Wild Pigs Population Surging Across The States

fmdog44

fmdog44

Well-known Member
Location
Houston, Texas
Invasive Wild Pigs Are Spreading Across The United States | The Weather Channel - Articles from The Weather Channel | weather.com

This has got to be stopped. They are no longer just a problem in the South but are headed north and no longer just in rural areas. In Texas and Louisiana, you can shoot as many as you can all day and all night and their population continues to explode. Finally, one person has come up with a trap that works and I believe the Fed has backed him with money to make as many as possible.
 

I remember them from when I was a teen living in FL. My girlfriend lived on the water way but there was a good size field between the water way and her house. We had a party by the water and finished cleaning up after it. Then her and I had to go up that field in the dark and all of a sudden a big wild hog was chasing us. Lucky that back then I could run!

Guys did hunt them and they were used as food. Back then everything was food down in FL!
 

StarSong said:
@fmdog44: Do people shoot and eat them as they would deer and other wild game? TBH I know little about feral pigs.

Other than carrying disease and parasites like virtually all wild animals, are they aggressive or dangerous? Or are they pests who tear up gardens and damage crops?
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I believe, from documentaries I’ve seen, feral pigs are very aggressive and dangerous as they have tucks. They kill domestic dogs. They do tear up gardens, damage crops and trees, and add filth to our waterways.

They can be eaten, once they are, you know, dead and processed. Think bacon, lots and lots of bacon. Too bad a commercial venture doesn’t get involved-maybe the price of bacon would drop.

Edited: they do about 2.5 billion dollars in damage a year
 
Feral hogs are becoming an increasing problem in Missouri. The Conservation Dept. asks people to report any sightings, so they can try to trap the entire herd...instead of people shooting one, and scattering the rest. They are quite dangerous and destructive, and I would be hesitant of trying to eat the meat, due to all the diseases they can carry.
 
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The feral hogs are a problem here, they are in groups of about 20 and can tear up big sections of land rooting around for acorns and worms in one night, they come out in the middle of the night to do their thing....I've not heard of anyone eating them, I would not touch the meat from one.
 
Serious destructive ecological problem over decades here in California at lower vegetation elevations. Often within oak savanna grass lands where they eat large amounts of native acorns and wildflower bulbs. Main issue against their eradications are some hunters and large land owners, often cattle ranch lands, that collect fees for letting hunters have fun shooting them on their properties.

California has large areas of public park lands and open space reserves, most of which are bordered by private lands. As much as park lands might via trapping or shooting exterminate feral hogs, those living on adjacent private lands where they are safe, soon expand back into public lands. The same situation likely exists in others states like Texas. The state needs to get tough and be able to remove them via cage trapping from private lands that is a legal property issue legislation could fix if there was a will.
 
StarSong said:
@fmdog44: Do people shoot and eat them as they would deer and other wild game? TBH I know little about feral pigs.

Other than carrying disease and parasites like virtually all wild animals, are they aggressive or dangerous? Or are they pests who tear up gardens and damage crops?
Click to expand...
Yes. There meat is very good and popular too. They are very aggressive and dangerous if you don't know what you are doing. Most people who hunt hogs have Lacys which are bred in particular for hunting hogs. There are several ranches who will let you cull a certain number of hogs but often they charge for it. Most of the problem lies in the fact that there are not lands in common or free range to hunt. Someone owns the land. Ranchers need to carry proper insurance and that can get expensive. Some don't even want to risk any liability.

When the hog is butchered they are tested for disease and alerts go out to hunters. There has been a problem with the deer population recently but I have not kept up with it, however, I have not heard of any problems with the hogs. Sometimes the hogs are butchered for certain low income families. Animals need to be culled or they over populate. When that happens disease and starvation can prevail. Good Questions! ;) :cool:
 
Aneeda72 said:
I believe, from documentaries I’ve seen, feral pigs are very aggressive and dangerous as they have tucks. They kill domestic dogs. They do tear up gardens, damage crops and trees, and add filth to our waterways.

They can be eaten, once they are, you know, dead and processed. Think bacon, lots and lots of bacon. Too bad a commercial venture doesn’t get involved-maybe the price of bacon would drop.

Edited: they do about 2.5 billion dollars in damage a year
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We raise lamb in Texas and it is exported. If hogs became commercial probably the hog meat would be exported as well. Lamb here is very expensive and hard to find commercially, at the grocery. When I lived in California, lamb was cheap and easily available. Go figure. Beef is also exported. Angus is, of course, the most popular. :)
 
Jackie23 said:
The feral hogs are a problem here, they are in groups of about 20 and can tear up big sections of land rooting around for acorns and worms in one night, they come out in the middle of the night to do their thing....I've not heard of anyone eating them, I would not touch the meat from one.
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Why? They are tested and vets can reassure the hunter with this info. It is just as delicious as pig meat more rich and often leaner.
Just cause they are ugly doesn't mean they are not delicious. Such prejudice against the mighty HOG. 🤣
 
We have wild pigs in our bottom creek land. They will come up in the spring and fall onto our land and root around the trees for nuts. They dig up the ground a lot. Our neighbor has a night site and has killed and butchered them from time to time to make sausage.

Tried to trap them a few years ago to no avail. Our neighbor had better luck.

The best thing that's seemed to keep them at bay and reduced their numbers is the coyote
population. We hear them howling at night sometimes and know the pig population is being reduced. Can't beat natural pig predators, I guess.
 

"‘One of the most damaging invasive species on Earth’: wild pigs release the same emissions as 1 million cars each year ​

Whether you call them feral pigs, boar, swine, hogs, or even razorbacks, wild pigs are one of the most damaging invasive species on Earth, and they’re notorious for damaging agriculture and native wildlife.

A big reason they’re so harmful is because they uproot soil at vast scales, like tractors ploughing a field. Our new research, published today, is the first to calculate the global extent of this and its implications for carbon emissions.

Our findings were staggering. We discovered the cumulative area of soil uprooted by wild pigs is likely the same area as Taiwan. This releases 4.9 million tonnes of carbon dioxide each year — the same as one million cars. The majority of these emissions occur in Oceania.

A huge portion of Earth’s carbon is stored in soil, so releasing even a small fraction of this into the atmosphere can have a huge impact on climate change."

4 min read

https://theconversation.com/one-of-...-emissions-as-1-million-cars-each-year-163250
 
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