Texas hunting

[KEC]

There is a guy in New Jersey named Newt Sterling who sells snares for feral hogs and, so I understand it may be a good tool for some of you guys dealing with hogs. His business name is "Snare One."

[TN King]

Eradication of feral hogs is unlikely. To many states with different rules. 
All one can do is try to keep their numbers down.
Standard hunting practices don't apply here.
Night, day, no license, no season, no limit, no ammo restriction, dogs - no dogs, traps etc. etc.
Any questions?
 
 

[Southside]

Allowing the ends to justify the means is a very dangerous practice, no matter how noble the cause.  One only needs to look back over the past three years to see the ultimate example of that. 

[barbender]

I think that me and Southside are going to start a new group, Feral Swine Defenders or something like that😁

[caveman]

Hogs have been in Florida and most of the southern U.S. since Desoto brought them into Tampa Bay in the 1500's.  Their numbers have increased ever since.  Many have stated about the destructive nature of them.

Hunting them with catch dogs is a longstanding tradition and is not frowned upon in many areas.  The dogs, often black nosed cur or bulldogs, seem to be the local choice.  The terrain where they are hunted locally can be some of the thickest swamp or a jungle of palmettos, grape vines and wax myrtles one could imagine.  These hogs are dangerous.  Their razor-sharp tusks can eviscerate man or dog.  I shot one years ago in Manatee County that was wounded three weeks previous by an old man we used to hunt with.  The hog's back was infested with maggots from the 30/06 wound but otherwise it seemed fine.  I thought it was a bear or a steer when I first saw it walk out of the woods and into a clearing.  I helped a friend butcher one from the same ranch that had a 50-caliber bullet from a muzzle loader that did not penetrate the shield near its shoulder.  Another shot killed it.

When I was 12 years old, my granddaddy and I built a trap to catch hogs.  The first night we set it we caught four and the next night we caught three.  My neighbor commercially traps them, often 30 at a time using a suspended pen that he can drop using his phone from anywhere.  The traps that I've built are basically a pen with a narrow, guillotine style gate that is attached to a cable tied to a stick that is held by two pipes or sticks driven into the ground and the one with the cable is held by those two.  I cover the mechanism with sweet feed or soured corn.  When it is bumped, the door is triggered.

These wild hogs are tough and athletic.  I caught a three-legged one with a group in a trap several years ago.  It moved as effortlessly as the rest of them through the woods.  We ate it one New Year's Day after feeding it grain for a few weeks after capture.  I saw one go over a four-board fence after release from a trap.

[barbender]

Cool stories, Caveman! I was watching a video someone made of a trap they had, they caught lots of pigs but this old boar always managed to get away. They finally put a camera on the trap, when they sprung it that huge old boar would climb right up the side of the trap- and it was at least 6' high! 

[Andries]

Few would have thought that feral pigs would survive on the Canadian Prairie. A provincial biologist told me that they dig holes in snow drifts and a number of them will curl up together in what’s known as a “pig pit”.
Their numbers are growing up here too.

[WV Sawmiller]

BB,

   Maybe you and SS can fund your new enterprise selling pulled pork sandwiches.  If business starts booming maybe the whole problem will be worked out by simple supply and demand.

[thecfarm]

Andries, not something I want to hear. 
I always thought the snow and cold would keep them away.

[Andries]

Us too, but they are tough and adaptable porkers, for sure.
Maybe @caveman might share the Florida recipe for grain fed pork? 

[barbender]

WV- "modern problems require modern solutions"😂

It is a real head scratcher how some animals you can't keep their populations from exploding, and others even with very intense management it is difficult to maintain healthy populations.

 I've read that coyotes respond to lower coyote numbers by having bigger litters. Almost the harder you hunt them, the more you end up with. I wonder if pigs do the same?

[Southside]

It's not that they have more pups, it's that more pups survive because there is less competition for their preferred food source so they have improved odds of making it. 

[Ianab]

 I've read that coyotes respond to lower coyote numbers by having bigger litters. Almost the harder you hunt them, the more you end up with. I wonder if pigs do the same?

Less animals means more food for the few that are there, so possibly bigger litters and better survival for the young-uns. Conversely a dense population probably limits food, and reduces the breeding success. 

Of course pigs being smart, a shortage of food would encourage them to move to new territory.

The issue with endangered animals is often an introduced predator or competitor. This either simply eats the endangered species, or eats it's food supply. Someone mentioned how pigs hit the ground nesting game birds (turkeys etc). Too many pigs running around and you might find turkeys become endangered?  Most of the NZ conservation efforts revolve around controlling introduced predators (like pigs, rats and stoats), or species that are basically eating the forest (goats and Aussie possums). Take away those introduced problems (in a fenced reserve or Island etc) and the otherwise endangered animals breed normally and build up their numbers. 

Kiwi birds for example only lay one large egg, and if there are stoats or ferrets in the area the survival rate is less than 10%. As you can imagine that's a quick road to extinction. But remove the predators and survival is 80-90%, so after a few years numbers soon build up again. The local fenced reserve is having to rehome kiwi birds to other areas, with decent pest control, but still some risk. The adult birds can defend themselves, but young chicks are sitting ducks. 

[WV Sawmiller]

BB,

  Good point. We learned in wildlife biology classes about the larger litter sizes and the females will breed at earlier ages and sometimes have more litters. That generally assumes habitat conditions are at or near ideal and populations are low.

  The basic tenant of wildlife biology is manage the habitat for the target animal. That includes food, nesting/denning conditions are met and in some cases predator control and initial stocking/re-stocking may be required.

  As Jake mentioned species like feral pigs are deadly on ground nesting birds like quail and turkeys. Quail were already seriously threatened by fire ants where they have been introduced. Ground reared mammals like fawns and rabbits are at great risk. Even snakes and turtles are at risk. If the pythons in the Everglades had legs and hair, they would be feral pigs.

[TN King]

"Feral pigs are known carriers of at least 45 different parasites (external and internal) and diseases (bacterial and viral) that pose a threat to domestic livestock, pets, wildlife and human health. The threat of disease transmission from feral pigs to domestic livestock is a major concern to the farming industry.
Several of these diseases are swine specific (both feral and domestic) but others can affect cattle, sheep, goats, dogs, horses and several species of native wild mammals. Infectious diseases that are significant to livestock include: Pseudorabies Virus (PRV)
Swine brucellosis (Brucella suis)
Bovine tuberculosis (TB)
Foot & Mouth Disease
African swine fever and Classical swine fever (Hog Cholera)
Zoonotic diseases transmissible from feral pigs to humans include:
Leptospirosis,
Brucellosis, E. coli,
Salmonellosis,
Toxoplasmosis,
Rabies,
Swine Influenza viruses,
Trichinosis,
Giardiasis and Cryptosporidiosis.
 
Agricultural practices or irrigation.  Irrigation pivot pulls water from a fecal e-coli infected water source and irrigates a spinach field. Consumer purchases the spinach from a local grocery store and eats it without thoroughly washing, then gets sick or dies from e-coli bacteria. This scenario already happened in California where ignorant people protect feral swine while suing farmers for allowing e-coli in their food.
 
Reproduction: A single sow (female) will produce two litters of six to 10 pigs annually and their offspring will reach sexual maturity in six to eight months of age. 100 sows can escalate to 1,600 pigs (100 x 16) in one year. Feral pigs destroy agricultural fields just as termites destroy residential homes. A farmer has the same right to remove feral swine from their fields as your right to remove termites from your home. Insect versus mammal makes no difference to the legal definition of a pest when public health, property damage and disease is concerned."