KY banning hunting of hogs

[TexasJerseyMilker]

I'm glad we sold the Texas ranch. The landscape was getting black with hogs. One afternoon I counted 35 piglets with several sows. They would come at night and tear up the lawn right next to the house.

Also nice to move away from fire ants, yankees and Californians. I ate some feral hog once at a cowboy barbeque it was tough and dry. I heard that some people trap them take them home and feed them corn to fatten them up for slaughter. With their reproductive rate I don't know how they can ever be gotten rid of.

 

[Travlr]

Hogs are pretty smart and figure out the trap deal pretty quickly, I think she would be the one that helps keep them out of a trap

Even if given "treats" and released? I'd like to try it. With a spayed sow, if it didn't work at least you aren't increasing the population.

 

[greybeard]

One spayed sow/500 acres in East Texas wouldn't make a tiny tiny dent in the feral hog population.

I have eaten feral pork. It was not dry and tough. Sounds like someone overcooked it.

 

[Travlr]

One spayed sow/500 acres in East Texas wouldn't make a tiny tiny dent in the feral hog population.

I have eaten feral pork. It was not dry and tough. Sounds like someone overcooked it.

Well if one worked... how many would make a dent?

I'm not sayin' it's a good idea... but considering the situation are there any bad ideas if they haven't been tried? It's not like I'm suggesting holding a red hot poker over an open container of gas...

 

[Ned Jr.]

I don't know anything about wild hogs but I've heard one of the reasons they'll never be eradicated is because people are always releasing them for sport hunting. Makes me wonder if part of the "untold" reason Kentucky is outlawing hunting them is the discourage people from releasing them…???
The only wild hog I've ever seen was a road kill in Texas. That thing was huge! A lot bigger than I expected. But it was in Texas. That had to have been like hitting a rock! Would have totaled a car.

 

[greybeard]

I hit one Christmas morning 2016 going about 55 mph in my wife's Dodge which is mostly 'plastic' on the front end. It wasn't too bad. Impact was just below left headlight. Car was still drivable but we had to go back home and get my truck because we were on our way to my niece's home about 50 miles away for Christmas dinner and it involved getting on I-10. Some of the plastic car parts would be flappin in the wind and I didn't want the whole fender to go flyin off.
The hog was still alive layin in the road, but the guy driving right behind us, stopped, put a .22 round in it and drug it off the roadway.

 

[greybeard]

From 2019, in Chambers County Tx (Just East of Houston/Baytown)

A woman was attacked and killed by a group of feral hogs Sunday morning outside the southeastern Texas home where she worked as a caretaker, authorities said.

Chambers County Sheriff Brian Hawthorne said in a press conference Monday that Christine Rollins, 59, arrived around 6 or 6:30 a.m. when she was attacked at the Anahuac home, 40 miles east of Houston.

The 84-year-old woman who has been under her care for almost two years went outside and found Rollins in the front yard between her car and the front door, Hawthorne told reporters.

The sheriff said Rollins had a severe head wound and several other injuries consistent with different size bites, indicating multiple animals were involved.

Hawthorne said detectives are still trying to determine whether Rollins fell because of a medical condition, and whether the fall caused her head injury, or whether the animals made her fall.

"In my 35 years, it was one of the worst things I had ever seen," Hawthorne said about the scene.

The coroner in neighboring Jefferson County ruled Monday that Rollins bled to death after an attack by feral hogs.

Hawthorne told reporters that feral hogs have been a problem in the county and throughout the state of Texas. But incidents like this are rare.

"Just from what little research we have found, there is less than six of these that have been reported in the nation over the very many years in reporting these kind of deaths," he said.

 

[lynnmcmahan]

One spayed sow/500 acres in East Texas wouldn't make a tiny tiny dent in the feral hog population.

I have eaten feral pork. It was not dry and tough. Sounds like someone overcooked it.

Talked to the local butcher about feral hog and said, I know some folks that said they were pretty good eaten. His reply was some folks don't know what good is.

 

[gman4691]

Yes, sir…

I don't know anything about wild hogs but I've heard one of the reasons they'll never be eradicated is because people are always releasing them for sport hunting. Makes me wonder if part of the "untold" reason Kentucky is outlawing hunting them is the discourage people from releasing them…???
The only wild hog I've ever seen was a road kill in Texas. That thing was huge! A lot bigger than I expected. But it was in Texas. That had to have been like hitting a rock! Would have totaled a car.

even a small one can tear pretty much everything out from under a car if it rolls under when hit. I would say "like hitting a rock" is a pretty apt description. Those things are pretty doggone dense…even small ones.

 

[kenny thomas]

Wonder where they are located in eastern Kentucky? A little of our hunt lease is in Ky with 98% of it being in Virginia. Our lease is the only place i ever seen hogs eradicated. A few were shot, none were trapped. But over about 10 years they disappeared. Only thing that changed was the bear population exploded. 39 were killed just on our lease this past season. Still plenty there. All experts say the bear aren't the reason but i think it is. Lease is approximately 15000 acres.

 

[wbvs58]

It's easy enough to bait them and kill them but almost anything you use will kill a lot of animals you don't want to kill. Antifreeze and corn will destroy a group of hogs but if deer, cattle, horses or dogs get to it, it will kill them too. A & M supposedly created a hog only poison but I don't know anyone that uses it

I think baiting in general has been used a lot more on problem species in Australia especially on dogs in the sheep industry, 1080 (sodium fluroacetate) is predominantly used but is not a nice poison, no antidote, I'm surprised that it is still allowed however baiting is generally in fairly remote areas. Of late widespread adoption of exclusion fencing has helped protect sheep but baiting programs are still needed. Long term experience with baiting can be pretty target specific. A nitrite based bait for pigs has been developed, the advantage being an antidote is available for domestic animals. Baiting of pigs, trapping and aerial shooting are the main effective control measures, shooting and pigging with dogs really just moves the problem elsewhere. In the case with the neighbours the baiting was very targeted and successfull, the pigs got well trained to a feeder and were coming in every night then the feed got changed for one night only and it did the job. No deer here and if there were they would be considered a feral problem to deal with as well. The other no target species that could be involved would be wild dogs and foxes feeding on the carcases and no tears would be shed if it took out a few of those.

Ken

 

[Travlr]

I think baiting in general has been used a lot more on problem species in Australia especially on dogs in the sheep industry, 1080 (sodium fluroacetate) is predominantly used but is not a nice poison, no antidote, I'm surprised that it is still allowed however baiting is generally in fairly remote areas. Of late widespread adoption of exclusion fencing has helped protect sheep but baiting programs are still needed. Long term experience with baiting can be pretty target specific. A nitrite based bait for pigs has been developed, the advantage being an antidote is available for domestic animals. Baiting of pigs, trapping and aerial shooting are the main effective control measures, shooting and pigging with dogs really just moves the problem elsewhere. In the case with the neighbours the baiting was very targeted and successfull, the pigs got well trained to a feeder and were coming in every night then the feed got changed for one night only and it did the job. No deer here and if there were they would be considered a feral problem to deal with as well. The other no target species that could be involved would be wild dogs and foxes feeding on the carcases and no tears would be shed if it took out a few of those.

Ken

I've been told salt can kill pigs. Not sure how that would work, but from what I understand pigs don't have sweat glands so that may have something to do with it.

 

[Ky hills]

Wonder where they are located in eastern Kentucky? A little of our hunt lease is in Ky with 98% of it being in Virginia. Our lease is the only place i ever seen hogs eradicated. A few were shot, none were trapped. But over about 10 years they disappeared. Only thing that changed was the bear population exploded. 39 were killed just on our lease this past season. Still plenty there. All experts say the bear aren't the reason but i think it is. Lease is approximately 15000 acres.

From what I have been able to find out
There are pockets of them in south central KY around Dale Hollow and the Big South Fork areas. I believe I've read something about Lewis county in north eastern Ky. One of the articles said they were in 1/3 of KY counties which would be 40 counties. I wonder if they might be some around the abandoned strip mines in eastern KY, there are feral horses there now.
The bears are doing pretty good here too. Saw tracks yesterday.

 

[Brute 23]

Has anyone ever trapped some hogs, sorted out the leader and spayed her, and then turned her out to become a "Judas" to lead others into traps? Turn the leader out before killing the rest of the trapped pigs and they would think they are just coming in to get a good feed?

Might be fun to experiment with...

I had a boar hog I caught and fed and would turn loose. We would rope him out of my big trap. He would be back in the trap the next night and bring more pigs with him. I had a big trap though. It was like 1/4 or 1/2 acre with entrances like a perch trap. It had water and cover in it. You could catch the whole pack. Get a sow in heat and you would have boar hogs piling in there to get to her.

My boar hog finally got shot when I turned him out on time by my boss. He was like #200ish. Big pig.

 

[Travlr]

I had a boar hog I caught and fed and would turn loose. We would rope him out of my big trap. He would be back in the trap the next night and bring more pigs with him. I had a big trap though. It was like 1/4 or 1/2 acre with entrances like a perch trap. It had water and cover in it. You could catch the whole pack. Get a sow in heat and you would have boar hogs piling in there to get to her.

My boar hog finally got shot when I turned him out on time by my boss. He was like #200ish. Big pig.

So what we really need is a sow with her tubes tied so she will be in heat on the regular... and lead the boars in.

And the big pen would probably make them feel less trapped.

 

[Brute 23]

So what we really need is a sow with her tubes tied so she will be in heat on the regular... and lead the boars in.

And the big pen would probably make them feel less trapped.

It's all the difference when you have pigs already in a big pen. The other hogs will circle it trying to find a hole to get in with them. I trapped tons of pigs and even shot quite a few on the outside trying to get in.

There is no such thing as trap smart hogs. You just have to be smarter than the hogs.

 

[Brute 23]

Coyotes have to find a small one separated from the others from what I've seen, most coyotes won't tackle a full grown one and the sows are pretty protective of the little ones. Farmers do plant crops but that's not the issue, the hogs are. You don't even hve to plant crops, I've got about 50 or 60 acres of low land that will get real wet in a storm , after that the hogs will root up the mud and make massive holes looking for grubs and roots. I can't take my cab tractor back there after that because most of the ground is so rough when they ge done. We have a real heavy and long old Case 930 that can go back there but the mess they make is incredible

I watched 3 or 4 coyotes get after a sow with a bunch of watermelons. I could hear piglets squeeling and the sow fighting. It was in the brush but then piglets started running across a big ROW. Then there were coyotes chasing them. I watched them go back in forth a couple times then the sow crossed another ROW perpendicular to the first one with maybe 5-6 piglets going with here. The coyotes chased the others back and forth for a big catching one here or there. I think they finally caught them one or two each and let the rest go.

I've seen the same thing happen with dogs when we get on a sow like that with pigs. They can be very aggressive but a lot of times they will cut their losses and head out while the dogs fool with piglets. It's pretty frustrating. LoL

 

[Texas Ranch Hand]

If deer feeders are your worse enemy then where do farmers rank? They plant hundreds or thousands of acres of feed for hogs.

I have personally watched coyotes running down piglets and catching them in the daylight. I was very conflicted after that about killing coyotes.

 

[Texas Ranch Hand]

We were covered up in turkey up to about 2 years ago. Then nothing. No turkey at all but noticed we couldn't go past a feeder without seeing 5-10 hogs. They were everywhere so I deduced the hogs were destroying our turkey. about a year ago I got a 35' diameter trap with live camera and cellphone trip capability. My son started going out at night with a thermal scope. In 4 months we trapped/shot 150 hogs to the point we didn't ever see them even on game cameras. This year the turkey are back. The trapping and shooting has moved them out. They will be back but we are keeping the trap set and still hunting them. They are nothing more than large rats.

 

[Caustic Burno]

Has anyone ever trapped some hogs, sorted out the leader and spayed her, and then turned her out to become a "Judas" to lead others into traps? Turn the leader out before killing the rest of the trapped pigs and they would think they are just coming in to get a good feed?

Might be fun to experiment with...

It's illegal to trap and release in the state of Texas unless it is an approved facility.
The hogs must be euthanized, it's not just land destruction.
They are carriers of leptospirosis, brucellosis, pseudo rabies along with a host of other diseases.