Feral Hogs on the rise?

According to an article I read in National Geographic maybe a couple of years ago they are breeding like rabbits and are well into GA through Texas and maybe even up to OK.

Has anybody been running into them on their property? Could one domesticate a young one? Are they nocturnal?

Laws by state on hunting them?

Are they a nuisance?

They have to be good eating? No?

They appear to be a big problem in some areas.
Some states will fine/throw you in jail if they catch you transporting them.
If they (or their blood lines) are found in your herd, your operation can be shut down.

I had some in a higher-end Italian restaurant about a week ago - delicious !
(So it appears that WA isn't cracking down on them...yet.)

Check with the Fish & Game for your state. It would be *very dangerous* to try to get a baby away from the herd. Maybe a trap would work? Like a havahart? Still the herd may stay with the trapped baby and you'd be risking some deep gashes trying to retrieve it. Finding a way to let your female run with a wild boar may work better, I've heard of them breeding domestic pigs on a farm on occasion, and I don't think they'd mind doing the job for you. Of course you'd have to get her back again somehow.

I think my dad said in AR they were such a nuisance they were talking about removing the limit on hunting them.

According to accounts in Foxfire, they are delicious even when very big. With cattle they say the meat will be tender as long as the animal is growing fast - ie food is plentiful. It gets tough when they aren't gaining well - like during the heat of summer or mid-winter. I've never heard of anyone talking about pork that way, could be they never paid attention.

You could also post "want" ads on Craigslist for striped piglets. That's a wild trait and would increase your chances of getting wild blood mixed with a domestic pig. I've seen them come up here before.

I've read of lots of people saying wild pigs are good eating. The government seems bound and determined to say that the feral pigs are a big threat. The simple solution would be for the government offer a bounty for every wild pig (use the scalp with ears). The hunter should get to keep the pig to eat. This sort of bounty hunting has worked wonders in the past to drive various species to extinction. Eat the alien invaders.

Here's a link
http://modernfarmer.com/2013/04/who-can-stop-these-adorable-pigs/
"Who Can Stop These Adorable Pigs?
Voracious. Destructive. Radioactive. Wild boars take over."

"If a fence won’t hold water, it won’t hold a wild pig.

Too bad they make wild exaggerations. Lots of people claim pigs are not fence-able. This is false.

As I understand it (might want to check it out yourself), here in NC if the pig is running loose (and doesn't have some kind of tag) or destroying things regardless of markings, it's considered feral with no closed season or bag limits. Please come down and shoot all you want.

Joe Braxton wrote:As I understand it (might want to check it out yourself), here in NC if the pig is running loose (and doesn't have some kind of tag) or destroying things regardless of markings, it's considered feral with no closed season or bag limits. Please come down and shoot all you want.

Aye, but I'm suggesting one step further: a government bounty. It doesn't have to be much This has worked remarkably well in the past when the government has wanted to drive a species extinct.

They are significantly nocturnal. Down in south GA there a hunting outfits that charge to equip you and take you out at night to hunt them. Semi-auto rifles, military grade night vision goggles. They work out deals with the farmers to hunt on the farmer's land. No bag limit. I've been told the best eating ones are under 100 lbs.

http://hogswat.com/

Haha I used to be in contact with those guys, got free pork, mmmmm.... The trick is the best way to destroy their population is precisely the way to harvest the tastiest pork in as high a quantity as possible: kill every single young female ruthlessly at the same time. 80-90 lb sows aren't going to give maybe 30 lbs good meat each, maybe 40-50 if they are eating crops. So 4 or 5 at a time for a family isn't overkill if you have a chest freezer, 3 pigs is good for a keg party as well...

Ana Logg wrote:According to an article I read in National Geographic maybe a couple of years ago they are breeding like rabbits and are well into GA through Texas and maybe even up to OK.

I know this is an old thread, but we have them here in central Oklahoma. They are't as numerous as they are further south, but there's a road-killed one deteriorating on the side of the road about a mile from my house right now. I've seen some suspicious digging activity on our property, but never actually seen one here. And I'm not enough of a woodsman to tell their tracks and deer tracks apart. (We have a lot of deer and thus a lot of deer tracks.)

- A couple of things , up here in New York state we have some eurasian hogs that escaped a breading (and?) hunting Enterprise, The Dept of Environmental
Conservation has posted a ban on hunting them with the explanation that it is having a negative effect on the D.E.C.s Program.

In new york you will get arrested ! Link Below :

http://www.dec.ny.gov/press/94891.html

For the Good of the Crafts ! Big AL

Check out the " Similar Topics " Below A.L.

Feral pigs are common in my area of Hawaii. Many local families rely upon them as a source of food. Up in the forest preserve hunters tend to use a pack of dogs to track and grab them. But there are many hunters who prefer the bait & shoot method instead. In areas with housing, traps are the way to go. With the right bait, they are easily trapped.

If feral pigs are a problem, then do what we do around here......eat them or use them to feed your dogs. I'll cook it up and feed it to the chickens. They go crazy for it.

I'm not a hunter. Frankly , it just takes up too much of my time. But a trap works on its own time. Once it's set up and baited, it's just a matter of returning to shoot the pig........or pigs. I've seen 3 caught at the same time in one trap. Pretty crowded. We make our own traps, sort of like a Havahart.

I could easily use a pig a week, but I simply don't have enough time to deal with that many. So I usually do a pig every 3-4 weeks.

We have a moderate problem with them on family property in central Texas. A neighbor got in a removal service that did a big kill (I believe they got something like 300 hogs in a couple of days, using helicopter and a LOT of people) and the numbers are more reasonable since. They have large litters (we fairly regularly see females with 8-12 half grown babies) and no real predators once grown (and pretty minimal as babies- they're GOOD mommas!

Traps work if they are sturdy enough. The main fencing problem we've had with them is rooting under fences and then they get leaned over if no one is watching- not a major problem with good maintenance as you can head it off. They're also REALLY hard on the edge of ponds- they like to root up the soft dirt and turn it into a morass and you end up with a big flat swamp instead of a nice deep pond.

They make good sausage but the flavor on the adults is pretty strong, so stuff like chops may not be to everyone's taste.

Yeah, the adults can have a strong flavor. Around here it depends upon what they've been eating. The ones foraging the ranch lands taste just fine. The ones in the forest, it depends. If there are plenty of tree ferns, then they taste bad. Otherwise it's a crapshoot. Maybe good, maybe bad. The bad ones just go to feed dogs, so they aren't wasted. Same with the road kill ones. If real fresh, then for people food. If not fresh, then for dogfood. Oh, another thing you can do with the strong flavored ones, as long as they haven't been eating tree ferns, is to make smoked meat strips, like a jerky. Pretty good that way.

We have the real thing here in France , Wild Boar tastes wonderful . I saw a herd of ten in La Ravardière unfortunately I don't have a gun or permit I shall look up the trap you all mentioned , here they are a big pest of Maize and hunting them is popular .
.... Ok hunting them is popular with farmers anyway

David

I am in North east Arkansas. they are in the lower part of our county pretty bad, several people hunt them several times aweek, I asked some of them about raising the young they said due to diseases they may have and they dont gain weight as a domestic pig could. I have heard of people shooting or trapping and eating them BBQ style and they said they were good , one said they weren't. I talked with game wardens and they said get rid of them any way I could except for spot lighting. They are meat eaters and will kill calves, and their own for a meal. Often the hunters will shoot one and leave him lie and wait till the rest come to feed.