Feral hogs again a problem in Kingwood area
Residents in Kingwood are seeing a resurgence of feral hogs in a number of neighborhoods, particularly those along Lake Houston.
Houston City Councilman Dave Martin addressed the feral hog issue at a town hall meeting, held at the Kingwood Civic Center Oct. 13.
“The feral hogs popped up about two years ago and just wrecked havoc on lawns … particularly in the Kings Point area, so these varmints are back again” he said
Residents in Kingwood began to see an increase in the feral hog population in that began in June 2013, and continued through October, particularly in the Royal Shores area which is one of the neighborhoods that fronts Lake Houston.
The Kingwood Service Association, which manages the area parks in the Kingwood as well as acts as the homeowners association in for several area neighborhoods, retained the services of a trapper to remove the wild hogs.
Since 2013, the periodic trapping of hogs has managed to keep the population down.
However, since August residents have seen a resurgence of feral hogs. Residents have reported seeing feral hogs in subdivisions such as Kings Point, the Enclave, and Royal Shores.
In an effort to capture as many wild hogs as possible, Martin said officials with the Friendswood Development Co.
and the Kingwood Service Association are working to create a large pen on a piece of open property between Kings Point and Royal Shores.
“This is not final, but (they) are in the process of getting the paperwork signed,” he said.
Feral hogs are also known to swim and have been seen in the waters of Lake Houston swimming to some of the nearby islands
On the watch for hogs
Meanwhile, Houston Police patrol units in those areas, as well as the waters of Lake Houston, have been advised to be watchful for the hogs in the waters and on the nearby islands. “They are everywhere,” Martin said.
Dee Price, president of the Kingwood Service Association, said the association still has a standing agreement with the hog trapper, but there are a lot of hogs and they can be elusive.
“It’s a difficult process to try and catch these hogs,” Price said.
“During the day, they will swim across the river and go to the island where we can’t get them.
“We could put and trap or corral on (the island), with the city’s permission.”
Texas has the highest concentration of feral hogs in the United States, with the population of hogs now being found in nearly all 254 Texas counties.
The hogs look for cool damp areas to bed down or root up well-manicured lawns to find grubs or other insects they can eat.
Report hog sightings
While the trapper will be concentrating in the common areas and parks in Kingwood, residents will likely have to hire a trapper to trap their own property.
However, Price said that if residents allow the trappers who are pursuing the feral hogs to come onto their property in an effort to contain the hogs, then they can be more easily removed.
“Mostly, if people will report that they are seeing the hogs, it gives us the ability to kind of pinpoint where they are and direct our hunter to take his dogs and try and catch them,” she said.
“They are very, very difficult to get on top of because they breed (quickly).”
Damion Baker, an independent wild life expert, said residents who opt to take matters into their own hands, and attempt to trap these animals on their own, should instead leave that to the experts.
“Those things are dangerous,” Baker said. “Those things can kill a person. If it’s even 100 pounds it can kill you. They are very aggressive.”
Once the animals are caught, they can be processed for meat, or destroyed.
Baker said he doesn’t recommend taking the animal back to the wild and setting it free.
“If you got him, you need to destroy him because they are nuisance animals and they are nonnative,” he said.
“If you catch the sow, and destroy it, you’ve probably stopped eight babies every year that will grow to maturity.”
Since the life span of a wild hog can vary between four and eight years, each reproducing sow can be responsible for between 50-to-100 new pigs.
At six to eight months of age, each new pig can restart the reproduction cycle, Baker said.
However, because trapping feral hogs can be expensive, homeowners associations will rarely pay for a professional trapper, he said.
“You can’t shoot them (in urban area) because you might miss. Trapping them is really the only way,” he said. “It’s very time consuming and very expensive.”
Removals cost money
Martin said he will be looking at allocating money from the council service budget to the feral hog issues in Kingwood, to see if they can get as many of them trapped and removed as possible.
“It worked two years ago and we think it can work again,” he said.