Can Mississippi win the war on wild hogs?
It’s an enemy most people don’t think about. It’s an enemy that causes millions of dollars in damage annually in Mississippi, can spread diseases to humans, livestock and pets, and consumes resources vital to the health of native animal populations such as deer.
The enemy is the wild hog, and its numbers are growing at an alarming rate.
“There’s not an official population estimate,” said Anthony Ballard, Nuisance Species Program biologist for the Mississippi Department of Wildlife, Fisheries, and Parks. “We don’t have an official population estimate because it would be extremely time and resource consuming.
“It’s really more valuable to look at trends. We can get the same trends without knowing what the actual number of hogs is in the state.”
A survey is conducted annually asking Mississippi hunters a number of questions, including how many and what species of animals they harvested in a given year. Prior to 2009, Ballard said hog harvests, an indicator of population changes, were relatively stable. After that they began to climb — rapidly.
‘Modern-day locusts’
In the survey for the 2016-17 hunting season, the number of deer harvested was roughly the same as that of wild hogs. The following year, there were an estimated 206,148 hogs harvested compared to 194,975 deer. The 2019-20 survey estimated there were 308,887 hogs killed, far outpacing the 220,990 deer harvested.
Ballard explained how the wild hog population appears to be increasing so quickly.
“It’s not out of the question for a larger sow that’s healthy to have six to 10 piglets in a litter,” Ballard said.
Sows can also produce two litters a
year, and offspring reach sexual maturity in six to eight months, depending on body condition. With a reproductive rate like that, Ballard said an estimated 70%-75% of the population needs to be removed just to keep it at the same level year over year.
“I think what we’re going to end up with is modern-day locusts,” said Andy Gipson, Commissioner of the Mississippi Department of Agriculture and Commerce. “The last thing we need is these modern locusts. Wild hogs do $63 million in damage in Mississippi alone, and it’s only getting worse.”
A farmer’s nightmare
Jimmy Whitaker agrees that the problem is getting worse. Whitaker farms near Satartia and said crop damage from wild hogs is significantly impacting his income.
“We’ve killed 400 to 500 in the last five years, at least,” Whitaker said. “My son, he traps them.
“He caught 109 hogs in two months. I usually lose 15 to 20 acres every year to them. I replant 30 to 40 acres due to them every year. It costs me $20,000 (per year), and that’s with us controlling them. They just eat us up. It’s gotten bad. You put all your time and effort in, and they can ruin it in one night.”
Gipson recently responded to the growing threat by purchasing high-tech traps which will soon be available to qualifying land managers. The traps come with everything needed and are free to use for 30 to 60 days.
“We’ve got to do something for the sake of the farmer and the woods,” Gipson said. “We have to make trapping a priority.”
The threat extends beyond crops. Wild hogs are reservoirs of disease that can be transmitted to livestock, wildlife and humans.
“It’s an economic issue,” Gipson said. “It’s a quality of life issue. It’s a health issue, too.”
Technology and trapping
Brian Moore of Hog Solutions of Mississippi, which sells hog control supplies, explained high-tech trapping and how it differs from conventional trapping.
“The high-tech, bottom line, have a human-activated trigger,” Moore said. “A human makes the decision to activate the trigger.
“The traps we used 10 to 15 years ago were animal-activated. The problem is the younger pigs tend to rush in and activate the trigger. The reproducers are left outside.”
That creates a problem. Moore used an example of a sounder, or group, of 10 pigs. If only half of them are in the trap when it’s activated, those outside become educated.
“Those five outside that you don’t trap will become wary of metal enclosures,” Moore said. “The wild pig is the fourth most intelligent animal we have.”
The traps use cameras and cellular signals. Motion-activated cameras send video to a cell phone in real time. Trappers can see how many pigs are in a sounder and how many are in the trap. When all of the pigs are comfortable with going inside the trap, which may take a number of days, the trapper can activate the trap with his or her cellphone.
“The objective is to catch 100% of the sounder,” Moore said. “If you don’t catch 100% of the sounder, you’re just kicking the can down the road. You haven’t solved the problem if you don’t catch 100% of the sounder.”
Growing frustration and economic loss
Larry Carman of Bailey, near Meridian, said hogs and their destructive nature have become a real issue where he hunts deer in north Mississippi.
“This past winter it kind of went down a bit, possibly because they were on other properties, but this summer they seemed to have moved back home,” Carman said. “They go down the sides of the roads rooting them up and our food plots.”
Carman said at one time he tried to replant the damaged areas in food plots, but hogs would return and eat the exposed seed.
“After they tear it up, I don’t do anything,” Carman said. “I don’t even try to replant. I finally got tired of it and gave up.”
Some hunters are giving up on more than just replanting.
“There’s some lease land not far from our camp that the guys said they actually quit (hunting deer) because they got tired of the hogs,” Carman said. “Some time after gun season started they got so frustrated they quit hunting for the year.”
Carman said he expects hogs will be an even bigger issue this year.
“I’m expecting to kill a lot more this year because I’m seeing a lot more sign this summer,” Carman said.
According to Mississippi State University, hunting had a $1.3 billion economic impact in Mississippi in 2013. With hogs destroying food plots and competing with deer and other wildlife for food resources, the quality of hunting, particularly for deer, has been reduced in some areas to the point hunters have lost interest. That could affect the state’s bottom line.
“I’ve talked to hunters that have given up on hunting because of hogs,” Ballard said. “I’ve talked to a lot of people that have given up.”
Ballard said a sustained trapping program is the solution, not giving up on the tradition of hunting.
“The worst thing you can do is give up and let the hogs win,” Ballard said. “Don’t give up trapping. It’s a process, not an event.”