Had a new one on me last night. Had to slam on my brakes to let a gang of hogs cross the road. I've been to Texas and Oklahoma several times, but never had hogs running in the road before lol. You boys down there best keep an eye out.....

They're about to take over everywhere it seems, can't kill them fast enough.

We're getting them farther north in Missouri. I'm used to watching for deer and the occasional coyote, just never gave any thought to hogs running out in front of a car lol

Hope they do take over tried hunting several times in Texas and everyone has there hand out for money same in Missouri.

They'd be fun to hunt...just dont want them here!

Against the law to shoot a feral hog in Illinois except when deer hunting. Supposed to call DNR so they can send in sharpshooters.

Thats just plumb crazy. But then again I don't get the attitude of some farmers either. They cry and complain how much damage they do, and when ya offer to help out and shoot a few, they have their hand open wanting to get paid. I have quit hunting them for that very reason. They can't be doing that much damage when farmers still want financial compensation for killing them I guess. ( insert sarcasm emoji here )

Hunting just worsens the problem by scattering the sounders and creates an incintive to spread them around. Hog dogging is the worst of it.

Trapping targeting whole sounders is the most effective method of reduction , shooting is then used as cleanup for the boars and singles the traps miss.

Not crazy at all. Kansas eliminated feral hogs and their main strategy was to make it illegal to kill them. Even farmers have to get a permit to kill them. They have two full time guys who just trap and shoot hogs as the pigs move in from Oklahoma and Missouri and they have basically eliminated feral hogs in the state. Now other states are following their lead because it works. You're never going to get rid of feral hogs if they are a sport animal and people enjoy hunting them.

Never going to get rid of them period in areas of sufficient cover and limited access. As already mentioned, trapping is the way to go as far as actually temporarily removing populations, which is why they promote the “don’t shoot, report” ideology. I would say about 5% of the general population has enough restraint to not smoke one if they get a shot, and I don’t blame them although it was quite frustrating to deal with. Pigs are here to stay in Missouri no matter how hard they try, only thing that could make a real impact would be if a toxicant was legalized but with our bears that probably will never happen. Too many people want them here so they can shoot one a year while deer hunting or chase with dogs, and there is too much timber in the ozarks to get them all, it’s like whack a mole.

My part of the country is eat up with hogs and hog hunters both are everywhere. Our game department made it illegal to transport live hogs because they said that the hog hunters were transporting live hogs to new areas and releasing them. Then the department decided to issue hog transport permits for live hogs, you have to meet there requirements before you are issued a permit. Guess who have the permits now. The hog hunters that were releasing them in the first place. Also the Department decided you can not kill a hog on there WMAs due to it will interfere with there trapping of hogs. Guess where the most hogs are located now, on the WMAs.

Part of the problem with trapping is expense of equipment and access to trapping services combined with limited numbers of skilled trappers.

I've looked into offering this service. My initial outlay on equipment would be 10k+. For me to offer this service my clients would need to pony up around 3k assuming a large enough market. Even then my first year would be just to pay off my investment.

Due to this the only game in town in my area is USDA WS which is wholly subsidized on the public dole. This is a barrier to entry to myself and dozens of others.

Since WS lacks the profit motive incentives and is often staffed by low skilled labor the results are obvious. BTW most of what USDA claims as their "research" is actually stolen from the private sector.

IMO, programs need to be developed that allow landowners to partner with private for profit entities to drive costs down.

with the 4th of July less than a month away and you just let a good barbecue get away, lol! I get it if you got a nice vehicle, but if you got a hoopty, hammer down!

I think Warrior and Bernie B have it exactly right in saying wild hog hunting needs to be illegal if wild hogs are to be eliminated. Think about it. We know that making an animal a "game animal" guarentees it's survival due to the economic incentive it provides. Making wild hogs a game animal will be just the same as deer and turkeys. The successful strategy for eradication is to make hunting them illegal, and to provide another elimination option. How about those copter pilots in Texas making big bucks taking clients out to shoot hogs from their copters. Think they want all the hogs killed off? Heck no, they are only going to take clients to locations where some hogs can be killed but some seed left too. Case in point: When I lived in Ky the KDFWR was always dealing with idiots that were releasing hogs into LBL so they would have hogs to hunt. What about the outdoor networks making money on TV shows showing hog hunting with night vision gear. That's more money being made off of wild hogs both from the shows and their sponsor's sales. The only answer is to take away the economic incentive by making hunting hogs illegal.

The only hunting that may work would be some form of market hunting if the market could pay enough to make dead hogs lucrative. Maybe start a rumor in China that pig peckers make you stay hard all night long. LOL

Hogs are like coyotes, you’ll never get rid of them. When we start getting a sounder on camera we’ll start baiting them up. We add sides to the trap until all that’s left is the gate and it’s in the open position until the entire sounder gets in the trap. We have a professional that monitors along with the manager. About 4 of us are on the cameras and a couple of us for notification purposes only. The manager and actual trapper make the call on triggering the gate. They’ll use multiple cameras also, some inside and outside the gate. I’ve seen it only take a couple of weeks and up to almost 7 weeks for the entire sounder to enter. Last sounder caught consisted of two sows and 11 shoats. We’ll keep a few areas with easy access baited up and with cameras for lone boars roaming through. I managed to take a few last year this way. Once the camera goes off I can be on location within 12min. Just walk in the dark using the wind until I get close enough to flip the light on and shoot.
We don’t have a resident population, just every so often a sounder or boar moves through to take up residence and we do our best to eliminate them before too much damage is done.

Theyre doing well in these swamps down here. Local deputy ran thru a group that were lounging on a state highway a few nights ago. Killed three and injured several others. Grill guard saved major damage.

One local hunting lease has killed just under 100 since mid January....with dogs. Hunting with dogs has slowed since 2 dogs were caught and killed by gators a few weeks ago.