https://www.foxnews.com/science/rising-population-wild-hogs-super-pigs-worrying-experts-report
The "feral swine bomb" is well known to those of us living in the Southeast.
It is one of the many reasons why large magazine AR-15 variants are so popular when hunting.
Every time I have heard a game warden speak in the last 20 years they mention two things:
1] Take kids hunting
and
2] Shoot every wild pig you see - even if you leave them to rot.
This is also why a lot of deer hunters carry a .45 handgun when hunting deer with bolt action rifles. If you get treed by a group of wild hogs, the .45 can save your life.
I know this has been a problem for a fair number of years, but it seems to becoming significantly worse. The powers that be do not seem to take it seriously.
Quote from: Labbug on September 21, 2020, 12:51:57 PM
I know this has been a problem for a fair number of years, but it seems to be coming significantly worse. The powers that be do not seem to take it seriously.
Many city people are clueless about nature, agriculture, and many other topics in rural areas.
Up here in the north east we never here of this stuff, only when a hunter shoots a dog or person and thought it was a deer. I don't know anything about feral pigs, can they be caught and eaten like regular pigs? Sorry just don't know
Yeah, you can eat some of them. The big, old ones are absolute hell to clean, and the older males stink too much to eat. Most of the females and the smaller hogs can be eaten, but it is a lot of work. Their skin and outer fat are TOUGH. Due to their "natural" diet their meat tastes off to many people. I speak from personal experience. I hunt hogs year round. The damage they do to crops and equipment runs a couple of billion dollars annually. They are blamed for eliminating some native species from some areas.
Thanks Solops, sort of like the invasive fish species that people let loose in the lakes and rivers but this is on land. Just thinking, send them to New York and then maybe the hogs can invade NYC and chase Deblasio and AOC out of New York. Send a few to Martha's vineyard as well. Also, they can help eat all the garbage in San Francisco and camp out in front of Pelosi's house. This would be a good horror movie to be made for comedy.
I'm legitimately amazed they haven't infected West TN yet.
They aren't really an invasive species, exactly; they've been around forever, but their natural predators have dropped off sharply.
In a related note, check out the pig hunting videos on YouTube (no linky from me, so go look on your own) where they seed an area and then use Tannerite to make piggys go boom.
I don't think we should have them suffer. It's not their fault this has come about. Just be humane in killing them.
More on pigs - https://www.foxnews.com/us/swine-bomb-wild-hogs-agriculture-department-population
I'm thinking the the Murder Hornets will kill them off. Or maybe the poison bladed caterpillars. Or maybe the other way around. God help us if they interbreed though. :hide:
Murder Hornets will make them stronger.
...and possibly vice versa.
The Problem:
Hogs.
Eat.
EVERYTHING.
Including bee hives, wasp nests, poisonous snakes, etc.
Really good pig bait - get a big tub. Pour in 50 pounds or more of corn. Add enough water to cover the corn. Let it sour for two weeks. Pour off excessive water. Add a gallon of diesel. Stir. Percolate a few days. Put at your favorite hog infested hunting spot. Stand back out of the way and start shooting hogs. I didn't believe it at first, but the diesel flavoring does not deter the hogs, but keeps other critters from eating your bait. If you are lucky you'll get some maggots. Hogs REALLY love that.
^ That was the first information on this thread that I did not already know.
Re eating poisonous snakes: I learned that several decades ago, when I was a boy, from reading compilations of my grandparents' (even much older) Foxfire magazines. These were 'tame' hogs, but the principle still applies: they stomp on the heads of the snakes, and then
FLAY
THEM
ALIVE
--peeling the skins back. Until the snakes die. Or not, the hogs don't care. Skins go first either way.
I still have those, or Mom does rather. (The Foxfire compilations, not the hog-stripped snake skins.) It occurs to me now that some of those articles involve absolute rubbish tall tales, like snakes rolling along after tucking their tails in their mouths; but the snake-eating method sounded one thousand percent plausible to me.
In conclusion: hogs are like the Reavers from Firefly. Or maybe vice versa.
Next week I am going into full scale hog hunting mode, just like I have for the last several years. My wife and I compete. The hogs usually win. I come in last place in spite of having an IR scope and all of the other advantages I can come up with. I think the problem is that only the really greedy hogs are noisy and dumb enough to wake me up and get shot. I can tell you that the local hogs are now way too smart to get trapped. We keep trying, but no joy.
Solops, my Wife used the same method to catch me. Except she used Bourbon instead of Diesel Fuel. :2funny: Wild Hogs are a true menace here in Fla. anywhere in the wild. A sow with piglets is just about the most dangerous animal on Earth.
Honestly, I think bourbon would work better for the hogs, but I am not THAT hard-core.
If we got them drunk enough, maybe they would crawl up on the grill by themselves. :bd:
Quote from: Sir Slash on October 16, 2020, 11:03:42 AM
If we got them drunk enough, maybe they would seem to crawl up on the grill by themselves. :bd:
>:D
https://www.foxnews.com/great-outdoors/west-virginia-announces-first-wild-boar-hunting-lottery
More BACON!!! :D
Quote from: Labbug on January 05, 2021, 08:39:15 PM
https://www.foxnews.com/great-outdoors/west-virginia-announces-first-wild-boar-hunting-lottery
That was an odd story. A State hunting lottery to hunt wild boar on a large stretch of private land.
On a side note I had a deputy sheriff here in West Texas tell me that wild hogs were a great way to get rid of a body. Only thing left will be the teeth and they will be scattered
Well I'd definitely feel a lot safer after a local deputy imparted that knowledge onto me. :o
Well it might come in handy some day, say when you find pedophile after your underage daughter of your neighbor insists on mowing his hard at 6am every day Saturday
Quote from: nelmsm on December 18, 2021, 10:18:23 PM
Well it might come in handy some day, say when you find pedophile after your underage daughter of your neighbor insists on mowing his hard at 6am every day Saturday
Your daughter of your neighbor? Mowing his hard? 6AM? Everyday
and Saturday?
Huh. Who knew...
;D
I think someone was either very tired or drunk when they typed that. Or both!
What the hell is going on here?