Article: Rising Feral Hog population, aka Super-Pigs, worry experts

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Majicmike said:
Any of y’all ever eat wild pigs?
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Like in game meat ... what they eat has a fair effect on how the meat tastes be it deer or swine or even bovine.

As to the population explosion ... the farmers/ranchers use to think they deserved to charge hunters to hunt feral pigs on their land ... now they are paying the price. Here in NC we can’t hardly keep up with the breeding by just shooting ... catch pens and trapping dozens over say a weekend event is about the only way to get ahead ... and then the smarter ferals are starting to not fall for pen traps.
 
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Majicmike said:
Are they in NC anywhere yet?
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Some counties with decent hog industry presence (Pender and such) toward the coast that were hit hard by some hurricanes over the past few year had a fairly large number of “domestic” pigs escape due to damage to buildings. A “domestic” pig actually adapts fairly easy when farm crops are near for food sources and there are no real predators. Females breed as young as a year ... have 2 litters (occasionally 3 depending on how they cycle) of an average of 8 piglets per year so the “Pig Bomb” does not take but a few years to blow up an area and then spread to surrounding counties. In Pender a bad weekend penning is 2 dozen feral ... usually 3-5 sows ... 12-15 piglets or shotes ... and maybe 1 or 2 boar.
 
NCFubar said:
Like in game meat ... what they eat has a fair effect on how the meat tastes be it deer or swine or even bovine.

As to the population explosion ... the farmers/ranchers use to think they deserved to charge hunters to hunt feral pigs on their land ... now they are paying the price. Here in NC we can’t hardly keep up with the breeding by just shooting ... catch pens and trapping dozens over say a weekend event is about the only way to get ahead ... and then the smarter ferals are starting to not fall for pen traps.
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There was a video on YouTube a few years back where the hunters used a 2lbs charge of tannerite on the bait pile. They waited until the group of hogs, 20 -30, were all on the pile. One shot and it was a carnage fest of hog parts going everywhere.

Im sure its been pulled by now.
 
May not be the same video.
 
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I killed a couple a number of years ago in South Carolina. Some of the best meat I've had.
There are plenty in areas of North Carolina but from what I hear on other forums, anyone that has them sees them as a money maker and sell hunts. Seem to be plenty of takers but that method does nothing to really reduce the numbers. I sure don't want them up this way.
 
SPST said:
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I love the comments on those videos. They tend to run in the binary, on or off.

On: They understand the problem. They understand it's eradication not hunting. They understand the marksmanship. They understand the piloting skills. They're all Rick Flair "WOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!" about it.

Off: They understand nothing and want the humans eradicated for being so cruel.

There's another video out there where they're using an AR style 12g with 00 buck from a helicopter, those mothertruckers can shoot.
 
Brian K said:
I love the comments on those videos. They tend to run in the binary, on or off.

On: They understand the problem. They understand it's eradication not hunting. They understand the marksmanship. They understand the piloting skills. They're all Rick Flair "WOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!" about it.

Off: They understand nothing and want the humans eradicated for being so cruel.

There's another video out there where they're using an AR style 12g with 00 buck from a helicopter, those mothertruckers can shoot.
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This one....

 
lasttombstone said:
I killed a couple a number of years ago in South Carolina. Some of the best meat I've had.
There are plenty in areas of North Carolina but from what I hear on other forums, anyone that has them sees them as a money maker and sell hunts. Seem to be plenty of takers but that method does nothing to really reduce the numbers. I sure don't want them up this way.
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Ferals are smart! If you go gun on them the herd will break into quite few smaller groups and you’ll chase shadows for months. Even after we use a pen in one place twice we have a hard time baiting them in after that ... we wind up moving pretty much to the opposite side of the property if not a complete different property for a few weeks. The couple owners we help out penning haven’t let people deer hunt on the property except bow for several years to keep the pig herds more condensed and less “nervous” so penning is easier. When we dispatch the captured ferals we use suppressors even (NC statues say we can not remove live animals they must be killed in the trap) to not disturb those hanging close.

In 4 years of pure penning only I’d say we have cut the population on that farm but the owner still suffers thousands of dollar in damage to his fields each season. When C-19 hit the penning operations actually dropped for the first few months and now he swears they’ve comeback with a vengeance. To make a real difference it would probably take operating pens in multiple locations pretty much all week not just the weekends.
 
~8 years ago on opening day of deer season two sows ran past my son, one was delicious. We were living in Duncan (between Fuquay and Holly Springs) at the time. After that we started noticing the creek wall digging and hog tracks that we thought were deer. Even with multiple game cams running year round, we never saw another sign of hogs on the property after that.
 
Pink_Vapor said:
~8 years ago on opening day of deer season two sows ran past my son, one was delicious. We were living in Duncan (between Fuquay and Holly Springs) at the time. After that we started noticing the creek wall digging and hog tracks that we thought were deer. Even with multiple game cams running year round, we never saw another sign of hogs on the property after that.
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Ferals will ruin hunting! They have all but decimated quail hunting (along with other upland birds) by eating the eggs and hatchling. Like PV mentioned above they’ll ruin creeks ... especially tearing up their banks and causing major erosion ... that deer and other wildlife rely on. Hell, ferals have even been known to eat newborn fawns (and I’ve heard a story or two of big ferals snacking on newborn calves).

The landowners who allow me to hunt deer on and I have a wildlife management agreement ... I pretty much cull hunt to maintain the deer on the properties BUT any feral must die ... even if it screws up my deer hunting for the day I’ll pop even a small feral just to try and stop the problem.
 
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NCFubar said:
Ferals will ruin hunting! They have all but decimated quail hunting (along with other upland birds) by eating the eggs and hatchling. Like PV mentioned above they’ll ruin creeks ... especially tearing up their banks and causing major erosion ... that deer and other wildlife rely on. Hell, ferals have even been known to eat newborn fawns (and I’ve heard a story or two of big ferals snacking on newborn calves).

The landowners who allow me to hunt deer on and I have a wildlife management agreement ... I pretty much cull hunt to maintain the deer on the properties BUT any feral must die ... even if it screws up my deer hunting for the day I’ll pop even a small feral just to try and stop the problem.
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I know how bad they can be.

I ran over a litter with my JGC, just to try to slow them down a little. It didn't work. They are everywhere.

We're about to have several hundred acres of timber cut, so I'm guessing they will move out for a few years.
 
lasttombstone said:
I killed a couple a number of years ago in South Carolina. Some of the best meat I've had.
There are plenty in areas of North Carolina but from what I hear on other forums, anyone that has them sees them as a money maker and sell hunts. Seem to be plenty of takers but that method does nothing to really reduce the numbers. I sure don't want them up this way.
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Hog hunts in SC now are more expensive than Deer Hunts and there is a longer waiting list on the good clubs. I can remember when we deer hunted if hogs were spotted on someone's farm, he called in the troops. Some were caught alive and some were shot. They would pay people to kill the hogs. What a reversal. The clubs are now breeding them selectively from what I've heard to grow big trophy hogs just like deer management.
 
It’s gonna be like China eventually, we’ll get swine flu and it’ll be near impossible to eradicate. Wonder what the hog business is worth to NC or SC.
 
NCFubar said:
Ferals are smart! If you go gun on them the herd will break into quite few smaller groups and you’ll chase shadows for months. Even after we use a pen in one place twice we have a hard time baiting them in after that ... we wind up moving pretty much to the opposite side of the property if not a complete different property for a few weeks. The couple owners we help out penning haven’t let people deer hunt on the property except bow for several years to keep the pig herds more condensed and less “nervous” so penning is easier. When we dispatch the captured ferals we use suppressors even (NC statues say we can not remove live animals they must be killed in the trap) to not disturb those hanging close.

In 4 years of pure penning only I’d say we have cut the population on that farm but the owner still suffers thousands of dollar in damage to his fields each season. When C-19 hit the penning operations actually dropped for the first few months and now he swears they’ve comeback with a vengeance. To make a real difference it would probably take operating pens in multiple locations pretty much all week not just the weekends.
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It's a shame you can't sell off what you cull. I'd pay for one to grill.
 
Hogs are delicious, especially when cooked fresh. We used to kill over a hundred a year between about 5 guys and 30 or so dogs. There are many ways to cut down on them including dogs, corral style trapping, and still hunting. Some guys from Florida swore that they had the perfect thing going. They would run their dogs on farmland and castrate every boar they could while killing all the sows. They would do this for about two to three years, and then charge people for a guided hunt to go kill the now trophy sized overgrown "barred" hogs. And split the money with the landowner. Said they paid for all their dog food that way. As for nc, the mountains have plenty and the southern counties in the east along the Waccamaw have plenty,
 
We had a few on our place in Brunswick County several years ago. They tore the fire out of the place. I think the neighbors took them out. I hope they stay away.
 
NCFubar said:
Like in game meat ... what they eat has a fair effect on how the meat tastes be it deer or swine or even bovine.

As to the population explosion ... the farmers/ranchers use to think they deserved to charge hunters to hunt feral pigs on their land ... now they are paying the price. Here in NC we can’t hardly keep up with the breeding by just shooting ... catch pens and trapping dozens over say a weekend event is about the only way to get ahead ... and then the smarter ferals are starting to not fall for pen traps.
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Exactly. I was investigating a hog hunt a few years ago and was shocked at how expensive some of the places were.
 
I live on the Harnett/Johnston county line and a neighbor down the street showed me photos last night from his trail camera of a bunch of wild hogs. One was a very large boar.
 
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