Most students cannot understand the frustration some rural landowners face because of wild hog overpopulation. But with some feral pigs weighing in between 450 to 500 pounds, farmers are at their wits’ end with thousands of dollars in damage per acre to their land. “They eat their crops, harass their livestock and contaminate their water supply,” said Michael Kaller, LSU Agricultural Center assistant research professor. When Kaller moved to the state from West Virginia, he was planning to research stream and river damage and restoration. But he soon discovered there was a much more prevalent problem to address. Kaller said it became apparent to him that something “very bizarre” was happening to Louisiana’s environment. He said he usually deals with man-made damage caused by pollution, but this was obviously something else. “It was hogs,” Kaller said. Kaller decided to conduct a survey to determine how destructive these hogs are and how state landowners feel about the issue. He has been working with Don Reed of the AgCenter Cooperative Extension and Nan Huff of the Department of Wildlife and Fisheries. Kaller said he hypothesized there are three popular attitudes. Some landowners have a very negative opinion of the hogs, others enjoy hunting them for sport and several do not care. Kaller said the problem sounds strange to people who have always lived in cities. He said it is hard for them to think of the animals as anything other than “little pink pigs on the farm.” But some feral hogs in Georgia weigh up to 800 pounds. “That’s horse-sized,” Kaller said. Kaller said the hogs are defensive about their young, aggressive and extremely intelligent. He said the animals are too smart for scare tactics. There are two options for landowners with a hog problem, Kaller said. Landowners can have the animals trapped and relocated to another area – where they will likely become a problem – or they can kill the hogs. If the hogs are killed, there are five processors in Texas that can legally accept wild hog meat. Kaller said it is important to have all the residents in an area participate in a campaign to remove the hogs because it is easy for them to escape to another resident’s property and hide. He said hidden hogs reproduce and repopulate an area quickly. About 20 landowners in Vermillion Parish, about 80 miles from Baton Rouge, organized a successful campaign to remove pigs because everyone in the area was involved. “We’re not talking about eradication,” Kaller said. “We’re talking about control.” Kaller said the survey will help people who do not know who to approach about their hog problems. The AgCenter has sent the survey to landowners who have been involved with previous AgCenter programs and 11,000 landowners from the Louisiana Department of Wildlife and Fisheries database. The survey has been distributed to both rural and urban landowners. Kaller said there are many landowners spending large sums of money, and it would be appropriate for the state or federal budget to include funding for feral hog control.
—-Contact Emliy Holden at [email protected]