Hogs in Texas

[D. Key]

I'm in SE Texas by Lake Sam Rayburn and own 100 acres with direct access to the Angelina Nat'l Forest to my Southern fence.  Hogs have invaded our area in the past 8 years to epic amounts however, hunting them is very difficult.  I spend a considerable amount of time walking in the afternoons, stumpshooting with my longbow and have only encountered two hogs in the past 5 years.  The hogs in our area are primarily nocturnal and don't come out until 2:00 to 4:00 AM as proven by trail cameras, plus they have run off most of our deer population, more than the Good 'Ole East Texas night hunter.  

They are rooting my roads and pasture so I bought a trap about 6 months ago.  The hogs here are very leery of traps and I have only caught 2 so we have a huge dilemma.  As opposed to poisoning as I am, hunting seems futile and with the growing population as I have seen in the past few years, there is no easy solution. They breed faster than rabbits and will soon completely take over our area. Tannerite with a trip-wire might be the only solution.    

[amicus]

I hate pigs but I love shooting them. I think a big boar is as challenging as a mature buck. I live in south central Texas and I have killed lots of pigs and also have trapped lots of pigs. I'm a little skeptical of all the damage that the experts claim they do. They do root up crops but I have not seen the amount of damage that you read about. I've been hunting on a cattle ranch for the past 8 yrs that has several oat/grain pastures and the damage is always minimal. This year was the worst for pigs. The mild weather and a rain fall really boosted their numbers. To me the biggest problem with pigs is that they chase you deer away. I had several stands that were taken over by pigs and the deer would not come to it. I'm not in favor of poisoning but I think that would work to keep the numbers down.
The biggest mistake people make with traps is letting the pigs go for what ever reason. Its my opinion that once you let them go they will not be retrapped.

[ranger 3]

So why is so many farmers reluctant to let people to hunt them?

[Crittergetter]

Because people are worse than hogs! Generally speaking!

[Burnsie]

Originally posted by DJ Hardy:
A lot of the landowners want them gone but will not let you hunt them without paying so they sort of deserve the results

Exactly, you will never catch me paying someone to hunt a hog, at least not in Texas or any other state where the problem is so bad they are considering having to poison them.  Some of these places act like they are taking you on a fully guided elk hunt or something, and then try to kill them off by the truck load when hunting doesn't do the trick.

[Pointer]

Not a good idea...once you let that genie out of the bottle there are long term and often unintended consequences that go well beyond what was intended.

[Straitshot]

The drug they are planning on using is Warfarin. Warfarin first came on the commercial scene in 1948 as a rat poison. It has since been developed as a drug and is used on folks that have certain heart conditions to prevent blood clots.

I believe given at higher dosages it can cause internal bleeding. I believe it causes the hogs lungs and/or other internal organs to hemorrhage thus they drown in their own blood or bleed to death. I am not totally certain of how it kills the hog but I think I remember reading somewhere that is what happens. I would have to research it more to know for certain.

I understand it can be neutralized in the human body with shots of vitamin K and if one discontinues taking it will all be gone from the body in 3 days. Not sure if this is factual either but it is some of the stuff I have read.