"We're not going to barbecue our way out of this one."
 

https://theweek.com/articles/894115/...as-pig-problem

Their population has exploded to an estimated 6 million across 39 states, with the greatest concentration in the South, particularly Texas. Feral hogs — also known as wild boars, wild pigs, and "razorbacks" — are prodigious breeders, have few natural predators, and are voracious, causing $2.5 billion in damage to farms and ecosystems annually. Like all pigs, the feral variety are omnivores and will devour anything they can tear up with their long snouts and 6-inch-long, razor-sharp tusks, including crops, gardens, frogs, worms, eggs, and even deer and lambs. They favor plants, and 50-pig herds, or "sounders," can empty whole fields of corn or wheat overnight. The invasive species has spread far and wide largely because it is well adapted to its environment and breeds so rapidly, with ranchers and hunters making the problem worse by trucking wild hogs into new areas so they can be shot for sport. Hunting them to control their population hasn't worked: You'd have to shoot 70 percent of the feral pig population every year just to keep it static.

I am a big proponent of bbqing out of trouble. We can only do our best.

Fascinating!

Heh... we just talked about this one yesterday on the Damn Interesting Week podcast (though the episode won't drop until Friday.) Ultimately our solution was, indeed, to eat more bacon.

This is not new, it's been going on a long time only getting worse. Unlike a lot on pests, these hogs are a real danger to people during accidental encounters. :shock:

I haven't looked at this in a while but I think the PA Game Commission prefers trapping to shooting because these hogs are so smart that they scatter and colonize new areas when they are hunted.

When they're on your turf fuck it, shoot 'em. If they move somewhere else they're off your turf.
Trapping is very difficult to say the least because they're smart and strong.

You don't want to fuck with even one of these.

Attachment 69785

If you don't kill 'em they will spread and colonize everywhere anyway.

Depending on how big a problem you got:

BoarBuster traps. ~$6000



Then ya make pork chops.

I wonder what would happen if the trap landed on a big hog, wouldn't it be high enough off the ground for at least the little ones to crawl under?

Dang, that's a lot of bbq.

They do pig huntin' with AR-15s of many varieties and chamberings. Short handy rifles with large magazines. Semiauto is the preferred action, of course.

Apparently a scattergun can make short work of 'em, too:



Link to vid

And there are the guys with more than the usual portion of testosterone and bellicosity -- and their boar spears. I haven't actually heard authoritative account of these guys going one-on-one with a boar, though. More like a team effort.

Maybe we should elect 'em?

Jesse Ventura?

anyone have a recipe for bbq'd hippo?