Poisonous Sweet Gum Tree Balls

The spines become even spinier and holes open up to reveal seeds inside the balls.

Poisonous sweet gum tree balls. If your sweet gum is too tall to spray or if you don t want to attempt spraying a small tree you can stop fruit production by having a certified arborist administer a trunk injection. Getting back to ashley s question using injections on your sweetgum tree is tricky because the timing has to be just right. Every subdivision from florissant to kirkwood to maryland heights has several of them. According to the lazy landscaper these hard brown spiky balls that can create some serious hazards.

I think my dog has eaten some sweet gum balls from a sweet gum tree. Additionally the sweet gum s spiky gum balls hang conspicuously from the tree s smaller. She s a flat coated retriever about 75 lbs. She always is trying to eat something but now she s very lethargic and is drinking lots of water.

Are these things harmful to dogs. The sweet gum s primary liability according to the makers of this list are the thousands of spiny brown seed balls gum balls if you will that it casts upon the ground around it. The witch s burrs or gum balls of this particular tree were enormous in size i don t think i have ever seen another sweet gum tree in my lifetime that has been this size. Then the flowers drop preventing the balls from ever forming.

The balls of the trees are modified fruits that house the seeds until the balls ripen and release the seeds. When the balls would fall off the tree in autumn it would be quite difficult to walk under the tree and if you were not careful you would fall it was like walking on golf balls. While you can t eat the balls or the seeds pioneers once peeled the bark and scraped the resin like solid to produce chewing gum and medicines. I think she may have ingested them this morning.

Sweet gum trees also have unusual fruit. They exist for a reason sweet gum balls start out plump and green but they dry as they mature. The tree needs the injections right before it flowers in spring. The american sweet gum is a popular tree in the st.

They are hard round balls about 1 1 2 inches in diameter and covered with sharp little bristles that can hurt a dog s paws. Sweet gum trees are so beautiful until you want to walk barefoot through your lawn. For the best chance of stopping the sweetgum balls hire a certified arborist. The tree s dark grayish brown twigs bear unusual corky ridges that lend the tree a peculiar angularity.

Birth control injections for sweet gum trees. American sweetgum trees can be found throughout must of the eastern us.