It’s going feral hog wild in 2 counties
Liberty, San Jacinto residents say animals pose threat, ruin property
CLEVELAND — Ginger Cheatham says feral hogs on her four-acre property in Liberty County have her feeling like a prisoner in her own home.
“No one goes out after dark right now,” said Cheatham, who lives on Low Water Bridge Road. “We don’t dare risk it. I can’t even let my grandchildren come over after dark.”
About a month ago, Cheatham woke up to find her backyard destroyed. Grass was uprooted, and all of her vegetable plants had been eaten. An aluminum john boat, loaded onto a trailer, had been pushed across the yard as the hogs laid
waste to everything.
“It’s a scary sound to hear them so close to the house. They’ve even come right up to the back door,” Cheatham said. “There are about 30 pigs. There are so many, and they are so mean, I won’t chance even letting my small dogs outside at night. I am scared.”
Cheatham has lived in her home for years but says the wild hogs have never been an issue — until now. She is not alone. Other residents of Liberty and San Jacinto counties recently have reported wild hogs invading their properties for the first time ever.
Terry Holcomb, who lives in Coldspring, said two groups totaling 40 feral hogs showed up about two weeks ago at his property, tearing up the lawn and nearly destroying fruit trees.
“They showed up all at once,” he said. “Within a very short period of time, everything was torn up.”
Like Cheatham, Holcomb isn’t overly concerned about the destroyed lawn and food plants; he is worried about the safety of family members.
“Hogs are very dangerous. A sow or boar hog will attack a human being if they feel threatened. I have eight grandchildren who play out here, and these hogs have come right next to my house,” he said.
“They can’t get to my chickens or rabbits because they are behind a fence, but they will absolutely attack a person. That worries me.”
While Cheatham has hired a skilled trapper to rid her property of the wild hogs, Holcomb, an accomplished homesteader, is taking matters into his own hands. He is confident that a trap he built will capture at least half of the hogs at once. He plans to set it this weekend.
“It’s my job to protect my land. Thinning the herd is the only way to do that. I have friends coming over this Saturday to help me process the hogs that I expect to collect. We will all benefit from it,” he said.
Decades of trouble
Feral hogs have been an ongoing problem for more than 30 years, according to Chris Gregory, a Polk County-based biologist for the Texas Parks and Wildlife Department.
While the department estimates there are about 1.5 million feral hogs in the state, Gregory says there is no way to know for certain.
“Everything is an estimate. You see numbers from 2 to 6 million in the state but there is no way to take a census with these guys,” Gregory said
Feral hogs in Texas evolved in the last century, picking up traits from crossbreeding between domesticated and wild pigs.
“If you go back into the history of feral hogs, the Spanish brought them over during the exploration. Back in the 1930s, whenever Texas was big on importing all kids of animals for us to hunt and look at, a number of Russian boars were brought to Texas. They look a little different than a domesticated pig,” Gregory said. “Over the years, the Russian boars bred with other native pigs, and now you see characteristics in feral hogs of both. You see some with curly hair like the Russian boars, and you’ll also see spotted and red ones like those that originated as domestics.”
With the hardy hogs’ high survival and birth rates, as many as 10 to 12 babies annually from each sow, hunters are not able to cull enough to keep the hog population from growing, according to Gregory, prompting the state to consider other eradication measures, including poison.
“Australians have been poisoning them, but the trick is finding an effective way of delivering the poison so that other species are not impacted,” Gregory said. “Even if the poison does become available, the only people who will be able to do it will be licensed by the state for wildlife damage control services. It’s not like you will be able to go to the feed store and buy the poison. It will be regulated.”
The biologist said there is not a “magic bullet” for dealing with the state’s feral hog problem and poisoning only serves as “one more tool in the toolbox.”
Holcomb said he hopes the state never agrees to poisoning a food source that could help feed the population.
“We have far too many hungry people to be destroying a food source. That is unacceptable,” he said. “We have trapping systems that can trap a large number of hogs at a time. It’s not ethical to poison them. Farmers might disagree with me because the hogs can destroy a lot of acreage very quickly, but there are two sides to this issue and we need to find the right solution.”
Fences, dogs and traps
Tarkington resident Chance Ward has won numerous hoghunting competitions over the years, capturing an all-time high of 62 feral hogs during a threeday hunt. He said traps are effective when used properly but the animals are smart and quickly learn how to avoid capture.
“If you can get a trapper to come and set up traps, that’s a great thing. If you can get someone quick enough, they might be able to trap a few and the other hogs will move on,” he said.
The nomadic, mostly nocturnal, animals generally do not remain in one place for long, so time is of the essence, Ward said.
Ward prefers hunting feral hogs with dogs, a method passed up through the generations but one that is becoming more challenging as rural land is developed into neighborhoods with multiple property owners.
When the dogs are tracking a hog, they can run for miles, crossing multiple property lines. It can present a problem for hog hunters chasing after their dogs because they have to get permission to be on a person’s land.
“I can usually get permission to cross property lines in Tarkington when the dogs are on a hog, but that’s not always the case,” Ward said.
Following the food
The feral hogs are most active during March through July, when they are following food sources, according to Ward.
“That’s generally the time you will see them in communities and rural areas. You might see them again in the fall if you have oak trees that produce acorns. You can remove the food source, but it’s hard to pick up all the acorns that fall under an oak tree,” he said.
Another favorite food source for the feral hogs is the grub worm.
“When new homes are being built, particularly home sites that are on the edge of a wood line where hogs would naturally roam, the hogs are drawn to the homes’ new lawns, such as the separation line between natural soil and St. Augustine grass where grub worms love to live.
“When the feral hogs find that soil, they will dig up every piece to find grubs. People will wake up and come outside and think, ‘Holy cow, what hit me?” Ward said.
The best means of prevention, though not always cost-effective, is fencing, according to Ward.
“There is nothing out there on the market to prevent hogs unless you field-fence your entire property. Hogs can’t get through field fence because of the way it is designed,” he said.
If that is not possible, Ward recommends hunting the hogs or setting traps.
“It’s a never-ending battle,” he said.