Feral Hog Damage

[schmism]

from TX? perhaps talk to these guys

YouTube - Nueces Helicopter Pig Hunt (no music)

 

[beenthere]

Great video. Not that easy when they are hiding in the woods. But not a better way to take them in the open.

 

[two_bit_score]

We've had big problems in Texas with ferel hogs. Here is a good webinar coming up on June 17, 2010 at Forestry Webinars

It's titled 'Feral Hogs - The Good, the Bad and the Ugly". It would be worth the time to check out this webinar.

Also, Texas AgriLife Extension Service has some good info on building hog traps.

Also, check out Texasboars.com for a lot of good info on traping and hunting hogs.

 

[sodamo]

Pigs seem to be getting worse every year here, this year being the worst. In fact, as I was reading this thread there was a TV news report about how the drought is bringing them into many of the farms. A papaya farm on Oahu was the report, but we are on the Big Island and have an even larger feral population.
Back to the damage. Even the hunters couldn't keep up in our area. Couldn't take it anymore so earlier this year, I bit the bullet and fenced in about 6 acres around the house - hog wire with a strand of barb wire at bottom. Mowing today out side the fence I see we don't have any less activity, just now it's outside the house area. Before the fence they'd come within 5 ft of the house to do their damage. We have 4 dogs, but guess the pigs knew which side of fence they were on.
To repair the damage, I have used my tiller and make several passes through the area. I don't have it set to till below the surface, but it will break up the overturned turf and sorta level it out. Not perfect, like new level, but at least the ankle twisters are gone. Another irritant is that they tend to root up the rocks, so now I have to hand pick them all over again.
Best of luck with both your control efforts and smoothing out the damage.

David

 

[LRTX1]

Last Jan. I trapped over 25 in that month. I used two 4'x8'x4' guilitine door traps and a holding pen. I would transfer the caught pigs to the holding pen, that was stationed where I could water, and set my traps next to the holding pen. The already caught pigs made it a lot easier to catch the rest. It may calm them down, i dont know but it worked. I caught at least two a night when I set the traps.

I even caught the same pigs more than once when I had a mishap in the transfer process. I gave a lot of them away in exchange for help butchering. By using the holding pen we were in no hurry to butcher and had time to worm em out a little.

 

[stravis]

Last Jan. I trapped over 25 in that month. I used two 4'x8'x4' guilitine door traps and a holding pen. I would transfer the caught pigs to the holding pen, that was stationed where I could water, and set my traps next to the holding pen. The already caught pigs made it a lot easier to catch the rest. It may calm them down, i dont know but it worked. I caught at least two a night when I set the traps.

I even caught the same pigs more than once when I had a mishap in the transfer process. I gave a lot of them away in exchange for help butchering. By using the holding pen we were in no hurry to butcher and had time to worm em out a little.

That's my plan if I can catch them. I've got some spare pasture fenced in right now and if I can catch them, I can put them in the fence until I find folks that want to process them.

archerm3, I'd love to do something like that on my property, but with only 110 acres mostly wooded, I think it would be difficult. I'd love to try it though.

 

[LRTX1]

Better be a stout fence. Might ought to think about a few Hog Panels wired to some fence posts. I would not trust regular pasture fence to hold wild pigs.

 

[stravis]

They don't stay wild long when you're feeding them. On another property we caught 11 in a night. In three days you could walk in the pen with them.

 

[LRTX1]

Well, it's your fence and your hogs. 3 days is plenty of time to tear up a fence. I would build a small pen to save your pasture and fence. Best of luck.

 

[EddieWalker]

A friend has been trying to trap one on my place. He put some corn inside the trap and some outside of the door. They ate all the corn outside of it, but never touched the corn in the trap. Then they figured out how to push the trap out of the way of the corn so they coulg eat it without having to go inside of the trap.

Now it's anchored and in a more wooded location so it's not so easy to push around.

I'm having fun hearing what's happening.

Eddie

 

[stravis]

Yesterday, Some of my seat time was devoted to leveling out hog damage in a pasture area. I was using a box blade to "drag" the field. What a BUMPY ride.

Did it work? I've tried that but there never seems to be enough dirt to fill in the holes. I would have to bring in soil from somewhere else to have enough. Any tips?

 

[Bartcephus]

What I "leveled" out was where the hogs were "rooting" up not a wallow. They tore up the ground making little pits and mounds of dirt. The dirt was pushed around a bit from the hog activity but it's not like they dig under the corn feeders. (Yes, I will prolly have to bring in dirt there.) The rooting however just leaves the ground rough and bumpy. It's kinda like box blading shalow pot holes, but I didn't have to use the scarifiers on the box blade because there were the mounds pushed up too. I didn't get it "seed bed" quality. Just trying to make my summer shredding a little easier. I'll see if I can get some pics next time. I always seem to leave my camera elsewhere when I'm on the tractor.

Hope this answers some of your questions. If it was much worse I would have disked the field and then box bladed since I don't have a drag harrow or regular blade.

 

[Gary51]

I got several large used truck tires from the local tire dealer for free and chained them together, tread to tread. 3 in front and 4 in back. If you drag the damaged areas after some rain, but before the grass gets too tall, it will level the mowing areas pretty well. Not smooth enough for hay meadow, but good enough for bush hogging.

 

[Bartcephus]

I remember draging pastures with a "tire harrow" back when I was in high school. Those things sure are nice to smooth out soft ground too. Cheap to make, and depending on what you tie the tires together with, they can last a long long long time. We would use them to smear the manure in the pastures to keep dead spots from showing. I'm thinking that was my first significant seat time was draging the tires.

Glad you brought that up... may have to just make one, havent used one in years.

Regards!