Wild hogs

[doc henderson]

I will have to get more info.  again I am not promoting it, and he said it like a joke, "we are working on something to kill feral hogs, the only problem is it kills domestic hogs as well.  Many prev. un-curable cancers are now treated with biological agents, antibodies directed at a unique antigen on the cancer cells.  Feral hogs are genetically identical to domestic hogs, he said it only take 6 weeks in the wild to change the behaviors.  Everything we do has unforeseen unintended consequences for sure.  like the zombie apocalypse. 

[doc henderson]

So more info if i dare. ;D  this is a double stranded rna molecule that will bind to glucose receptors in pigs and induce type 2 diabetes and the pig would die in about 3 days.  in the wild, pigs eat other dead pigs and so on.  The rna gets mixed with feed and has to be ingested.  not otherwise communicable, not infectious like in a virus.  is genetically specific to pigs so does not (in theory) harm any other animals.  Would not harm livestock (hogs) unless they got out an roamed the countryside like a feral pig.  It has only been tested in insects and a piglet.  prob. will never be used unless overwhelming health risk from pigs.  it does not effect humans and degrades in the field after a week. not unlike imuno-therapy and the measles, some times the pendulum swings back and forth.  all just for your information.  Pigs are smart animals, and that is why they are hard to eradicate.

[AZ_builder]

Here's a dilemma, the hogs tear up land and destroy farms/homes. However, people found out that they can charge money to let you hunt them. If there was more free places to kill pigs I think a lot more would be gone.

[Southside]

I understand where you are coming from Doc, respectfully however we have been told that DDT is harmless, Anna Nicole married for love and the poor guys who had to stand under an A-bomb blast and photograph it would all be fine.. just saying. 

[doc henderson]

i gotcha, i just thought it was interesting.  The research may go on to solve problems other than hogs.  Best Regards to all!

[charles mann]

2 yrs ago, the genius tx ag commissioner sid miller, pushed for a drug called kaput,  which is a warfarin (blood thinning drug) based bait. claims were "its safe and non toxic to other animals", yet the directions and warning were, use protective gloves and clothing when handling bait or dead animals that have come in contact with the bait, double bag the carcass when transporting, prevent animals from drinking contaminated water source that dead carcasses were located, do burry near water sources, and so on and so on. problem with the drug/bait is, that other animals, scavenger animals to be specific, like coons, yotes, buzzards, crows, possums, and well, yaw know the scavenger animals, that ingest the drugged carcasses can be poisoned by the drug and die form it, continuing the cycle. my business partner and i did an interview with a san antonio news station about the bait and other methods of reducing the population, and we even took the helicopter out to show the effectiveness of aerial eradication. unfortunately, a weather front was moving in and the hogs were bedded down and we only got 20 that afternoon. a few weeks ago we did a hunt near mason, tx and avg 3 hogs (piglets included) a min the first 2hr cycle, well, 1 hr 20 min taking away the 20 min 1 way trip tp the hunting site. the afternoon cycle was near as good, avg of 1 hogs a min. the shotguns were so dirty by the end of the first cycle, we had to pull them down, and instead of going to lunch with the clients, we spent 2 hrs cleaning the 4 weapons, then had a samich and back in the air. 

but as az_builder said, people, including my business partner have found a way to make a profit from the over population, it potentially can have a negative effect on controlling the population. 

now, our aerial control program only charges those who want to shoot from the air, but the land owners don't charge us a penny. they just want the hogs gone. another negative effect are these tv shows, like the hog hunting show, american hogger. knowing and hunting with 3 of the 4 guys from 1 team, they didn't act anywhere near the way the production guy portrayed them, and from what i was told by some who knew the other team, again, not the way they are in real life. but that show didn't do the doggers any favors and portrayed doggers as fools and idiots.

 then you have those that ran dogs, that didn't care about land owners rights, or even trespassing, hurt the sport even greater. a few bad apples spoiled it for the rest. i gave up on dogging 4 yrs ago, mostly bc local hunters would cut fences, let cattle onto the roads, or neighboring property and killed chances of gaining new lands, and eventually permission was revoked on lands i was able to hunt, even though some of the lands, nothing negative ever happened, but the owner didn't want to take a chance, especially when multiple individuals/group were able able to hunt them. 

i think ill stick to death from above. closest ill get to my iraq war days ever again.

[AZ_builder]

I'd like to be able to kill a few a year just for meat in the freezer but I would LOVE!! to eradicate from a helicopter!

[pineywoods]

Nobody talks about it, but there is a real health danger. Hogs are highly susceptible to cholera, if it ever gets started it will spread like wildfire.

[doc henderson]

Yes the warfarin bait is the same as rat poison,  If you wonder why the chunks are a blue green color, it is because it will dye the mouth of a toddler who may have ingested some. so we can monitor and give Vit. K if needed and not treat those who's mom are worried about it and did not consume any.  that was the interesting part with this research is it found a way to limit the effects to hogs.  (as far as they know)  again, i am not promoting this, found it interesting, just reporting. ;)

[charles mann]

I'd like to be able to kill a few a year just for meat in the freezer but I would LOVE!! to eradicate from a helicopter!

@AZ_builder try Helihoghunt.com

[Texas Ranger]

Texas is Losing The War on Feral Hogs