Hogs overrun Texas?

I keep my rifle in my truck at all times, If I see a hog it dies. They have torn the hell out of our family's land. They DIG.
 
They've overrun many parts of Florida as well. I'm just fine with that because I dearly love hunting them. They can be as cautious/smart as deer and have better noses so hunting them can be a good challenge. Additionally, I can usually get my wife to eat my homemade piggy sausage whereas she generally won't touch my venison.
 
That article makes me laugh! "Despite our best efforts, the population continues to grow"! Now, let's see: last time I checked, ranchers in Texas weren't trying to get rid of the hogs, because they charge folks $500-800 to go kill one. They want big hogs because they want trophy fees. What they don't want is herds of sows and piglets rooting up their farms. Last time I checked, sows and piglets and a few years of time was still the only way to get big hogs.

If they were really trying to get rid of the pigs, they would just go out and kill them. Worked for passenger pigeons and buffalo, it would work for pigs.
 
If they really want to reduce them, they should give a bounty on their hides to the landowners, just like we used to do with wolves (for better or worse) - in this case it would be for the better. Then, since the landowners get reimbursed, they have a larger incentive to allow hunters on their lands, and an incentive to not charge as much per hunt. Then we're ALL happy (except maybe the taxpayers of TX).
 
And to think, all of the ranchers problems can be traced back to a bunch of city morons that called themselves hunters that went out and bought a bunch of hogs and turned them loose for the hunt. After the hunt, they drove off. Texas is a swine quarantine state. You can no longer transport a hog across a county line without a vet controlled 30 day quarantine. To get a hog from San Antonio to Laredo would take about 6 months and thousands of dollars in vet bills. Last year my brother killed over 2000 of them and the population is growing in his area. The hog has no known animal that predatates on them. Lions would rather eat a deer or something that isn't going to put up a fight. Only man is the danger to a hog. And yes, the article is accurate, they are getting more prolific and numerous. Ranchers do like to have them around but when browse gets scare for them, they will eat calves and lambs. They're kinda like a coyote, the only thing they can't eat and digest is a license plate on a passing 18 wheeler. Add that they will usually either have pseudorabies or brucalosis, you really don't want to touch one after killing it. Both of these can be caught by humans with brucalosis being the most common. If you kill one and have flu like systoms afterward, seek medical advice immediately.
 
And to think, all of the ranchers problems can be traced back to a bunch of city morons that called themselves hunters that went out and bought a bunch of hogs and turned them loose for the hunt.
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Well, there were an awful lot of ranchers and farmers that used to run hogs on rangeland and forest land, then once a year they would round them up and castrate the young males and send the rest off to market and that was part of their income for the year (this is straight from one of the folks that grew up that way). Now, the USDA and a few other Gov't organizations decided to try to stop several diseases that were killing off and sickening an awful lot of folks, so they said you couldn't do that anymore. And factory hog farms took the profit out of it for the little guys, so they let their hogs run wild, but country folks still used them for a source of meat. But with the dropping price of pork, it's just about as cheap to go buy a half a hog as it is to kill you own, scald him to get the hair off, skin him, cure the hams and bacon and make sausages out of him. And besides, there were actually some "city morons" that would pay a couple hundred $$ to go out and shoot that pig. And now, a lot of those "city morons" are happy to just sit at home and buy pork chops for $2.99 a pound rather than go out and shoot a 150 pound pig and pay $600 for the privilege. So, why is it that the country (Texas is not alone) has a pig problem? Yes, you could put a bounty on them, and it would work. Or ranchers could just lower their prices, because if they don't the pigs will eat them out of house and home. I'm going to California to hunt pigs next month because a rancher did just that. I don't have the answer, but somebody better figure it out quick!!
 
If they were really trying to get rid of the pigs, they would just go out and kill them.
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If that's the case why do we still have coyotes? We hunt them in Texas with helicopters and can't get rid of them.

The hogs seem to be almost completely nocturnal. I like having them around as they give you something else to shoot at while deer hunting. They will chase deer off of a feeder.

I like to eat the sows but those bores are just too smelly for me to mess with. On the downside they hurt the deer hunting a little bit in my opinion.
 
Yeah, I agree...I'm really looking forward to this season. I've been anxiously anticipating the "Hog Hatch" this year. Those little ones are great, and my 22-250 really does the trick on em. I love those 35-70lb'ers. Pop em in the head no wasted meat, and very tender. I've gone so far as to place ads in the paper volunteering to erradicate hogs for no fee. I get calls and they want to charge me $300-$500.00. I guess they really are not that big a problem...yet...If they really want to get rid of them, it would be free, not for a fee...
 
no permit
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You have to have a hunting license. The exception is hunting "depredating feral hogs, if a landowner (resident or non-resident) or landowner's agent or lessee is taking feral hogs causing depredation on the landowner's land."
 
Trapper, I think you may have some out of date or inaccurate information.

Trapper L said,
And to think, all of the ranchers problems can be traced back to a bunch of city morons that called themselves hunters that went out and bought a bunch of hogs and turned them loose for the hunt. After the hunt, they drove off.
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Um, no. Some may be present because of hunters turning domestic pigs out into the wild to hunt, but feral pigs have been around a long time before feral hog hunting was popularized.

http://64.233.167.104/search?q=cach...+hog+predator+texas&hl=en&ct=clnk&cd=12&gl=us
[Swine]They have been in Texas since the 1680s and were important live-stock to the early settlers, who usually allowed their animals to roam free. When confronted by war and economic hard times, settlers often had to abandon their homesteads on short notice, leaving their animals to fend for
themselves. Thus, many free-ranging domesticated hogs became feral over
time.
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Trapper L said,
To get a hog from San Antonio to Laredo would take about 6 months and thousands of dollars in vet bills.
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You seem to be suggesting that the feral hogs would have to be tested and requarantined (30 days) for each county line they cross. This is not the case. Also, the swine do not have to be quarantined before being moved within specific parameters. From the source above...

Feral swine trapped on a premise are to be tested negative for
brucellosis and psuedorabies within 30 days before they are moved to
a game preserve or site where they will be maintained for hunting. An accredited veterinarian must draw the blood samples for the tests, at the owners expense.

The tests prior to movement are not required if the swine are taken directly to a slaughter facility or to a livestock market for sale or slaughter. At the livestock market, the feral swine must be held in isolation, under quarantine, and be moved only to slaughter with a permit issued by the TAHC animal health inspector.
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Trapper L said,
Add that they will usually either have pseudorabies or brucalosis, you really don't want to touch one after killing it. Both of these can be caught by humans with brucalosis being the most common.
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Pseudorabies is not zoonotic (does not transmit to humans) (from same A&M report noted above and http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m3741/is_n3_v40/ai_12438567).

Pseudorabies, a viral disease, attacks the central nervous system and can be fatal to cattle, horses, goats, sheep, dogs, cats, raccoons, skunks, opossums and small rodents. It is not related to rabies and it does not infect humans.
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As for the statement that most feral hogs have these conditions, I would have to see your source. I have not seen this reported elsewhere.
 
Perhaps if Texas wasn't 97% privately owned land, there would be more hunters than those few of us "citiy morons" who have to fork out $200-$400 for a hog at some "guided" ranch. We all arn't fortunatel enough to live out in the middle of nowhere, free to roam the range from sunup to sudown, day after day, actually having to kill to eat. So yes, it is easier to run down and pay $5 for some ribs if we want the meat... but we pay $$$ for the experience, not so much for the meat. Are big deer really worth several thousand dollars??! Heck no, maybe a couple hundred in feed, but that's what keeps these small ranch's running is us city morons and our almighty dollars. :cool:
 
The Big Thicket National Park has hunting permits that are available to the public with feral hog and deer hunting. You might check some of the Texas State Parks also.
 
Last year my uncle killed a dozen hogs outside Columbus and he says there are plenty more. I wouldn't mind a good hog hunt.

Tex
 
I heard a guy talking about how the hogs had his pasture so tore up that he could not bale his hay this year. When I heard him talking, I told him that I would gladly kill a few off of his land if he would let me, to which he replied, that he did not allow any hunting on his land.

I told him that I hope they did not eat him out of house and home. People who make a safe haven for hogs, deserve what they get. We have an army base here that won't allow you to hunt them, and a state owned reserve that won't allow you to hunt them, and a game ranch that won't allow you to hunt them. All together they cover about 20,000 acres of land that you are not permitted to hunt hogs on. So is it any wonder that the hogs are over running everything in sight?

We don't have any large preditors here in Oklahoma, and what few black bears we have here can't possibly eat all the hogs (most of which are bigger than the bears) so I figure it won't be to long before the hogs literally take over most of the deer country.
 
Hogzilla lives!

:D:D:D

A guy from Big Bend National Park was telling me that the hogs are now in the northern/eastern parts of the Park. They've been trapping and killing, but only getting some of the hogs. It's just a matter of time before they're into the Chiso Mountains area, and then watch the fun! Instead of cougar attacks, we'll start hearing about hog attacks! :D

Art
 
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