They want to poison wild hogs Texas

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Well, I don't live in Texas, so I don't think I could possibly have a good grasp of the situation. But, perhaps something could be done to promote incentives to landowners allowing free pig hunting. Tax credits, maybe? Liability Waivers, perhaps? I don't know, but I think one of the best solutions to the problem is a lot of well-placed bullets. Good luck with the pig problem down there, and I hope y'all come up with some wisdom for it.
 
What will feed on the "hot" hogs? Coyotes, feral cats, other hogs, stray dogs, vultures and raptors are what i can think of off the top of my head. With the notable exception of the birds, the other unintended animals is a win to me.
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What will feed on hot hogs? Every mammalian and avian carnivore.

That there may be other "unintended animals" as you say means that the proclaimed controlled poisoning isn't in control. That is a real problem.

The current methods just aren't making a dent and I'm glad there's some thinking outside of the box.
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Yeah, actually hunting/trapping/dogs do make a dent and make a big dent. One estimate from 2015 had 325,000 hogs killed by hunters/trappers/doggers. That is a LOT of hogs. The problem is that it isn't sufficient to control the population. Without hunting, the problem would be much worse.

Estimating hogs killed is probably more accurate than estimating how many hogs there are in Texas. As early as 2005, biologists for the state have said that there were about 2 million hogs in Texas and that number was later upgraded to 2.5 million around 2011 or 2012 which is interesting as Higginbothom from Texas A&M's Ag Extension office who has been studying hogs for a number of years says that the population is growing at roughly 20% per year despite the amount of hunting impacting the population. Estimates you see for the hog population today are in the 3-5 million range in most cases. So if you do the math of 20% growth per year since 2005 when there were 2 million hogs, we should have well over 14 million hogs in Texas right now.

So there is this disconnect between what the estimates are and how much the population is actually growing. Nobody is claiming that we have that many hogs in Texas right now, but if you do the math provided by the experts based on their population estimates, then that is how many we should have.

The whole population issue is terribly misunderstood. Sid Miller who approved the poison program said that there were 2 million hogs in Texas, a number that should be more than a decade out of date...which makes you wonder how well he understands what is going on...
 
Yeah, actually hunting/trapping/dogs do make a dent and make a big dent. One estimate from 2015 had 325,000 hogs killed by hunters/trappers/doggers. That is a LOT of hogs. The problem is that it isn't sufficient to control the population.
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That's my point; current methods aren't enough. Population stats ARE anecdotal, therefore worthless, but I think we'd agree there is a problem and I think it's growing. Some of that growth certainly comes from ranchers stocking to attract hunters. On MDLs, that could be controlled but won't be by the current TPW crew, if ever. Too much money.

I still hold my bottom line that pigs need to be moderated by any sound method and I think poisoning with some substance should at least be tested.

As to Mr. Miller, I'll just say I didn't vote for him.
 
Pathfinder, you don't have to live here to see the damage, although the pictures below don't do justice to what a few hogs can do in a few minutes to hours, but here are a few I found in the web:

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Not many hogs probably did this in less than an hour



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BoarDamage2_2.jpg
 
I still hold my bottom line that pigs need to be moderated by any sound method and I think poisoning with some substance should at least be tested.
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Let's hold onto that idea of being tested. Where was Texas' testing of Warfarin for hogs? For years, Texas has been testing contraceptives and sodium nitrate (meat preservative) and sodium nitrate was the frontrunner. No indication that it would cause secondary poisoning to human or scavenger, yet all of a sudden the USDA has approved Warfarin and Miller gave it a green light.

Australia toyed with it for quite some time, and they don't use it any more. However, this study found it 99% effective. https://www.researchgate.net/public...Poisoning_Programme_for_Feral_Pigs_Sus_Scrofa Cool. All we need to do is to meet the same deployment parameters. For the number of feeding stations they had for their area, Texas would need 1.2+ million feeding stations across Texas. So that is 1.2+ million specialty hog-only feeders (unless you have multiple feeders for a given station and then you would need more. So all of those stations are going to need to be regularly filled and monitored and the lure changed to the poison bait after 3-6 weeks and then dead hogs will have to be searched for and collected, then buried and the process repeated until the hogs are gone.

Now, this all needs to be done quickly to get as many killed as fast as possible, ideally virtually all of them, because if hogs are anything like rats, those that get partially dosed and survive, producing you, will become Warfarin tolerant such that it won't work any more.

So do we think we are going to get 1.2 million feeding stations set up across the state in some sort of coordinated effort? Nope.
 
Yeah, actually hunting/trapping/dogs do make a dent and make a big dent. One estimate from 2015 had 325,000 hogs killed by hunters/trappers/doggers. That is a LOT of hogs. The problem is that it isn't sufficient to control the population. Without hunting, the problem would be much worse.
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Hunting doesn't kill enough to keep the populations from growing.

Many landowners have as many problems from hunters as they do from hogs, but they can't poison the hunters.

Sodium Nitrite is a better poison, but the fact they approved Warfarin doesn't mean it's the only one that will be used, or that it will be spread randomly across the whole state.

There is a lot of information and some interesting maps here:
https://www.aphis.usda.gov/wildlife_damage/nwrc/publications/12pubs/fagerstone121.pdf
 
I don't know if a lot of people have a real grasp of the situation or the logistics they would have to deal with to "control" hogs. My first concern would be the numbers of hogs to be dealt with...as the numbers that fly around have no basis in fact as far as I am concerned. There is no possible way to back up statements of how millions of hogs are in Texas. Any numbers you read about are something dreamed up by people sitting at a desk somewhere as there is no possible way to get even a close estimate on feral hog population. Many parts of Texas have very dense woods and foliage which is good habitat for the hogs, but there is no possible way to figure out how many are in there....you might count a sounder or two in west Texas that are out in the open running.
Government agencies like Texas Park and Wildlife making comments about hog populations is mere supposition.
As far as following up and burying the dead hogs after a poisoning episode, that just isn't going to happen in most incidences. In my area you are lucky if you can find a wounded hog in the dense woods, where machinery could not even reach them to do the burying.
I have killed many hogs here in Texas...probably more than most people will actually see in their lifetime. I am a caretaker to an area that is not agricultural and has very dense woods on it. I see many raptors on a regular basis, including eagles nesting in the area, bobcats, etc., that will all become effected by a mass poisoning.
I see no hope for a good outcome or effective results of this program.
 
"Australia cannot call the pig population closer than "4 to 20 million." But they are still killing all they can."

See, that's the problem. The little piggies are hard to count and even if there are 2(of opposite sex) remaining, the population will explode again within 3-4 years.
 
Sodium nitrate would be better and has been tested much more extensively here, so you have to wonder how it was that Warfarin was selected, or "fast-tracked" as Side Miller (Ag Commissioner) said. Notice in the article Snyper cited that Warfarin has been banned in Australia for this use and as of 2012 isn't even apparently on the radar for use in the US.

So we got Warfarin. Who is paying for all those feeders, lure, bait, and subsequent disposal of millions of carcasses of hogs (assuming it doesn't kill a single non-target species)?

Australia, back in the 80s did their testing and the cost was $A39 per hog killed and $A47 for subsequent re-invaders to the area. Converting for the exchange rate and inflation, it would be more than that for US $ today, not even including the cost of labor. This will be both very expensive and very labor intensive (and costly). Landowners are not apt to have licensed Warfarin handler-people volunteering to bait and maintain feeders on their property. The state isn't providing this service. So it will be the landowners getting licensed and doing the work or paying licensed people to do the work.

If they burying all the hogs killed by Warfarin as indicated needs to be done in the directions for use, there will be a lot of hog cemeteries in Texas.

Sid Miller likes to point out how Australia used Warfarin on their hog population and he acts like it was a good thing. What he repeatedly fails to disclose is that use of Warfarin for hogs is now banned in that country and has been for years (see Snyper's article). If Warfarin was doing so well in Australia, then why is it banned for this use now?
 
If Warfarin was fast tracked, follow the money - who makes it, campaign donations? hate to sound like a conspiracy nut, but typically when things that were not going to be done/used get fast-tracked, there's an ulterior motive somewhere.
 
Well Double Naught, you're changing my mind and I need to do more research. As to Sid Miller, I will remain silent due to the (needed) restrictions on political discussions here.

Thanks for your and other's thought provoking comments.
 
i don't like the idea of using Warfarin to kill wild hogs.

Wild hogs are big business in OK and TX. Hog doggers and trappers sell their hogs to hunting "ranches" and slaughter houses. There are hunting "ranches" all over the place. Many do not have adequate fencing to keep the hogs in.

Been hunting and trapping wild hogs since 2000 and have a pretty good grasp of the hog situation in OK and TX. Early last year i went on a hog killing rampage at our deer lease, targeting small pigs. My Ruger .22 accounted for 50-60 small pigs. Last year i trapped and hunted down at least 20 large boars and about as many sows.

Hunters in OK and TX are actually raising wild hogs. They spend lots of money on thousands of tons of corn and other stuff for use in "deer" feeders. Hogs are frequenting most of those "deer" feeders.

Hogs have adversely impacted the deer population at our deer lease. i've seen one doe with fawn there in the past two years. We have been guilty of attracting and feeding hogs there. We have raised generations of trap shy wild hogs.

Beginning immediately i will no longer feed wild hogs. Taller fences will be built around my deer feeders. You can either feed hogs or trap hogs; can't do both.
 
I posted this in 2012, I just happened to find the damage in person at the same time I found a fresh image on google earth. But here is some damage from space.

The darker dirt is the damage, the lighter stuff is animal trails

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What will be the method of the hogs ingesting the warfarin? Poisoned grain? How do you keep deer/turkeys etc. from eating the grain, if that's the delivery system they employ?
 
Stupidest thing I've ever herd [Sic, "heard"], sorry no info to back it up
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Everybody getting so worked up over a rumor. If that was a topic for discussion (overheard in a bar), it would not be worthy of mentioning. Here we have it on a gun forum, and everyone fails to take into account that it is an unsubstantiated rumor.
 
dahermit said:
Everybody getting so worked up over a rumor. If that was a topic for discussion (overheard in a bar), it would not be worthy of mentioning. Here we have it on a gun forum, and everyone fails to take into account that it is an unsubstantiated rumor.
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Michigan near ohio news dont always cover us hicks in Texas.
'Hog apocalypse': Texas Ag Commissioner approves killing feral hogs with poison
Craig Hlavaty | on February 22, 2017


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Well, one thing I think that those of us that live elsewhere, unaffected by this problem, should do, is refrain from telling the folks in Texas what they can or cannot do about this problem. A lot of our opinions might be useless; some might be helpful. I think Texans ought to be very concerned about the use of any poisons, however, I feel it's their decision to make. Border States should probably have a stake in this, but here in Oregon, I'm not sure we should have the same say in this. We can air our concerns, but Texans will have to decide what they will do while the rest of us watch and learn from it. Texans owe it to themselves and the environment to be well informed about any poisons they might use. Sounds like they have a virtual war going on down there. I did have a war once with rabbits. I was killing all I could, but I was losing the war. Finally a band of Coyotes came in and saved my crops. I don't see that happening with the pigs, though.
 
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