Thoughts on Honey Locust?

[IowaBowHunter1983]

I always have it in my head that I should get rid of these nasty trees, but I'm not so sure. I was at one of the farms today and a few are absolutely loaded with bean pods. I stopped and just looked at them for a solid minute and I was thinking to myself.... thats actually alot of food. And I know deer love them.

Thoughts on these needle stinging trees?

 

[JNRBRONC]

I’ve got lots of trail cam pics of deer eating pods.

Ran over a good sized tree with the tractor while mowing this spring, 6 thorns in a flat front tire.

Black locust? Honey locust? Locust has good BTU as firewood, if you can get past the spines.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[deerdown]

Hate em, that said, i shot my last buck while he was munching on a pod...
Still, between flat tires and getting poked by them, it wouldn't hurt my feelings if i never saw another.
I knew one guy used to fertilize them....

 

[Obsessed]

Take a chainsaw and cut two parallel rings 2" deep into the tree, about 6" apart, at the base of the trees. It will kill them where they stand and provide years of great habitat for small critters, plus it will open your canopy up for new vegetation to flourish. In a few years, before they become too pithy, they'll have lost a ton of their thorns and small branches, go ahead and cut them down for firewood. Or, leave them where they stand and allow them to fall on their own in time. The new vegetation growth that will come up to replace them will more than makeup for the seed pod loss.

 

[Daver]

While I acknowledge that deer eat the pods...I am grateful that I have relatively few of these tire poppers on my place. If I had more I think I would move towards removing them, FWIW.

 

[muddy]

Hey hey those trees promote the Loggerhead Shrike as the bird likes to catch and impale their quarry on the thorns to tenderize a bit!

Good food for late season but a serious PITA kind of tree

 

[cchadww]

When we first bought our farm a couple years ago, the winter found the bark stripped. First thought it was rubs, then realized that it was the deer eating the bark of the locust trees. Obviously this points to other habitat areas that we needed to improve. BUT, from a pure deer perspective they bring value (in addition to the pods). That said, after all our flat tires, we are getting rid of as many as we can because they are an invasive, and a costly nuisance, we are eliminating as many as we can.

 

[Bucksnbears]

Sounds
Ike the bad out do the good?