Pond Boss Forums GENERAL QUESTIONS Wildlife Management Hog Wild

John I wonder if it would be ok to throw a
smaller dead hog into the pond for the catfish this winter?

I know it's hard to protect everything, but there's solar powered electric fence chargers for less than $100 on e-bay. Gotta use them around here for new orchards to protect the seedlings from the deer.

Scott, I have several fence chargers; both solar and 12 volt. I was watching a deer one day when it came to the fence. When the deer touched it, he lunged forward and tore down the wire. I had found broken wire pushed into my land on a couple of occasions and wondered what did it.

They evidently work better in your area than mine.

Travis, gotta agree about hogs being better than bears. However, the fecundity of hogs is going to only increase our problems and sooner or later, will become your problem. The interaction of the 2 species will be interesting. We might also get to see that interaction. Bears are moving back into Texas and are coming from the Arkansas area. It is illegal to molest them. One Game Warden I talked to said that almost no excuse will be acceptable if you shoot one.

There's no doubt that hogs are better than bears on a one to one basis, it's just the constant hog litters that create problems.

If you shoot a bear, in season of course, then you may potentially remove 5 to 10 future bears. If you shoot a sow hog, then you're removing hundreds.

Dave's very correct about TX game wardens. They are clear about the removal of protected species, just ask anybody here about Egrets.

Yeah, I may seriously have to look into solar powered electric fencing for my trees. Need to find a solution that will allow deer in, but keep bears out.

Our part of PA has some wild hogs. They came from a couple of high fenced shooting preserves in the late 90's or early 00's. Some of the hogs got loose and they have began to reproduce in the wild. So far, they have been pretty limited in numbers. They've definitely caused some damage, but not overly extensive. The PGC and USDA were working together to trap them and seem to have thinned their numbers out big time. I've never seen them in person, but have gotten them a few times on game camera. Once in 2005 and once in 2008. None since... I think these hogs are bit different than the ones down south. They are almost pure "wild" genetics. They have a much lower reproductive rate. Studies have shown they will reproduce once, maybe twice a year under great conditions and average 4 piglets per litter. I think warmer southern climates and domestic genes make hogs worse. They can reproduce more times per year and have more piglets per liter.

Discovery had an informational program about the threat of wild hog. Field and stream had an article about the current hog situation. Both gave great numbers and I can not recall those numbers exact.

Rough guesses. I believe the average litter size was 9-12 piglets. A small group can turn into a large group within 6 months.

With the rising cost of pork I tend to think some more of these hogs will meet some hot lead in the near future.At least one can hope .

I have found that I prefer store bought pork over the wild stuff. Of course, if what we are hearing about the coming shortage of pork I might change my preferences.

The problem with hunting them is that they are mostly nocturnal. I rarely see them even when I know they are around.

One thing I've found to be true: If you shoot a pig and it has an odor when you walk up to it, there is no reason to butcher it. It will stink while cooking and be inedible.

I am glad they have not made it up this far yet (at least in large numbers), but would like to hunt them sometime.

Farmer eaten by hogs... Not wild hogs, mind you, but "domesticated" hogs.

http://usnews.nbcnews.com/_news/2012/10/01/14173510-70-year-old-oregon-farmer-eaten-by-his-hogs?lite

Out of all the animals we raised on the farm including bulls, I trusted pigs the least. If anything got into their pen they would eat it. Remember the series Deadwood. They would kill someone and they would get rid of the body by throwing into the pig pen in the Chinese part of town.

I raised pigs growing up and all it would take was a drop of blood for them to go absolutely nuts. Made castrating them interesting...especially when they're bigger than you are.

Hogs can be absolutely vicious once they develop a taste for something. I remember when one of ours got a chicken that was nosing around the lot. This hog/chicken interaction happened everyday mind you, with never a problem. Once that first chicken was killed and consumed however, it was a totally different ballgame. The chickens weren't safe from that moment on.

I am a Nuance Wildlife Trapper here in Florida but I don't do Hogs. There are too many sport hunters that will do it for free. But I have friends who Run Dogs for sport. Larger Hogs that might be too tough to eat are sold to Hunting outfits that stage Hunts for Big Spenders. What the Big Spender doesn't know is. The hog is released from a Cage by remote control. They even offer packages on what size Trophy hog they guarantee the customer will get. BTW there is a Professional Back up shooter just to be sure the client get a hog.


PS read the racoon thread were I posted about the Government is experienting with poisioning Feral Hogs to control them. At present time it is illegal under federal law to poison Feral Hogs.

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so they've come up with a poison the deer wont eat?

Bad idea.

The reports I am reading has the bait in a Box with a heavy Lid. A hog can easily lift the lid with there nose and eat the poison. A Deer or Other animals supposedly can't open that box. This is a government study and might take years to be completed. The Main Concerns are just what your question is about. Direct or Secondary consumption by off target prey. In light of the GREEN MOVEMENT today, and the Hunting community I am guess more that the T and I must be crossed or dotted before Hog Poison is made Legal. Then it might be only by permit and treated by Government employee.

BTW Did you read were I said Australia already uses Rat Poison with out much success?? They are not taking all the precaution that we are. I have not heard of any collateral damage to the environment there.

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Yep. Hogs also eat rattlesnakes, so either their skin is too tough for the snakes fangs to penetrate, or they have some sort of immunity to certain poisons.

Quite a few year ago I decided to poison hogs. I called Kelly Duffie for his thoughts. He straightened me out pretty quickly. Once it's killed the hog, other predatorsand scavengers eat the hog and the secondary consumption becomes a huge issue. I think Kelly's phrase about "doing federal time" was what really got my attention.

Hogs can be a nuisance but they are also very smart,this wild male started following me around when I put out feed because he figured out I wasn't going to mess with him.His favorite was cheese from the can,we called him muddy and he got up to about 250 lbs.If you want to see a really scary hog check out this boar who showed up one day and had no fear of me and proceeded to whip the hell out of muddy.You can see the huge tusks under his skin,he weighed about 350 -400 lbs. and you could smell him long before he got there.I guess stuff does get big in Texas,Ryer.

Wow Ryer...that's interesting a wild hog would do that.
They killed another one our property yesterday. (see below)

Zep that is a nice sized hog what did it weigh? I guess it is sort of unusual for a wild hog to tame down but they do learn if you are after them or not.We sort of have a little wildlife preserve here that we have made over the years,we have been feeding all the wild animals for about 15 years and they all pretty much tame down to some degree or another.It is sort of funny because I shoot the heck out of the place while target practicing (yes another Texas gun nut)but somehow they figure out it's not at them.The deer are the only ones that keep their distance and so do the coyotes but we regularly feed wild turkeys,fox,coons,ringtail cats,hogs and all sorts of little critters including my favorite -a pond full of hungry fish. We are pretty secluded out here but they are starting to sell of and chop up some of the surrounding ranches so it won't be that way much longer.I threw in a picture of my porch at night when the coons overrun us for the dog food and also of my big dumb butt hand feeding a couple of smaller hogs and some slightly larger ones.I think I might be a little crazy or maybe more than a little,Ryer.

The guys guessed it was between 225lbs-250lbs.
In the picture his guts have already been pulled out.
They lifted him into pickup with a tractor/dozer.
They said he was angry as hell and had some tusks coming in.
He was still kicking when they dragged him out of the trap.
Most of the ones we catch are about half this size.


Ha Ha....that coon picture is crazy!
I've heard coons can be mean rascals too.
Love all the pics...thanks.

Wow guys, what a unique situation down there - been reading this thread and am amazed. Imagine with the abundant porkchops running rampant there must be a influx of topline predators too? You mentioned black bears - how long has it been since they were around TX? 100 years? You've probably always had Mt Lions [cougar/puma], but wasn't aware of wolves. What species of wolf? I read a few places that Jaguar sitings were becoming more frequent, they assumed they were migrating from So/Central American into NM, AZ and TX. I know Jags were once found througout North America, maybe they are making a comeback. I also thought I read they are the third largest cat in the world, with males reaching up to 350#. That is a huge, and potentially dangerous cat!

teehjaeh57,I don't know about farther north or east in Texas but we are to far south down here for any bears or wolves but we have bobcats and the occasional mountain lion.One morning I found a small buck(or what was left of him)hanging about 12 ft. up in an oak tree about 30ft. from my house,also found a large buck with most of his throat ripped out half submerged in some cattails while I was feeding the fish.My pond meanders back through the property quite a ways in very heavy woods so a lot of stuff goes on back there I guess.Ryer.