . including one entitled "Before Lizzie Borden" which includes the true story about a multiple homicide with an ax wielding brother who was one of the last folks in Maine to be hanged for murder.


----------



## Malatesta (Jan 6, 2009)

Ive Harvested locust before and ive never seen thorns Like that on any of the trees. Is that a briar growing up and around the tree ? Thats nasty !
Probably a honey locust ! Most here in Md are black locust.  You might as well cut that down now, if memeory serves me its a slow
growing tree.


----------



## Jags (Jan 6, 2009)

Todd said:
			
		

> Why on earth would a tree need thorns like that?



Come on Todd - being up in cheese head cow country, you gotta have a bunch of locust and osage growing in the fence rows.  I know that we do.  Very few are like the picture above, but it does happen.

Oh, by the way, don't get punctured by those thorns, they are know to give infections.  Had one jab my wrist years ago (went deep), and had to go to the doc to get drugs for the infection and swelling.  My wrist ended up the size of my forearm, and I have pretty big forearms.


----------



## bsruther (Jan 6, 2009)

We have a lot of locust here, it burns great. It takes a little longer to season than my other wood though. There's a big almost dead one at the edge of my woods that's coming down in the spring. The weird thing about the thorns is, all of the young locust I have in my yard have a small amount of thorns on the trunk, but up on the ridge, behind the house there is a grove of them just like in the pic you posted. One thing I've observed on all of them, is that they lose the trunk thorns when they get older. I've also noticed that the older trees get hard, woody, fungus things that grow on the trunk. I haven't seen them on any other type of tree.

My son Geocaches too. He told me that one day he was at a park, in the woods, after finding one and he busts out of the bushes. There happens to be a woman walking right there and she gasps and runs. He yells "hey lady, I'm just geocaching", but she just keeps running.
We live on a hill, overlooking a big hayfield and we're going to put a geocache down by the edge of the woods, just so we can watch people hunt for it.


----------



## bsruther (Jan 6, 2009)

Here's some of my Locust:

Almost dead Locust




Fungus




Trunk without thorns


----------



## dj2cohen (Jan 6, 2009)

Woodford,

That's the locust that I know from around here as well.  I've always known it as Yellow Locust.  Burns great.

I have never seen locust like the ones in the OP though.  I don't know that I would even mess with ones like that.  They look dangerous.


----------



## Jags (Jan 6, 2009)

dj2cohen said:
			
		

> They look dangerous.



Make no mistake---they are.  Those thorns can get several inches long and are as sharp as a sewing needle and as hard as a nail.  They can puncture a tractor tire easily.  They scoff at car tires and laugh at human flesh.


----------



## Todd (Jan 6, 2009)

Jags said:
			
		

> Todd said:
> 
> 
> 
> ...



Never seen wild Honey Locust with thorns around here, just Black Locust and they are pretty rare.


----------



## Jags (Jan 6, 2009)

Todd said:
			
		

> Never seen wild Honey Locust with thorns around here, just Black Locust and they are pretty rare.



You must me ooop nort a little farther than I was thinking.  Ya?


----------



## Corey (Jan 6, 2009)

Yeah, I don't know why they would need thorns like that - maybe to stop grazing animals...like an elephant or something.  Definitely makes you keep a lookout while hiking....backing into one of those is not a fun ordeal and saguaro cactus have nothing on these trees!  I've seen those thorns spear skin, boot soles, truck tires, even a few tractor tires.  They always seem to be sharp as a pin and usually have a weak spot about 3/16 to 1/4" behind the point.  They poke right into your skin, then break off and leave the tip to start a nice infection!

jake- I'll pass along the word to check out your cache's.  Thanks for the tip.


----------



## TreePapa (Jan 6, 2009)

Holy Sh**. Maybe that's what I should plant between us and our _lovely_ neighbors.

Peace,
- Sequoia


----------



## ansehnlich1 (Jan 6, 2009)

Yeah we have those thorny locust here in Pennsylvania, they like the bottom land, near creeks and such. They ain't the same tree as the black locust that's also pictured here. I think the real thorny one is honey locust.


----------



## Adios Pantalones (Jan 6, 2009)

I'm guessing it was in good shade and when a canopy tree went down, it sprung out those thorns/branches in response.  I find that honey locust is thornier than black locust.  bad @$$ tree there.


----------



## Der Fuirmeister (Jan 7, 2009)

Todd said:
			
		

> Jags said:
> 
> 
> 
> ...




I'm in Southern WI and haven't seen any of those either.  That thing needs a haircut........


----------



## Jags (Jan 7, 2009)

Hmmm....I am basically 30 min. south of the border and they are fairly common around creeks or other sources of water.


----------



## Prada (Jan 7, 2009)

I showed the pictures to Hubby and he laughed at me when I told him that I posted how I had never seen anything like that....then he told me to hop on his quad with him and we rode to the back of our property and low and behold.......there was one that looked just like the ones in the pictures posted here. lol
I guess I'm not too observant at times. Anyhow I looked them up and here is some interesting info on them:http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Honey_locust


----------



## Gooserider (Jan 8, 2009)

Woodford, the bottom locust you had the photo of may not have any thorns, but it looks to have a hellacious big Poison Ivy vine running up the side of it...

Gooserider


----------



## bsruther (Jan 8, 2009)

Gooserider said:
			
		

> Woodford, the bottom locust you had the photo of may not have any thorns, but it looks to have a hellacious big Poison Ivy vine running up the side of it...
> 
> Gooserider


Good obsrvation there Gooserider. It is definitely a poison ivy vine and a big one at that. It's also very dead. It's severed at the bottom. I enjoy killing Poison Ivy almost as much as I enjoy killing Multiflora Rose.


----------



## Gooserider (Jan 8, 2009)

Woodford said:
			
		

> Gooserider said:
> 
> 
> 
> ...



Good to hear, I do the same w/ the poison ivy around our house, either that or give it a good shot of roundup - from a distance...  Trouble is the vines stay irritating for years, even after they are dead...

Not sure what the MultiFlora rose is, but I know I also see a lot of some sort of climbing vine that is a real nusiance as it gets into all sorts of stuff and makes it hard to trim or do other work around.

Gooserider


----------



## Der Fuirmeister (Jan 8, 2009)

Gooserider said:
			
		

> Woodford said:
> 
> 
> 
> ...



FYI.....don't ever burn Poison Ivy.  I know someone who did that and was walking through the smoke.  Bad results!!


----------



## Gooserider (Jan 8, 2009)

Der Fiur Meister said:
			
		

> <snip>
> FYI.....don't ever burn Poison Ivy.  I know someone who did that and was walking through the smoke.  Bad results!!



I absolutely agree  This was hammered into me since I've been a little kid - my father was clearing land and had Poison Ivy in the slash pile he was burning, put him in the hospital for a while...

Gooserider


----------



## Adios Pantalones (Jan 8, 2009)

Not uncommon for firemen to have respiratory issues breathing in PI smoke.  I get just a few little spots of it a year after hauling/splitting wood, but they stick around forever.


----------



## karri0n (Jan 8, 2009)

Is that poison ivy or Virginia creeper? Either way, avoid it. About the poison ivy inhalation thing... It's an urban(herban?  ) legend, but supposedly some kids knew some other kids they didn't like who wanted to buy "something" from them for smoking purposes, so the kids tore up some poison ivy leaves and put it in a bag and sold it to them. The kids that smoked it died. It seems plausible, but not sure if it actually happened. Not a very good joke.


----------



## Prada (Jan 8, 2009)

We were sitting around one of our summer night camp fires out back and after throwing some old wood on the fire, my grandson's face and lips started swelling immediately and he was having a hard time breathing. The smoke from the fire was blowing his way. We took him to the ER and by that time he was a mess. They determined that old dead poison ivy dust was still on some of the wood and it was intensified greatly from the burning action. They said he could have died. He was kept a couple of days with treatment.


----------



## firefighterjake (Jan 8, 2009)

Adios Pantalones said:
			
		

> Not uncommon for firemen to have respiratory issues breathing in PI smoke.  I get just a few little spots of it a year after hauling/splitting wood, but they stick around forever.



That happened to a couple of our guys a few years back when they were doing the annual Spring burning of some local fields for residents . . . one guy ended up with PI in his throat.

Me . . . I think I may be immune to the stuff . . . a few years back my wife (on the ambulance squad) and another firefighter ended up with poison ivy after we were laying in the stuff at the scene of a vehicle roll-over. I was right down there with them and never got so much as a red spot on my skin.


----------



## bayshorecs (Jan 8, 2009)

My mother got PI from breathing in the smoke loading up the old furance as a kid.  Broke out in her throat and lungs.  She never went the hospital, but she should have (no money/insurance growing up).  

Talk about an itch you just can't scratch!  I bet it was bad.


----------



## karri0n (Jan 8, 2009)

On the original topic, after seeing that locust tree in the original post, my money is on Locust in the upcoming Ent wars of 2012...


----------



## mike1234 (Jan 31, 2009)

As I was cutting down a dead elm today, I noticed that there are a lot of those thorny locust in that area, all ready to be made firewood.  When I have cut them before, I cut it down, trim off the branches with the chain saw, then have at the thorns with the ax.  I thought maybe some of you had a better idea, or something you had used to harvest these trees.  I'm guessing it's just hard ax work, given that there are a lot of them around here for me to take if I want them.


----------



## xjnuttier (Feb 3, 2009)

ansehnlich1 said:
			
		

> Yeah we have those thorny locust here in Pennsylvania, they like the bottom land, near creeks and such. They ain't the same tree as the black locust that's also pictured here. I think the real thorny one is honey locust.



They must be in southern PA then, Ihave lived in PA my whole life and never seen those anstys looking locusts around, have seen plenty of black around the farmers fields, but never that honey. Did you see it in the Gettysburg area? I grew up in schuylkill county, and all my years in those woods have never seen any...


----------

