Are hogs in Texas really that bad?

[Deja vu]

I keep hearing how hogs are destroying every thing on farms and ranches in Texas. I was talking to a guy at the range today about hunting hogs in Texas and he says its all just hype. I asked him to explain and he says that if it really was a problem that land owners would not be charging to hunt and would be welcoming people to come rid them of a problem.

So any one from Texas able to tell me for sure? Are the hogs really a problem or is it just hype?

p.s. if any one is looking for some one to come kill hogs id be happy to help if there really is a problem. You have my word that I wont shoot your live stock or litter and I am willing to do my own room and board and would be willing to offer up a deposit if my word is not good enough.

[JohnKSa]

I asked him to explain and he says that if it really was a problem that land owners would not be charging to hunt and would be welcoming people to come rid them of a problem.

He's mixing a couple of things.

Most landowners who charge for hog hunts are in the business of selling hog hunts. They're not just farmers, rancher or landowners who are trying to get rid of hogs.

The folks who make a living selling hog hunts don't give them away for free because that's how they make their living. Those folks also aren't particularly concerned about hog damage because they're making money off the hogs.

As far as why regular landowners (those not in the business of selling hog hunts) aren't generally eager to invite people to come shoot on their land, think of it this way. If you lived in the country and had a range on your property, how happy would you be about inviting strangers to come and shoot on it unsupervised?

I have permission to go hunt hogs on private property and do not have to pay for the privilege. But I have known the landowner in question for years, have shot with him several times and have hunted with him at least once. He knows who I am, he knows I am safe with firearms, he knows I won't shoot the neighbors' cows and he knows that if I were to accidentally damage his property or someone else's, I would make it right.

The simple fact that he hates hogs on his property is not sufficient incentive to induce him to invite strangers onto his land to kill the hogs at no charge, anymore than the fact that you hate dirty floors in your house would induce you to invite strangers to come into your house to clean them simply because they offered to do so for free.

[Todd1700]

The simple fact that he hates hogs on his property is not sufficient incentive to induce him to invite strangers onto his land to kill the hogs at no charge, anymore than the fact that you hate dirty floors in your house would induce you to invite strangers to come into your house to clean them simply because they offered to do so for free.

LOL! Exactly. The next time anyone wonders why landowners with a hog problem don't let everyone come hunt their land I want them to first go out and put a sign out in front of their own house with big letters that says "I have dirty dishes in my kitchen so I am leaving my front door unlocked and anyone willing to try and wash a dish is welcome to enter my home at any time whether I am here or not."

I wonder how many people would do that.

How can I be certain that these total strangers I am letting on my land to shoot hogs aren't going to also; leave cattle gaps open; shoot other things like deer, turkeys or even our cows as well; steal tree stands, game cameras or farm equipment; wander off my property onto my neighbors and cause a mess with them, etc, etc? And then last but certainly not least is the liability issue. Many of the people who will chastise you the hardest about being selfish and not letting people hunt hogs on your place are the very ones that will sue your ass off if they get injured while on your land.

[603Country]

Todd and John covered it pretty well. From my perspective, I don't seem to have a hog problem all of the time. Right now they haven't torn up my hay pasture, but last year they 'plowed' it up very badly. I don't know what they were looking for, but I sure hope they found it because I don't want them looking for it again this year. I had to plow about 1/3 of the field and reseed and fertilize. That cost money.

[Strafer Gott]

If my dirty dishes were knocking Sam Hill out of my range and refrigerator, I might feel differently. I guess it's not much of a problem, if all it amounts to is a little housekeeping!

[Art Eatman]

Last time I saw any numbers about damages to agribusiness from feral hogs, the number was well above $50,000,000.

Add to that damage to golf courses and people's yards and flower gardens.

And car wrecks on highways...

Feral hogs = cockroaches with hooves.

[1tfl]

The real problem is the liability issue. It doesn't matter if they sign some fancy form saying they won't sue me. If I let someone hunt on my land and they get hurt I'll be hearing from their lawyer and it will cost me money.

[Grant D]

I've gone hog hunting a few times with a friend that is PAID by farmers to kill hogs on their land.

I live in a small town of about 100 people in Brazos county, and have a couple of acres, and on a few occasions have come out in the morning and found my property torn up by feral hogs, just wish I could catch them in the act!
It would be BBQ TIME!

[Old Stony]

Depends on your interpretation of bad I guess. I don't think they are bad from my perspective...they are fun! I love hunting the hogs and where I hunt them it's just raw woods and they don't do any damage.

[hoghunting]

TP&W has estimated that Texas has roughly 2.6 million hogs. Yes, that does sound like a problem.

[Old Stony]

No doubt there are a lot of hogs in Texas, but with all due respect, I doubt TPWS has any idea how many. I don't know how they come up with those figures other than someone in a meeting somewhere deciding to use that number. Our county has a large number of hogs and given the thick woods we have, there is no way to count or even make a rough estimate of how many.

[Grant D]

Actually, TP&W says approx. one point five million in Texas, but what's a million here or there.

What there is in Texas is A LOT! of feral hogs any way you look at it.
And they're not going away any time soon.

[publius]

Like others have said, the people selling hunts are not farmers who are hurt by crop destruction. Pigs do tremendous damage in TX. They root up crops and pastures, tear up fences, etc. I can't even keep the dirt roads on my place driveable because every time it rains the pigs wallow huge holes on it. I won't let strangers, or even some friends hunt my place for several reasons. Lawyers are the first reason. A simple waiver is not a guarantee a landowners safety from a lawsuit. I don't want to risk someone shooting my deer or livestock or worse, my neighbor's livestock. It's just not worth the possible risk and certain worry that comes from letting someone else on my land. Letting someone with an actual insured pest removal business is a different thing and many landowners do this.

[Keg]

We got a few....

[Tipsy Mcstagger]

I know that they tear up farm land and there are acres and acres of rooted up ground at my ranch but I don't know if that's considered damage since I don't grow anything and it's scrub ground anyway. I dont know what they're hurting in that situation. Where they are a real nuisance to me is under the feeders, as they run all other animals away. But, I am not completely overrun and wouldn't know what to do if they went away for good

[Double Naught Spy]

I do love how people want to come down to Texas and help us shoot hogs. They don't want to come help mend fences or muck out stalls, but instead just assume that we don't have enough people here who can or want to shoot hogs, LOL. We do. Not only that, we have a LOT of non-landowning people here who want to come and shoot for free as well, some of whom get rather ugly about the notion about why they won't be allowed to shoot for free.

Feral hogs are a problem, no doubt. So are deer. Deer still do a tremendous amount of damage, several times more than hogs (of course there are more deer, right?). However, feral hogs are a commodity as well.

Farmers may hate hogs, but they know something that seemingly every wannabe-free hunter does not realize. Shooting a few hogs on your weekend trip isn't really going to help out the farmer that much as you can't keep the hogs from returning.

Do the math. Say we do have 2 million hogs (see below) and $52 million annual damage. That means each hog does just $26 a year in damage. How much damage does a Johnny-come-lately hunter do if he puts a bullet through your tractor, house, drives across your wheat field in his truck to retrieve a hog, leaves a gate open, etc.?

Actually, TP&W says approx. one point five million in Texas, but what's a million here or there.

What there is in Texas is A LOT! of feral hogs any way you look at it.
And they're not going away any time soon.

Yep, and they have been saying that for years on this page. It is woefully out of date. They also have a map showing hogs not to be in localities where people currently hunt them, LOL.
http://www.tpwd.state.tx.us/huntwild...ce/feral_hogs/

Interestingly, TPWD doesn't do actual hog counts. So what they have listed isn't reliable. Of course as Old Stony noted above, nobody seems to know how many there really are. Current studies that I know of are out of A&M, but they are nothing more than statistical guesses based on limited sampling.

I wrote this back in 2012, but it fits here. Hopefully, all the links still work...

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I started hunting hogs in 2008 and shot my first in 2009. Since 2008, the hog population was said to be over 2 million hogs and doing 52 million in damage a year [note this is a working number used for years now that Art noted above and it hasn't changed despite years having passed and the hog population purportedly growing]. Since that time, I have also heard how the hog population is growing. It is getting bigger and bigger at an alarming rate. People even say it is growing so fast, exploding, can't be stopped, but the population seems to be stuck. It never seems to grow. Since I have hunting hogs, "over 2 million" has been the population estimate and they are still doing roughly 52 million a year in damage according to most articles, LOL.

It was at 2 million in 2005,
http://www.hpj.com/archives/2005/may...nwreakingh.CFM

but It was thought to be close to 2 million back in 1997.
http://news.google.com/newspapers?id...+million&hl=en

All this is interesting given that A&M estimates 21% population growth per year, but their estimate is 1.8 to 3.4 million hogs.
http://feralhogs.tamu.edu/files/2011...gFactSheet.pdf

So assuming 2.0 million as late as 2005 and 21% growth...
2006 = 2.42 million
2007 = 2.93
2008 = 3.54
2009 = 4.29
2010 = 5.19
2011 = 6.27
2012 = 7.59 hogs in Texas this year!

So where are the hogs? We should have 3-4 times the number of hogs people keep talking about, but when the experts speak on TV or put out an article, the population really hasn't changed much since 1997 when it was close to 2 million, reaching 2 million by 2005, and now is just over 2 million and has been for the last 5 years.

At the claimed growth rate, they should have armed guards having to shoot hogs off the playground of my kids' school (hogs are hunted on the ranch adjoining the school) and I can't even get them to come to my feeders with corn, sweetfeed, sour corn, or graphic pictures of Miss Piggy. Something ain't right. Even with a much reduced rate of growth, we should still be well over 5 million, but we aren't, not according to the experts.

Either somebody can't count or the population isn't growing as claimed, LOL!

Picture is of a boar at my feeder as I type...

[Old Stony]

Double Naught has it nailed right. I recently had a warden lecturing me about how I should be taking more does off of a property I manage. When I took over care of the property (11,000 acres) it was overhunted I think. The previous caretaker had his kids, grandkids and all the relatives shooting anything they could. I have been trying to build the deer population and the warden thinks I'm taking the wrong approach. He has no idea how many deer or hogs there are on the property so how do they come to these conclusions. We have a lot of cover, food, water and all the essentials for a great population, and he has never done any studies on the land but can tell me how to manage it?

[fdf]

So any one from Texas able to tell me for sure? Are the hogs really a problem or is it just hype?


It cost $216 per acre to repair damaged coastal hay areas, tell your friend to come on down, seems he lacks local knowledge.

In one run of fence I have bottom broken wires from hogs crossing under barb wire fences, 25 places to repair and that is just one side of fence.

Hog hunting contests which are abundant now in East Texas, hog hunters cut our fences to gain illegal access for 4 wheelers, use 4 legged mules to jump fences and use dogs with GPS tracking collars.

When dogs are tired they will easily come to a verbal call and bowl of water. Simply chain them to a tree, call the Game Warden with the dogs location and wait on the Game Warden and the owner to track the dog with his GPS.

Hogs and hog hunters are a problem, I do not shoot their dog's, it's more fun to see them arrested for trespassing and a felony if carrying a fire arm when they arrive to get their dog.

[Double Naught Spy]

You are mixing problems. Hog doggers are not the same thing as hogs.

[thallub]

There are numerous popular myths about wild hogs. Some of those myths have been repeated so much that the "experts" recite them as facts.

Many hog "experts", including biologists; claim that wild hogs have two or three litters of pigs per year. In a year when water and mast are plentiful a wild sow might have two litters; although i've never observed it: i've spent many thousands of hours trapping, hunting an observing wild hogs. i've killed dozens of 2-4 year old sows that have never born litters. My friends and i have caught about 80 wild hogs in 2014. Over half were mature sows. Few of those sows were pregnant.

[Wyosmith]

So to cut to the core,
NO!
They are not that big a problem.

Not yet anyway.

Leave the ranchers and the farmers alone.
If they need help they will ask.
If and when they need help badly they will not try to charge people that come to help them. Charging money is a 100% sure sign the help is not needed all that badly.

[Glenn E. Meyer]

For what it is worth, my wife and I were hiking in a nice hilly park just north of 1604 in San Antonio, and a large group of hogs crossed the trail in front of us. I also saw a nice big old black boar dead on its back on the road by La Cantera - our richy, rich mall - Died by luxury car!

On the South side of town, I see them quite a bit.

However, the deer are everywhere. I've seen some horrendous deer car incidents.

My friends have a guy who traps hogs and gets about 20 at a time near Rock Springs and sells them to Europe as wild boar.

[Double Naught Spy]

If and when they need help badly they will not try to charge people that come to help them. Charging money is a 100% sure sign the help is not needed all that badly.

Maybe that will happen when the government stops paying farmers for losing crops. So right now they get government subsidies and they get paying hunters, like they do for deer.

This does not mean that hogs are not a big problem, but they are not as much of a problem as they are a subsidized source of income.

[Art Eatman]

During the Guadalupe River flood of 1998, my cousin trapped 34 hogs right next to his house. The rising water had driven them out of the bottoms. This was south of Cuero some nine miles.

In my coastal bermuda hay pasture fairly close to the river, rooting hogs tore up somewhere around fifteen acres and made it almost impossible to mow and bale.

[thallub]

So right now they get government subsidies and they get paying hunters,

The neighbor to a quarter section i own farms about 8-10 thousand acres. He rakes in $200,000 per year in farm subsidy payments. He does not take in hunters but does allow some trapping.