Amazed by the wild hog problem!

[Canuck Bob]

I was amazed at the problem hogs have become in the USA. To my knowledge they are in some areas of Canada but far from a problem. In the west and north I know bears LOVE hog meat.

The devastated farms I see on cable tv are shocking. A guy is doing a real service for his nation hunting these things.

Is it as bad as the tv makes it out to be?

[O.S.O.K.]

Do not think that Canada will escape the hog plague.

They can begin breeding at 6 months and can have three liters of about 12 shoats per - a year. I sincerely do not think that the bears will be able to keep up with the hogs. Mature boars are a force to be delt with as well - not so easy for a bear to take down. Wolves, yes, but again, the hogs will simply outbreed this.

They spread faster than any other comparable large animal and easily adapt to the cold.

They tear the heck out of farms yes - their rooting behavior really messes things up and they can eat just about anything. They devistate crops that they get into. The rooting is for grubs and insects though.

[Canuck Bob]

The reason I'm asking is a report that showed a time lapse map of the spread of hogs over the next ten years or so. No idea who produced the graphics but the northward spread was dramatic and didn't stop at the border.

When I was a kid in southern Ontario racoons were not real common. They have taken over the farmland and cities now. Actually saw an oppossum road kill there a few years ago and they did not exist there when I was a kid. Kinda reminded me of a dirty white diseased rat! Just wondering about a hog invasion.

My uncle raised hogs in northern Alberta when I was a kid. It was full time work dragging dead bears off with the tractor for him. He shot a lot of them in the fifties with a 30-30 Winchester at corral range. He was a transplanted Yankee so that is why it wasn't a 303. He had been a sargeant in Patton's tank corp and pretty handy with a lever rifle and GI 45 auto that found its way north.

[gcs]

I think that's 3 litters in 2 years, which is still plenty fast, but probably a little slower in the North.
N. Europe and Russia has had wild boar since always, so they will adapt. Just got to eat a lot of them.

[GoatGuy]

I keep hearing reports of hogs in this vicinity. Just haven't seen sign in my immediate local area (other that our famed UofA Razorbacks ). Don't know if that's a good sign or not as I sure would like to bag one in the not too distance future. Even got my "shooter" selected for the occasion.

[O.S.O.K.]

GCS - no, its 3 per year. Not that they will have 3 but they can. How many depends on the environment of course - amount and quality of food available, etc.

[Mainehunter]

I wish some of them could migrate up here in Maine. Just don't know how well they'll do in the deep snow come January!

Mainehunter

[Charles]

When I was a kid and a young hunter, there was no such things as wild hogs in most of Texas. Over in East Texas, there were a few European/Russian hogs that had been released for hunting. Today they are a plague in South Texas where I grew up and live today. A sow will give birth to three litter a years.

[Rusty]

A few years ago there was a fellow ridding his motorcycle northbound on I-75 just south of Tampa. A wild hog ran out in front of him, he was killed in the collision. How dangerous is that. I see dead hogs on the roadside all the time.

[RKrodle]

Texas just made it legal to hunt them from Helicopters.

[Canuck Bob]

Texas just made it legal to hunt them from Helicopters.

Wish they would do that for wolves around here.

[Bis]

Saw 2 fair sized hogs( in different locations) on the way to town this morning that had been hit by cars, its 12 miles to town (East Texas).

[WCF3030]

I saw on a wild hog show based in Florida, that they estimate there to be a million wild hogs in that state and in order to keep it at that number they would have to remove 60% of that population every year.

[gcs]

I was going by what a hog guide at a Sportsmans show told me, I didn't do the math.
I'm sure though that 60% removal won't keep them stable, it takes 60% removal of over populated Whitetails for several years to cut them back, 50% just keeps them at status quo and they only have 1 or 2 a year. Or so the Biologist claimed.

[pdawg.shooter]

Wanted to go to Texas a few years back to hunt hogs. All the cotton farmers in the panhandle were b****ing about crop damage. Every one I contacted wanted a $100.00 a day to shoot them. Hey, its your problem and you want to charge me to help out? Dont think so.

[rossim92]

I was going by what a hog guide at a Sportsmans show told me, I didn't do the math.
I'm sure though that 60% removal won't keep them stable, it takes 60% removal of over populated Whitetails for several years to cut them back, 50% just keeps them at status quo and they only have 1 or 2 a year. Or so the Biologist claimed.

+2

[Les Staley]

Pdogshooter, I'm with you.. I'm not paying to hunt something that is a problem to the landowner. How's about paying me to come and clean a few out of your woodlot?? I can be reached at lesstaley@gmail.com Les

[Griff]

Pdogshooter, I'm with you.. I'm not paying to hunt something that is a problem to the landowner. How's about paying me to come and clean a few out of your woodlot?? I can be reached at lesstaley@gmail.com Les

+1

[Triggernosis]

Wanted to go to Texas a few years back to hunt hogs. All the cotton farmers in the panhandle were b****ing about crop damage. Every one I contacted wanted a $100.00 a day to shoot them. Hey, its your problem and you want to charge me to help out? Dont think so.

Exactly! That's B.S. for sure.
I hunted a ranch just outside Laredo a few years ago (paid for by my then wealthy cousin). I got my deer on the first day and was then sent on a mission to eliminate as many wild hogs as I could kill in the next two days. I killed 38...after running out of ammo from the 44 rounds that I took with me on the hunt. They skinned 'em and put some in the freezer for the local ranch hands, donated some, and burned the rest as the were kinda shot up. After seeing what ranch owners think of them and the killing that I did, I would never ever PAY someone to hunt them.

[TMair]

Wanted to go to Texas a few years back to hunt hogs. All the cotton farmers in the panhandle were b****ing about crop damage. Every one I contacted wanted a $100.00 a day to shoot them. Hey, its your problem and you want to charge me to help out? Dont think so.

That sounds familiar, here in UT. there is a problem with Snow geese, the farmers bitch about all the damage they do on their trip back up north, so they started a special hunt to get rid of them, and guess what...exactly those same farmers are charging to hunt on their land!!
Terry

[TMair]

I wish some of them could migrate up here in Maine. Just don't know how well they'll do in the deep snow come January!

Mainehunter

Yeah no kidding, UT is one of the few states that doesn't have a wild hog problem, I know it's not good, but I still wish we had them here
Terry