Management of Wild Pigs......................
Posted on 01/02/2024 5:56:32 AM PST by Red Badger
Pack of feral pigs caught on camera damaging lawns in Bexar County neighborhood
VIDEO AT LINK.............
A pack of 10 wild hogs rooted up several lawns in a Bexar County neighborhood over the holiday weekend.
The pigs were caught on camera damaging multiple yards as they used their snouts to forage for underground food.
The neighborhood, located about three miles south of SeaWorld, was hit a few weeks earlier, resulting in major damage to multiple yards. One of the homes that was initially hit had its yard completely uprooted.
The more recent incursion left damage to at least four properties.
Both instances included homes that were near wooded areas on the edge of the subdivision.
Damage caused by wild hogs in a far West Side neighborhood. (KSAT)
The neighborhood was built less than a decade ago, and development around the area is happening faster than the wildlife can relocate.
Wild boars are invasive pests known for causing tens of millions of dollars worth of agriculture damage across Texas each year, according to the Texas A&M Wildlife Extension. More than 2 million hogs are estimated to be in the Lone Star State.
Hogs are often referred to as opportunistic omnivores because they will eat just about anything. However, they often search underground for grubs, insects, acorns or roots, causing major damage in the process.
Billy Higginbotham, professor and extension wildlife fishery specialist for Texas A&M AgriLife Extension Service, previously told me that the animals not only destroy crops, pastures, parks and athletic fields, they also transmit diseases to other animals, create problems for water quality and cause crashes on highways.
The animals were introduced to Texas about a century ago by hunters. Because they have no natural predators here and one of the highest reproductive rates of any large mammal in the world, their population has proliferated, growing faster than they can be killed, trapped or poisoned by humans.
As more and more development happens on the outskirts of major Texas cities like San Antonio, the hogs are moving around more often and are frequently spotted in neighborhoods.
What to do if you encounter a wild hog
Here's a look at how dangerous feral hogs are and what should you do if you encounter one. Though physical attacks by wild boars are rare, according to Texas A&M researchers, a Southeast Texas woman was killed in her front yard back a pack of pigs in 2019.
Texas Parks and Wildlife warns that any wild animal has “the potential of being dangerous, especially when wounded or cornered.” TPW said feral hogs’ speed and razor-sharp tusks can cause serious injury.
Wyatt Walton, owner of Lone Star Trapping in Central Texas, previously told KSAT’s Tiffany Huertas his company catches thousands of hogs a year, and they can become aggressive if you put them in a corner or trap them.
“When they’re trapped for the first time in their lives, they’re mad. They’re trying to come through metal cages to get us,” Walton said.
Walton said if you find yourself in front of a feral hog, treat it like a bear.
“I wouldn’t try to run at them and scare them,” Walton said. “They’ve got to fight or flight, and if you run right up and just try to scare a big boar, he’s territorial. He’s going to defend his ground.”
Clifford Porter, who lives near Culebra Road and Grissom Pass on the West Side, told Huertas in 2019 that a group of hogs destroyed his front yard.
Since then, he’s invested in technology to keep them away.
“I put up some sirens. I put up some motion detectors,” Porter said.
Porter said the community has also stepped up. The HOA has hired a trapper.
“From what I’ve seen over the last week or so, they’ve trapped about seven of them,” Porter said.
Big Boars and old Sows are more trouble than their worth. Now a 50 to 60 pounder is some damn fine eating. Shot 4 Friday afternoon and they were spoken for before I could get them in the truck.
Management of Wild Pigs......................
Best to institute more qualified hunters and allow for full auto during Hog Hunts...
https://www.helibacon.com/full-auto-machine-gun-upgrade/
The Old Testament version of charity was you left gleanings in the field. You didn’t harvest it for them, process it, cooks and bring it too them. Well maybe to helpless widows and orphans. But NOT the lazy and fools.
Folks, these are gleanings in the field for migrants. Teach them how to hunt, property rights.
They will fix the problem.
The Tulsa World Sunday Magazine, sixty years ago, used to have a cartoon about early American life and it mentioned how the Indians, when on a raid, often ate the pork of the settlers they had attacked.
A magazine published about Arkansas, about 20 years ago had a great article on hog proliferation in Arkansas, from the first explorers who had some escape, till they found, on their return, the Indian tribes having problems with pigs destroying their crops.
In other news, the Mandans had a problem with a new creature undermining their homes, the RAT.
I forgot to mention, wild hogs today in Arkansas are shot and left to rot. Most now have Psudorabies.
Initiate Operation Feral Cowboy: Park a transport plane at an area known for feral hogs and leave a trail of corn into the transport plane; when it is full close the door and fly Porky and friends to Israel then offload Porky and Co. in Gaza then stampede them into the tunnels.
If nothing else this little exercise would make the Israelis laugh and that would drive the muzzies absolutely insane.
(I didn’t think this up; another poster did but it was so hilarious that I had to share it with everybody.)
I own a ranch in central-west Texas (near Brownwood) and they’ve been there for years. I wonder if they got more prolific after cross-breeding with domestics.
No historical proof of your statement.
“They will fix the problem.”
No bag limit, lots of people baiting them, trapping them, hunting them from planes, etc. They have outproduced all efforts.
For the record ... they have feral hogs in Florida. And Alabama. And Mississippi. And Louisiana. And Georgia. And South Carolina. Not sure about North Carolina ...
IOW, wall to walk hogs in the Southeast.
The Florida hogs seem to be ignoring all that fresh python meat just slithering thru the swamps.
We are going to see a lot of crash and burn in 2024. This is a HOA, set back and enjoy the show because they won’t like your suggestions.
Are the pythons ignoring all that fresh pork rooting around? The predation might very well go both ways.
We got the same problem where we live. And you’re not allowed to shoot them.
let’s pull a 1800’s and import some apex predators to fix the hog issue.... say komodo dragons?
‘
but i jest, i think we should hunt them and and open a all you can eat boar bbq buffet, *guarantee* no boar taint by just serving female hogs.
In Florida it’s open Season on wild hogs all year.
All you need is written permission from any landowners whose property is involved, if not your own, or if Public Property, like a Wildlife Management Area, registration from the local offices..............
Mexico consumes a LOT of pork. Since wild hogs are edible, if a bit gamy, there could be a pipeline of sorts of live hogs going to great stockyards and slaughterhouses down there.
Gonna need lots of BBQ sauce!.......................
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