Do I NEED to get rid of feral hogs?

anthonyz · September 18, 2019, 10:48:36 AM

I've got a 12 acre pine stand with 18 yr old pines in very sandy, east-Texas soil. The trail cam has revealed a sounder of about 15 feral hogs on the property (10 babies still weaning, 4 sows, and 1 male tagging along).

Other than rooting and causing cosmetic damage to the ground, do they pose any damage danger to my property? I have no grassy areas or food plots on the property. It's all just thick with 55-60 ft pines and hardwood sapling understory. The forest floor is just pine needles and mulch. I think they are there because I put corn a couple deer feeders just to get some deer pics on my game cams (not to hunt them).

I'm a new forest owner, so do I NEED to remove these hogs or is it okay to just let them roam and stop putting corn in my deer feeders?

Old Greenhorn · September 18, 2019, 11:08:13 AM

They are not an issue up here, but I did a little looking around and found this article. Was unaware of water contamination issues before. I do know that once they show up, they just increase the population over and over. You might want to check with neighbors to find the area history with hogs. Your neighbors might be suffering from this more than you if they are growing anything. It might be easier to get rid of them now, rather than later.

sawguy21 · September 18, 2019, 11:26:47 AM

They have shown up in southern Alberta, the farmers are rather anxious to get rid of them before they multiply and destroy crops and crop land. You probably should control them now before they get out of hand.

timberking · September 18, 2019, 01:21:19 PM

Shoot everyone you can anytime you can. They will run the deer off and the pollution level in Lake O Pines has risen the last few years due to disturbance and fecal distribution by wild hogs. Plus they eat good.

Ianab · September 18, 2019, 07:01:05 PM

Even if they aren't doing much damage to your trees, shoot them to help your neighbours out. If they have a safe haven in your forest, they will range from there looking for food and you will be "That guy with all the wild pigs"

Otherwise next year, the 10 babies will each have 10 more babies... you can imagine how that ends up....

Texas Ranger · September 18, 2019, 07:32:02 PM

"Otherwise next year, the 10 babies will each have 10 more babies... you can imagine how that ends up.... "

In Texas there is usually three generations per year , with the first litter producing at the same time as the second generation, etc. Get rid of them.

Claybraker · September 20, 2019, 07:38:54 PM

Good luck getting rid of them. Cumberland Island National Park has been trying for 50 years. It's a 1/2 mile swim at low tide with a healthy shark population. Darn things are fertile and mobile.

anthonyz · September 20, 2019, 07:52:24 PM

I appreciate all of your responses. You've confirmed what I suspected in the back of my head. Even if they won't do serious damage to my trees, I have a social responsibility to my neighbors to try to remove as many as possible.

I had built a hog exclusion fence around my deer feeder, and I bought an extra panel yesterday to convert it to a circle 6 trap. We'll see if I can get any of them.

btulloh · September 20, 2019, 08:07:18 PM

I doubt you'd like having them any more than your neighbors. Especially a year from now when you have hundred. They are good eatin'. Invite your neighbors over!

lxskllr · September 20, 2019, 08:22:45 PM

Are wild hogs good eatin'? With all the issues you read about them, you'd think they could be monetized somehow. Might make a good boutique operation that makes money on a problem.

bluthum · September 21, 2019, 03:38:39 PM

Properly cooked they are definitely good eatin' but there are problems. It takes a lot of effort to kill or catch them, they are very wary and clever. Also they have diseases which disappear after cooking but might transfer to humans or dogs during processing. They can spread diseases to livestock while they are alive. I'd love to see them monetized to extinction, that's a fine idea, maybe someone will figure out a way. One of my pet peeves is how they destroy considerable plant life in the forest especially less common flowers and such.

Claybraker · September 21, 2019, 04:53:31 PM

I've seen some small scale attempts at monetization. Back in the 60's one of my neighbors used to trap some, when he'd get a tractor trailer full he'd ship them north to a "game preserve" in Pa and sports would pay good money to shoot Wild Russian Boar. It's well known one Yankee is worth two bales of cotton and easier to pick.

Might be some opportunities for some one willing to work hard producing Free Range Organic Hog. When we used to butcher them we'd use everything but the squeal. Drop carcass utilization down a notch, the market for chittlin's ain't what it used to be. Anybody priced bacon lately?

Magicman · September 22, 2019, 09:04:25 AM

Sorry but you, nor all of your friends, neighbors, and family can't eat as many as you need to get rid of. Your first obligation is to your property, not to invasive plants nor animals.

livemusic · September 30, 2019, 07:33:42 AM

I don't know what to advise, in that if you get those 15, there are hundreds, thousands more within hog distance of your property. It is a terrible problem around here and, actually, a huge part of the deep south. One would hope that something is effective but I dunno, it doesn't seem to be getting any better and people around here shoot and trap them constantly. Here is a map showing northward migration...

Feral Hogs Are Spreading, But You Can Help Stop Them | QDMA

The comments under the article have some more info about getting them. I wish science could come up with a way to control them.

TimRB · September 30, 2019, 11:33:00 AM

I think if you got the word out to local hunters that you have too many hogs on your property you would have people falling all over themselves trying to get permission to go shoot them.

Tim

bluthum · September 30, 2019, 08:27:50 PM

If wild hogs were easy to hunt or shoot there would not be any.

Claybraker · October 01, 2019, 01:18:52 PM

Quote from: bluthum on September 30, 2019, 08:27:50 PM
If wild hogs were easy to hunt or shoot there would not be any.

That, and the fact most landowners would cringe at the thought of various yahoos with various firearms in various states of sobriety running wild without adult supervision. Georgia DNR had a program along the same lines. Response among landowners was underwhelming. Doesn't take Nate Silver to predict the opinion of pro hunting, pro 2nd amendment landowners.

jdonovan · October 01, 2019, 05:02:00 PM

trapping is far more effective than hunting. Keep in mind the little ones are < 90 days to sexual maturity, and a sow can have 2-3 litters of up to 12 a year. The geometric progression is almost too much to imagine.

even with some killing, a group of 10 hogs can easily create 1000 more in less than 2 years! :-\

charles mann · October 03, 2019, 11:46:51 PM

getting rid of those 15 won't do you or your neighbors any good, but it won't hurt to help. there are 1000s more surrounding you and your neighbors. since you aren't actively hunting them, a logical reason they are there may be, someone in the area is and they drove to them your land and they are handing out till the pressure is off them.
i used to dog, bow and rifle them in east tx for consumption, now we rain death from above just to thin them out, and the problem is still there. i stopped hunting them and went to raising them for personal consumption. i got bacon in 2011 when she was fresh off the teat, raised her inside as a pet, then brought in a trap caught piney woods rooter (looking at bringing in another soon, IF i can find 1) from east tx and have watched her breeding cycle for the past 7 yrs, she drops 2x a yr with 5-6 piglet, maybe 4 survive to maturity. i usually keep them till they are of good smoking size, then start the slaughter as needed. out of watching bacon and her offsprings, i have to see this magical number of 3 breeding per yr, ready for breeding in 3 months, and having 8-10 piglets per breeding. even the sows from her don't go into that magical 90 day sexually active window, usually 5-6 months, they become active and so far, only see 3-4 their first breeding, most of the time, 1-2 lives though. NOW, their sec cycle, yea, 5-6, sometimes 7 drop, but back to 3-5 live.
they do have a social grouping, and and do share nursing/raising responsibilities, when more than 1 litter is on the ground. that is why you may see a sow running around with 10-15 piglets in trail, she is playing momma for other sow's litters, while they go off doing their sow duties,, or just taking a break from they litters.
i haven't even seen those outrageous cycles and number in actual wild hogs on several adjacent 2000ac high fence properties i used to assist managing them on, where we did a 3 yr study on their breeding. we ear tagged the initial group, and at 6 months, locate them and tally up the offspring. the average was 2 breedings a yr, with 5 piglets per breeding. again, that was the average out of the initial 10 sows and 2 boars introduced, to a, as we knew of, hog free land, that was managed for several yrs prior to this study. trail cams at feeders would show us if we actually did eradicate them before the study and we only saw, deer, bobcat, yotes, coons, tree rats and asst. avian wildlife. after 3 yrs, we ended up with just over 300 head of hogs. possibly more at some point between 6 month inspections, but I'm sure depridation from predators reduced the final count to that 300 head ct. and with it being a nearly fully controlled study, and bringing in fresh dna, so we didn't pollute the gene pool, our numbers never come close to those crazy numbers people would say.

if you want them to eat, do selective management, harvest what you and friends/family will eat and let nature take its course. you go in and start pressuring them, it will do nothing more than run them off to adjacent lands. trapping is the best tool, but pigs are extremely smart and they will size up to a trap, especially those that didn't get caught in round 1. you might get lucky though, if you build the round trap big enough, to capture nearly all of them at the same time.

Okefenokee_D · October 12, 2019, 07:39:32 PM

GA DNR has been pushing the eliminate them. I just hope people are using the meat and not wasting.

livemusic · November 04, 2019, 08:59:29 AM

Quote from: Okefenokee_D on October 12, 2019, 07:39:32 PM
GA DNR has been pushing the eliminate them. I just hope people are using the meat and not wasting.

There are MANY guys around here who shoot hogs and let them rot. I've had people tell me they are no good to eat and I've had others tell me they are delicious wild game. I would think the latter is true, other than maybe a boar. I know I have eaten it at cookouts and it's great. I don't like to see waste and they sure do it; I don't care for indiscriminate killing for any reason. Too many people around here love to see things die. It's quite the sport to kill hogs here. It's like the more bullets flying, the better. Injured hogs left to suffer, no problem, who cares.

Okefenokee_D · November 04, 2019, 08:59:26 PM

Quote from: livemusic on November 04, 2019, 08:59:29 AM
Quote from: Okefenokee_D on October 12, 2019, 07:39:32 PM
GA DNR has been pushing the eliminate them. I just hope people are using the meat and not wasting.
There are MANY guys around here who shoot hogs and let them rot. I've had people tell me they are no good to eat and I've had others tell me they are delicious wild game. I would think the latter is true, other than maybe a boar. I know I have eaten it at cookouts and it's great. I don't like to see waste and they sure do it; I don't care for indiscriminate killing for any reason. Too many people around here love to see things die. It's quite the sport to kill hogs here. It's like the more bullets flying, the better. Injured hogs left to suffer, no problem, who cares.

People who kill these animals just to kill them and not eat them or try to salavage what meat they can...need to be fed to the hogs.

I have no respect for a human who doesn't show respect to one of God's creatures.

I am to the point in my life that I would have more compassion for an animal than most humans. God forgive me. But I lose faith in the human race each and every day.

Seems like hunting now is nothing but to fill people's egos.

Texas Ranger · November 05, 2019, 09:15:16 AM

Hogs are disease ridden, and processing can be a real chore. Meanwhile, they are a destructive element that are not native. It kills anything small enough to run down, tears up fields, destroys plantations, and will attack anything that irritates them.

I have seen the destruction, and as far as I am concerned, any method to rid the area of them is acceptable. The state is considering poison bait, hunters cannot slow them down, they double in population in a years time or less. They have moved into urban areas in south Texas, the folks think feeding the little "piggies" is fun, until they kill the cat, tear up the lawn, and run the kids out of the yard. Attitudes change in view of the damages.

Dakota · November 05, 2019, 10:36:58 AM

Well said. @Texas Ranger

Okefenokee_D · November 05, 2019, 11:17:06 AM

Quote from: Texas Ranger on November 05, 2019, 09:15:16 AM
Hogs are disease ridden, and processing can be a real chore. Meanwhile, they are a destructive element that are not native. It kills anything small enough to run down, tears up fields, destroys plantations, and will attack anything that irritates them.

I have seen the destruction, and as far as I am concerned, any method to rid the area of them is acceptable. The state is considering poison bait, hunters cannot slow them down, they double in population in a years time or less. They have moved into urban areas in south Texas, the folks think feeding the little "piggies" is fun, until they kill the cat, tear up the lawn, and run the kids out of the yard. Attitudes change in view of the damages.

If hogs are disease ridden then why do you eat sausage? Unless you're a Jew or Muslim. Why has many civilization survived on hogs?

Wild hogs can be eaten...many people do it. The people that don't do it aren't hungry or lazy.

Kill a boar..snip the balls off before it gives it the wild taste.

If they do poison..they are morons...like the majority of humanity already is. Many scavangers eat dead animals...poison that pig and your scavangers including your pets will be poisoned too.

Insurance companies wouldnt mind if deer get exterminated.

I have seen destruction of what they do as well, but us humans have done far more damage than any animal has to this planet. Have we started sterilizing humans especially in this country? Nope, but we need to.

Our farmer had a hog issue on our farm...he killed them. Hope they ate them. The population needs to be controlled, but you will never get rid of them all and even then they don't need to be completely wiped out. It is another extra source of food in case this country ever decides to crumble.

I despise a person who waste an animal they killed. Some stupid waste of life dumped a whole load of hogs on my farm...no meat or anything was taken.

That day put more anger into me against people than ever before.

If they couldn't care about how they dispose of those creatures without using them..I see them doing the same thing to a human being. No care for life.

Animals have a mind to survive. They don't have the mind like a human.

Anyways, enough of my rant/opinion.

I know deer will eat the buds off of new growth. Be it deer or hog. The problem needs to be solved. You can shoot a few and see if it rids them of coming around as much.