Feral hogs are not as harmful as we thought, according to a new study The wild pigs were actually found to increase plant diversity in environments where they are introduced. By Ariana GarciaFeb 5, 2024 A new study finds that feral hogs actually help increase plant diversity in environments where they are introduced.
Feral hogs might not be as damaging as we thought. They might even be good for the environment. A group of researchers with Aaruhs University in Denmark found that, contrary to popular belief, large "invasive" or "feral" plant-eating mammals do not have stronger or more negative effects on plant abundance and diversity than their native equivalents. Instead, large herbivores—whether invasive or native—help shape many ecosystems by spreading seeds and increasing plant diversity, the authors argue. The findings were published on Thursday in the journal Science.
Erick Ludgren, an Aarhus University postdoctoral researcher and one of the study's authors, wrote on X that the study's purpose was to question whether a visitor from another planet could tell which large mammals were native or introduced based on their actual impacts. "If nativeness is a real biological variable, then it must be measurable," Lundgren wrote. "Otherwise, nativeness would remain a description of dispersal history and not be a meaningful way to understand ecological interactions."
For the study, researchers observed "megafauna"—animals that weigh about 100 pounds—that only consume plants and analyzed approximately 4,000 plant abundance and diversity responses from 221 studies to native and introduced large mammals. They found that the most important factor in determining a species' effects on the surrounding ecosystem was its dietary preferences, not where it came from. Researchers found that feral hogs 'often increase plant diversity, at times doubling native plant diversity by suppressing competitive dominants.
Communities dominated by selective feeders tended to decrease plant diversity, while communities with "nonselective bulk feeders" tended to increase diversity. The researchers classified feral hogs as "dietary generalists," adding they "often increase plant diversity, at times doubling native plant diversity by suppressing competitive dominants."
The study's results suggest practicing caution is necessary with "how we assign notions like 'harm' to the impacts of introduced organisms," Lundgren wrote. "The prevailing logics of invasion biology make it easy to call anything an introduced organism does 'harmful' simply (because) they do not 'belong.'"As an example, Lundgren noted that feral hogs tend to increase native plant diversity in both their native and introduced ranges. "Yet these impacts are described with completely different language depending on whether we think pigs, and their effects, belong," he said.
In Texas—which boasts the most feral hogs in the country—state officials recently proposed using a poison made with warfarin, a type of blood thinner, to reduce populations of wild pigs. The species are said to be among the most destructive in the U.S., causing around $2.5 billion in damages. However, the new study argues against such culling measures, suggesting they are unnecessary and may even be more harmful to the "conservation of wild and diverse ecosystems" they are meant to protect.
"The invasion of cultural values, like 'belonging,' into scientific claims creates partial knowledge (e.g., only applicable if you share the same beliefs), excludes people with other values, and may harm biodiversity itself," Lundgren wrote.
The study's results suggest practicing caution is necessary with "how we assign notions like 'harm' to the impacts of introduced organisms," Lundgren wrote. "The prevailing logics of invasion biology make it easy to call anything an introduced organism does 'harmful' simply (because) they do not 'belong.'"As an example, Lundgren noted that feral hogs tend to increase native plant diversity in both their native and introduced ranges. "Yet these impacts are described with completely different language depending on whether we think pigs, and their effects, belong," he said.
Wow, it's uncanny. I was down at the feed store the other day, and old Jesper was telling Wilbur the exact same thing.
Feral hogs might not be as damaging as we thought. They might even be good for the environment. A group of researchers with Aaruhs University in Denmark found that, contrary to popular belief, large "invasive" or "feral" plant-eating mammals do not have stronger or more negative effects on plant abundance and diversity than their native equivalents. Instead, large herbivores—whether invasive or native—help shape many ecosystems by spreading seeds and increasing plant diversity, the authors argue.
I don't need an advanced degree in anything to say that those "researchers" are full of schitt.
I don’t think Ariana has ever farmed before. Neither have I, but I’ve read numerous articles about how feral hogs trash corn fields. Maybe her idea of plant diversity is wiping out monoculture corn fields and replacing them with native vegetation. Her paper sounds too ivory tower.
I don’t think Ariana has ever farmed before. Neither have I, but I’ve read numerous articles about how feral hogs trash corn fields. Maybe her idea of plant diversity is wiping out monoculture corn fields and replacing them with native vegetation. Her paper sounds too ivory tower.
Originally Posted by BLG
When did hogs become vegeatarians?
Clyde
Yep - had a German tourist tell me one time bears are strictly vegetarian. He got this sour " I don't believe you" look when I told him that studies have shown that up to 70% of moose calf mortality by predators is by bears.
As Reagan said about Democrats: " It isn't that they don't know anything. It's just that so much of what they know is wrong."
Anything that plows up the ground will increase diversity.
Years back a rancher southeast of us was having issues with the BLM over a rare locoweed on his grazing allotment. Seems it was most common in the disturbed sites around the stock tanks.
Feral hogs might not be as damaging as we thought. They might even be good for the environment. A group of researchers with Aaruhs University in Denmark found that, contrary to popular belief, large "invasive" or "feral" plant-eating mammals do not have stronger or more negative effects on plant abundance and diversity than their native equivalents. Instead, large herbivores—whether invasive or native—help shape many ecosystems by spreading seeds and increasing plant diversity, the authors argue.
I don't need an advanced degree in anything to say that those "researchers" are full of schitt.
Yep, they are nuthin but bad news. I do my absolute best to eliminate everyone I see.
Anything that plows up the ground will increase diversity.
Years back a rancher southeast of us was having issues with the BLM over a rare locoweed on his grazing allotment. Seems it was most common in the disturbed sites around the stock tanks.
that right there the person is not always good when you're trying to raise purebred livestock or a true crop. root up the crop that's wanting to be grown and don't do nothing else with it the weeds will overtake it and that's diversity. kind of like the trash we have as humans in this country from other third world [bleep] anymore.. and in that case the Democrats or the hogs rooting it up letting the weeds in
Where has a population ever been established and thrived in America that has winter?
There was a population on an island off Kodiak for many years. Took a nasty winter to kill them. Had it been an island with lots of old growth they likely would still be there.
Feral hogs are not as harmful as we thought, according to a new study The wild pigs were actually found to increase plant diversity in environments where they are introduced. By Ariana GarciaFeb 5, 2024 .
Well I'm headed to Texas in a month to kill a bunch of feral hogs, but I promise I'll have pangs of guilt every time I pull the trigger....
Feral hogs are not as harmful as we thought, according to a new study The wild pigs were actually found to increase plant diversity in environments where they are introduced. By Ariana GarciaFeb 5, 2024 .
Well I'm headed to Texas in a month to kill a bunch of feral hogs, but I promise I'll have pangs of guilt every time I pull the trigger....
Most of them are not for our tastes. That said we use the smell rule. If I can smell a piss smell as I walk up or on the pig itself the size is no issue. They are buzzard food. Again regardless of size if they smell clean they will eat fine as a rule.
I shot 6 the other day when I didn't have time... but not a single one smelled bad and had I the time and energy I would have used the meat for sure.
We used a 125 pound sow I shot a few months ago and it was good eats.
You mutha fuggas need to start reading some pioneer survival history concerning hogs and honey bees. Many a hard time were less hard because of the fuggin both of them, farmers be damned !
I have no hate for feral hogs !
When I harvest a pig, its usually a little fryer betwixed 10 and 40lb
Gawd-damned humans are their own worst enemies, especially with this new poison coming soon !
You mutha fuggas need to start reading some pioneer survival history concerning hogs and honey bees. Many a hard time were less hard because of the fuggin both of them, farmers be damned !
Oops.
You went total retard again.
We don't care if you hate feral hogs or not. We don't give a damn if you shoot them or not. We don't give a chit what you eat.
But feral hogs cost us all by destroying crops that YOU eat too. To publicly damn farmers for wanting to control hogs that cost them millions and ultimately takes food out your own mouth is just stupid...
You mutha fuggas need to start reading some pioneer survival history concerning hogs and honey bees. Many a hard time were less hard because of the fuggin both of them, farmers be damned !
Oops.
You went total retard again.
We don't care if you hate feral hogs or not. We don't give a damn if you shoot them or not. We don't give a chit what you eat.
But feral hogs cost us all by destroying crops that YOU eat too. To publicly damn farmers for wanting to control hogs that cost them millions and ultimately takes food out your own mouth is just stupid...
You mutha fuggas need to start reading some pioneer survival history concerning hogs and honey bees. Many a hard time were less hard because of the fuggin both of them, farmers be damned !
Oops.
You went total retard again.
We don't care if you hate feral hogs or not. We don't give a damn if you shoot them or not. We don't give a chit what you eat.
But feral hogs cost us all by destroying crops that YOU eat too. To publicly damn farmers for wanting to control hogs that cost them millions and ultimately takes food out your own mouth is just stupid...
But that's pretty much what you are.
Tow the party line mutha fugger, I like pork, mayhaw & madrone berries, catfish, dandelions, and honey…Fugg a crop !
Gawd damned hogs were in Texas, Florida, Louisiana, Georgia, Alabama, and Mississippi, before most of the current residents or bulk of the previous settlers!
Evaluating the damage or benefits of an animal species on the basis of its effect on diversity of vegetation alone is stupid to begin with. Further, ecological condition is not determined by diversity, it is determined by the continued presence of the original species.
For years we’ve been told that hogs are destroying crops and causing a gazillion dollars a year in damage in Texas. All I’ve ever heard about hogs is how destructive they are….right up until they develop a “safe poison” specific to the intended target. If the hogs are eliminated and no further crop damage is caused by hogs most of us would think that Texans would be pleased BUT we didn’t consider the money that’s involved. Whether the money comes in the form of crop damage payments or insurance, leases for hog hunting, daily trespass fees for access, the hunting and trapping products specific to hogs, guides, lodges, hotels and restaurants, etc, etc…. When that income stream is shut off we’ll see whether hogs were truly the devil they were portrayed to be or merely a convenient if not dishonest excuse for lining pockets.
The secondary problems we’ve all heard about…things like trespassing or slob hunters littering or ass wipes not closing gates or dumb asses shooting livestock will disappear with the hogs which SHOULD be a HUGE win for Texans…..it’s a WIN-WIN for Texans all the way around UNLESS the money involved is significantly more than we’ve been led to believe. 😉
PS…This is NOT directed at anyone specifically but it is an amalgamation of the arguments and gripes we’ve seen here ad nauseum through the years.
Are these the same "researchers" that claimed cows are magnetic?
Satellite photos taken early in the day showed cows oriented north and south. (Seems it never occurred to them solar gain might figure into the equation!)
I’m not convinced they’ll establish themselves in an area with winter and heavy hunting hunting pressure.
It’a always well Alaska or some remote part Canada had a population but they died off after a hard winter, it’s never we can’t rid of them here in (pick a Midwestern state) and until they are causing wide spread problems on a cold stage I won’t believe it’s going to happen.
Even areas like Tennessee and Missouri don’t really have large populations.
Further, ecological condition is not determined by diversity, it is determined by the continued presence of the original species.
Shouldn't it be survival of the fittest?
Not when "the fittest" is an invasive species, for sure. It has been 35 years since I was in the range management field and I do not recall the precise definition of "ecological condition," but I do believe that it is essentially a figure of merit based on how much of the original, natural plant composition of an area remains.
Thoroughly incorrect. Hogs have been here in this country a helluva lot longer than feeders have been in use. Feeders do not sustain wildlife, they manipulate their movement patterns.
. . Feeders do not sustain wildlife, they manipulate their movement patterns.
Well. . . . Not all the time. A place I hunted years ago southeast of Sonora, just about midway between Sonora and the Sutton/Edwards county line was poor poor poor, and if it wasn't for the feeders, there probably wouldn't be much of any whitetail deer at all. A few scraggly oaks and mesquites, and the odd prickly pear was about it. The landowner had inherited the place and barely fed his cows and goats, and if a rare blade of grass popped up or an acorn or mesquite pod fell, there was an animal standing right there to gobble it up. The "nice" bucks were like some of the old tweeker buck pencil racks that were around when I started hunting in the 70's. Anything with a thumb sized main beam was a monster. If it wasn't for the mountains of corn the deer lease members distributed, it would have been a total bust. I don't remember anybody ever seeing a pig , only the rare javelina. Very few of those.
As far as in know, we don’t have established populations here. I have heard the reports of them coming down to ND and MT from Canada, but not sure that I believe they have much of or any population up there.
How do they fair in black bear country? Doesn’t seem like they would have much for natural predators in TX. They would have to be a boon for grizzlies and wolves if they ever got established in those areas.
They are native to Europe - the natural predators there would have been wolves and brown bears.
. . Feeders do not sustain wildlife, they manipulate their movement patterns.
Well. . . . Not all the time. A place I hunted years ago southeast of Sonora, just about midway between Sonora and the Sutton/Edwards county line was poor poor poor, and if it wasn't for the feeders, there probably wouldn't be much of any whitetail deer at all. A few scraggly oaks and mesquites, and the odd prickly pear was about it. The landowner had inherited the place and barely fed his cows and goats, and if a rare blade of grass popped up or an acorn or mesquite pod fell, there was an animal standing right there to gobble it up. The "nice" bucks were like some of the old tweeker buck pencil racks that were around when I started hunting in the 70's. Anything with a thumb sized main beam was a monster. If it wasn't for the mountains of corn the deer lease members distributed, it would have been a total bust. I don't remember anybody ever seeing a pig , only the rare javelina. Very few of those.
That area is known for having anthrax wipe out 95% of the deer during an outbreak as well.
After an anthrax die off, deer can be scarce as hen's teeth. And about the time they get a decent population established, anthrax rears it's ugly head again and kills them off.
I've seen first hand if you have a mountain lion caught in a trap, you'd better beat the hogs to it, or all you'll find is a bag of bones in the middle of a pile of fur.
Coyotes eat the piglets as they can. If often works in our favor, if we can find a sow with tiny ones and kill her, then whatever of the little ones I can't kill, probably 50% or more disappear. Its a start at least.
Maybe thats why I tend to give coyotes somewhat of a pass. I"ve seen them come through with a piglet in their mouth more than once.
There is no greater example than Hill country Texas and how so many species can cohabitate and be fat off a seemingly little food.
Hill country. That now has less whitetails than it had many years ago. Too many other animals to compete.
Its not always a negative in some ways. OTOH I'm a firm believer that if it was meant to be here they God would have placed it here. And folks importing stuff are just stupid and it will bite one sooner or later.
Same goes for genetically modified food just for greed. Its all for greed actually.
We are actually happy now that we have our pasture back to mostly native grass also. But I digress.
Now. How do you cook carp to eat? Gar are good. Buffalo ok. But carp taste muddy to me like bad crawfish.
I’d be the first to ask a dirty sodbuster in Texas when they or their families arrived as an invasive species.
Leave the damn pigs alone !
Hogs ARE invasive, and feeders make up a large part of all wildlife diet. No feeders, no hogs.
Thats so far from the truth. Hogs eat other than feeder stuff most of their lives. They won't even touch feeders when other food is around and thats most of the year. You can MAKE them dependant on a feeder depending how you do it, but naturally they dont' rely on feeders.
. . Feeders do not sustain wildlife, they manipulate their movement patterns.
Well. . . . Not all the time. A place I hunted years ago southeast of Sonora, just about midway between Sonora and the Sutton/Edwards county line was poor poor poor, and if it wasn't for the feeders, there probably wouldn't be much of any whitetail deer at all. A few scraggly oaks and mesquites, and the odd prickly pear was about it. The landowner had inherited the place and barely fed his cows and goats, and if a rare blade of grass popped up or an acorn or mesquite pod fell, there was an animal standing right there to gobble it up. The "nice" bucks were like some of the old tweeker buck pencil racks that were around when I started hunting in the 70's. Anything with a thumb sized main beam was a monster. If it wasn't for the mountains of corn the deer lease members distributed, it would have been a total bust. I don't remember anybody ever seeing a pig , only the rare javelina. Very few of those.
You just told us feeders manipulated the movement of those deer. There is zero way those deer lived off what tiny amount of low quality feed a few feeders spread.
Coyotes eat the piglets as they can. If often works in our favor, if we can find a sow with tiny ones and kill her, then whatever of the little ones I can't kill, probably 50% or more disappear. Its a start at least.
Maybe thats why I tend to give coyotes somewhat of a pass. I"ve seen them come through with a piglet in their mouth more than once.
Yeah, from what I hear of the problems the hogs cause down there, I would think most predators would get a pass. Time to reintroduce jaguars!! 😉
. . Feeders do not sustain wildlife, they manipulate their movement patterns.
Well. . . . Not all the time. A place I hunted years ago southeast of Sonora, just about midway between Sonora and the Sutton/Edwards county line was poor poor poor, and if it wasn't for the feeders, there probably wouldn't be much of any whitetail deer at all. A few scraggly oaks and mesquites, and the odd prickly pear was about it. The landowner had inherited the place and barely fed his cows and goats, and if a rare blade of grass popped up or an acorn or mesquite pod fell, there was an animal standing right there to gobble it up. The "nice" bucks were like some of the old tweeker buck pencil racks that were around when I started hunting in the 70's. Anything with a thumb sized main beam was a monster. If it wasn't for the mountains of corn the deer lease members distributed, it would have been a total bust. I don't remember anybody ever seeing a pig , only the rare javelina. Very few of those.
You just told us feeders manipulated the movement of those deer. There is zero way those deer lived off what tiny amount of low quality feed a few feeders spread.
I, not Ranger, made the assertion that feeders only manipulate movement of wildlife (and not deer exclusively).
Ranger made an assertion from which one might infer that feeders had sustained deer, not I. I'd also make the case that the conclusion that the feeders had sustained the deer is a faulty one.
in this neck of the woods the biggest contributor to the feral hog issue is the guys that take pigs in the mark twain national forest and turn them out. they thought it was a good idea so they could run their dogs well things are completely out of hand now and these boys if they get caught are heavily prosecuted. the damage to farmland is real when they get in the more agricultural areas. anybody that says it isn't is an absolute fool..
in this neck of the woods the biggest contributor to the feral hog issue is the guys that take pigs in the mark twain national forest and turn them out. they thought it was a good idea so they could run their dogs well things are completely out of hand now and these boys if they get caught are heavily prosecuted. the damage to farmland is real when they get in the more agricultural areas. anybody that says it isn't is an absolute fool..
I’d be the first to ask a dirty sodbuster in Texas when they or their families arrived as an invasive species.
Leave the damn pigs alone !
Hogs ARE invasive, and feeders make up a large part of all wildlife diet. No feeders, no hogs.
Thats so far from the truth. Hogs eat other than feeder stuff most of their lives. They won't even touch feeders when other food is around and thats most of the year. You can MAKE them dependant on a feeder depending how you do it, but naturally they dont' rely on feeders.
Camaras on feeders tell a different story. Pigs will eat about anything, But feeders are their number one choice and once accustomed to them they stop traveling for food, Stay put and root up vegetation that deer might have eaten. Basically destroying the carring capacity of the area if not controlled.
I’d be the first to ask a dirty sodbuster in Texas when they or their families arrived as an invasive species.
Leave the damn pigs alone !
Hogs ARE invasive, and feeders make up a large part of all wildlife diet. No feeders, no hogs.
Thats so far from the truth. Hogs eat other than feeder stuff most of their lives. They won't even touch feeders when other food is around and thats most of the year. You can MAKE them dependant on a feeder depending how you do it, but naturally they dont' rely on feeders.
Camaras on feeders tell a different story. Pigs will eat about anything, But feeders are their number one choice and once accustomed to them they stop traveling for food, Stay put and root up vegetation that deer might have eaten. Basically destroying the carring capacity of the area if not controlled.
LOL.
I wouldn't say that you know nothing, but I'd say that it appears that most of what you know is wrong.
Cameras on feeders don't tell you anything other than pigs came to the feeder. You seem to be in the habit of reaching rock solid conclusions based on mushy observations, and damned few of them to boot.
Artificial feed sources support artificial animal populations.
That's prolly why the 40 or so collared doves were hanging out on the phone wires this morning, waiting for the 50 or so pinyon jays to come in and say it's safe to come eat the scratch I put out for the two coveys of quail that hang out around here? Or the juncos that hang around most of the winter after they come out of the high country?
Maybe this fellow wouldn't have been hanging out, preening, on the garden fence yesterday as it waits for the house sparrows that come in to eat the chicken food? Or, instead of sparrows it was hoping I'd let the hens out of the Gulag on day parole?
Now, the question might be asked how many of those birds would exist if I weren't feeding them? The robins have no problem getting fat on what they find around here as I don't see them feeding on the scratch or peanuts I put out. Just the highly abundant juniper berries this year and as it's been a mild winter whatever bugs and worms their finding in the yards. I'm pretty sure I've seen an increase in the jay population since we moved in, the invasive doves too. Caused by me?? or the other neighbors I know around here that feed birds too?
The authors of that article will get no argument from me about pigs (feral or any other type) increasing the diversity of the plant life in the area. That's cool, unless they're increasing it in a way that introduces nice things like cheat and medusa, or even junipers here which are considered "invasive" into the sagebrush/grasslands around this place. (The robins and other juniper berry eaters have done a wonderful job so far already)
As others have pointed out, pigs (and other critters) spreading diversity into farm/ranch land are not really doing the Humans in that area a favor.
"Biodiversity" is a great thing in some areas. I wish there was more on the BLM land behind this place. Having lived in a couple of places that were very similar habitat, I just know a good sized herd of elk could live here. My rancher neighbor that holds the grazing lease would probably not appreciate them eating the grass his cattle would like to eat though. The other neighbors would not like them getting into their hay stacks and pastures either I bet. But boy, it sure would be nice to maybe be able to draw an elk tag right out the back door.
I’d be the first to ask a dirty sodbuster in Texas when they or their families arrived as an invasive species.
Leave the damn pigs alone !
Hogs ARE invasive, and feeders make up a large part of all wildlife diet. No feeders, no hogs.
Thats so far from the truth. Hogs eat other than feeder stuff most of their lives. They won't even touch feeders when other food is around and thats most of the year. You can MAKE them dependant on a feeder depending how you do it, but naturally they dont' rely on feeders.
Camaras on feeders tell a different story. Pigs will eat about anything, But feeders are their number one choice and once accustomed to them they stop traveling for food, Stay put and root up vegetation that deer might have eaten. Basically destroying the carring capacity of the area if not controlled.
Bull fuggin chit !
300 years plus of hogs, record numbers now, and record numbers of whitetail deer !
Just like every other subject on here, y’all take what you read as fuggin Gospel.
I’d be the first to ask a dirty sodbuster in Texas when they or their families arrived as an invasive species.
Leave the damn pigs alone !
Hogs ARE invasive, and feeders make up a large part of all wildlife diet. No feeders, no hogs.
Thats so far from the truth. Hogs eat other than feeder stuff most of their lives. They won't even touch feeders when other food is around and thats most of the year. You can MAKE them dependant on a feeder depending how you do it, but naturally they dont' rely on feeders.
Camaras on feeders tell a different story. Pigs will eat about anything, But feeders are their number one choice and once accustomed to them they stop traveling for food, Stay put and root up vegetation that deer might have eaten. Basically destroying the carring capacity of the area if not controlled.
Bull fuggin chit !
300 years plus of hogs, record numbers now, and record numbers of whitetail deer !
Just like every other subject on here, y’all take what you read as fuggin Gospel.
yeah I'm sure it was overrun with feral hogs 300 years ago. the little javelina is not the same thing. even like the wild Russian boars that if you were imported some time ago are not the same thing.. the idea of intelligence escaped you years ago didn't it
You fuggers need to start learning history, even in the 1800’s there were so many gawddarned hogs they used to round them up with dogs in Texas Hill Country and do hog drives to market like cattle drives !
Not Javelina !
Hogs and their lineage have been in the Americas longer than most of you Fuggin immigrants!
I’d be the first to ask a dirty sodbuster in Texas when they or their families arrived as an invasive species.
Leave the damn pigs alone !
Hogs ARE invasive, and feeders make up a large part of all wildlife diet. No feeders, no hogs.
Thats so far from the truth. Hogs eat other than feeder stuff most of their lives. They won't even touch feeders when other food is around and thats most of the year. You can MAKE them dependant on a feeder depending how you do it, but naturally they dont' rely on feeders.
Camaras on feeders tell a different story. Pigs will eat about anything, But feeders are their number one choice and once accustomed to them they stop traveling for food, Stay put and root up vegetation that deer might have eaten. Basically destroying the carring capacity of the area if not controlled.
Nope. They don't stop moving. They move in big circles and areas of other food. We don't have them every day. Sometimes they are gone for days or weeks or even months. Especially they move when its dry. Rain brings em back around. There isn't even CLOSE to enough corn at a feeder to make a difference in their lives. They would starve to death using only a feeder.
Mutha fuggers will eat bacon, porkchops, and ribs from the store until their fuggin heart seizes up but want to kill all the feral hogs.
I can see why you use the Loco name. You ever hear of Valium? You need to get on the stuff. At least the elevator would have a chance to get to the top then.
Scared that wild pigs won't be available for your Rambo fantasy?
Now that is some funny chit right there because I actually do spear them. From a 7’ ladder stand looking down on a piggy pipe setup.
I actually use this spearhead on a piece of 5’ pipe from Home depot, they bleed out and offgas through the hollow, just don’t put your face by the end of the pipe 🤣🤣🤣😂
I have no problem with it. I’ve been guilty of the same until I changed my opinion of pigs away from the BS party line. 😂🤣
I changed my opinion because of the Plandemic and current events. I started learning the history of this food source, read agricultural reports as it relates to big money backings. Then I evaluated it all against what my eyes were showing me. Like hog and deer populations in record numbers cohabiting.
Now I just take smalls and let the rest reproduce.
Well, the story about the Siberian tigers last week mentioned their staple food is hogs, so maybe we should bring over a few of those to control those Texas hogs. I mean, EVERYTHING is bigger in Texas, why not the cats?
Mutha fuggers will eat bacon, porkchops, and ribs from the store until their fuggin heart seizes up but want to kill all the feral hogs.
Johnny loco, you make a lot of sense to me. I like pigs. Would rather eat pork than venison. Pigs like everything else is natures food source. Just step up hunting and serve more pork at the dinner table. It’s just like somewhere in either New Mexico or Arizona there where feral cattle. Instead of hunting them, it was proposed they were to be destroyed and left to rot. People complain about high meat prices when we have an opportunity to make good of these feral animals. Go figure!
All I know about wild hogs is that they're a lot of fun to shoot. I'd love to get back down to Texas and shoot some more. I just need to find a farm that doesn't want to charge me $600 everytime I help them eliminate one of their problems.
All I know about wild hogs is that they're a lot of fun to shoot. I'd love to get back down to Texas and shoot some more. I just need to find a farm that doesn't want to charge me $600 everytime I help them eliminate one of their problems.
Bb
I don’t think its right charging big money but with the tax cabal a man has to pay the tax man however he can.
I couldn’t care less how the relatively few feudal lord sodbusters with their Ag exemptions and money schemes feel about hogs, I ain’t a farmer.
I’m a common man, I view most “Wildlife Biologists” these days as “Faucis” and the whole agricultural community as “Big Pharma”, and the land owners as the “Hospitals”…Its all self a serving money machine with no regard for the common man !
I was looking for an easy link but they were all long and complicated. Feral pigs were a problem even before 1700 in New England, got so numerous that the Indians largely switched over to a hog-based economy, King Phillip’s War, our first major Indian War was sparked by Metacomon (AKA King Phillip) running his hogs on Hog Island, POing the surrounding settlers.
Any town that sound like Coshocton or Cohocton comes from an Algonquin term meaning “place with hogs”, there’s one along the Upoer Delaware in NY State, by the 1780’s the name transferring to the main Delaware Indian town in present day Ohio.
I think it was Olmstead whose 1857 campsite in East Texas was overrun by semi-feral hogs and who remarked there were numerous poor Whites squatters in the area for whom feral pigs and cattle were a major source of sustenance ( if it weren’t Olmstead it was a guy 20 years earlier).
So yes, feral hogs go way back, maybe as long ago as DeSoto.
The mystery is why have their populations been skyrocketing in recent years.
Sometimes the reasoning of “why” is searching for a more complex answer.
Whats the reason for the skyrocketing boom in human populations?
I will say this on the history of the subject, we don’t have MEN anymore like there was in times of old. Can you even imagine rounding up pigs out of the roughest part of Hill Country for a drive?
Mutha fuggers will eat bacon, porkchops, and ribs from the store until their fuggin heart seizes up but want to kill all the feral hogs.
Johnny loco, you make a lot of sense to me. I like pigs. Would rather eat pork than venison. Pigs like everything else is natures food source. Just step up hunting and serve more pork at the dinner table. It’s just like somewhere in either New Mexico or Arizona there where feral cattle. Instead of hunting them, it was proposed they were to be destroyed and left to rot. People complain about high meat prices when we have an opportunity to make good of these feral animals. Go figure!
LOL.
Sockpuppet circle jerk. Why don't you both go jack each other off somewhere else?
Lets see some pictures of you both living off the land, eating feral hogs and cattle.
loco should think of this a bit different. if everyone was out surviving on hunting hogs and not at the grocery store there would probably not be very many hogs out there. so the people going to the grocery store the farmers butchering their own stuff is actually making more for him. but then he also hates the farmers and they should be out of business so therefore they would be honey hogs and there would be no grocery stores..
I think you puffed up too much loco weed ate too many gummies or just a genuine dumbass which one is it..
The reason the Texas hog problem took off according to my wildlife mgmt friends is thus. Deer lease prices took off several years ago and the leases want something else to hunt for the money, so ranchers started trapping hogs and relocating them so that the hunters could come year round to hunt. It had gotten so bad that the TX legs. passed a law that it was illegal to have a live feral hog in a trailer on the highway unless it was going to a slaughter facility.
Mutha fuggers will eat bacon, porkchops, and ribs from the store until their fuggin heart seizes up but want to kill all the feral hogs.
Johnny loco, you make a lot of sense to me. I like pigs. Would rather eat pork than venison. Pigs like everything else is natures food source. Just step up hunting and serve more pork at the dinner table. It’s just like somewhere in either New Mexico or Arizona there where feral cattle. Instead of hunting them, it was proposed they were to be destroyed and left to rot. People complain about high meat prices when we have an opportunity to make good of these feral animals. Go figure!
LOL.
Sockpuppet circle jerk. Why don't you both go jack each other off somewhere else?
Lets see some pictures of you both living off the land, eating feral hogs and cattle.
Mutha fuggers will eat bacon, porkchops, and ribs from the store until their fuggin heart seizes up but want to kill all the feral hogs.
Johnny loco, you make a lot of sense to me. I like pigs. Would rather eat pork than venison. Pigs like everything else is natures food source. Just step up hunting and serve more pork at the dinner table. It’s just like somewhere in either New Mexico or Arizona there where feral cattle. Instead of hunting them, it was proposed they were to be destroyed and left to rot. People complain about high meat prices when we have an opportunity to make good of these feral animals. Go figure!
LOL.
Sockpuppet circle jerk. Why don't you both go jack each other off somewhere else?
Lets see some pictures of you both living off the land, eating feral hogs and cattle.
We'll wait.
You sir need to change your meds!
LOL.
How about that photo of you living off of feral hogs and feral cattle?
Mutha fuggers will eat bacon, porkchops, and ribs from the store until their fuggin heart seizes up but want to kill all the feral hogs.
Johnny loco, you make a lot of sense to me. I like pigs. Would rather eat pork than venison. Pigs like everything else is natures food source. Just step up hunting and serve more pork at the dinner table. It’s just like somewhere in either New Mexico or Arizona there where feral cattle. Instead of hunting them, it was proposed they were to be destroyed and left to rot. People complain about high meat prices when we have an opportunity to make good of these feral animals. Go figure!
LOL.
Sockpuppet circle jerk. Why don't you both go jack each other off somewhere else?
Lets see some pictures of you both living off the land, eating feral hogs and cattle.
We'll wait.
You sir need to change your meds!
LOL.
How about that photo of you living off of feral hogs and feral cattle?
Yeah, I didn't think so.
Never said I was living off feral hogs. I just don’t believe in wasting food sources of any kind. It’s all about proper management. Personal attacks will never force me to agree with you. I do respect your opinion though!
Never said I was living off feral hogs. I just don’t believe in wasting food sources of any kind. It’s all about proper management. Personal attacks will never force me to agree with you. I do respect your opinion though!
So you know a bit about wildlife management?
And food sources?
I'm not attacking you sir. I'm just pointing out that you are agreeing with a retard who knows nothing of either subject.
Our local game processing plant condemns about half of the feral hogs brought in to them as unfit for human consumption. They throw them in the condemned barrel with permanent dye so they can't be eaten.
Those cattle that were killed in NM were feral in very rugged mountains, and while I didn't agree with them being shot the way they were, there's ranchers with cattle that are taken care of in the same area, and you turn a bunch of hunters loose in there telling them to kill feral cattle, how many would they kill that aren't.
As far as wasting food sources, I know you must see me as a real bad man for not eating even one of the multiple hundreds of coyotes I've killed.
You CAN eat them. I've seen it done.
If you don't believe in wasting food sources of any kind, then how do feel about the hogs that follow farmers as they plant, and eat every single corn seed they plant, the night after they plant them? What will feed more people? The hogs or the corn field?
All I'm saying is to be a true believer, then.... BE a true believer.
The hogs that don’t meet USDA standards go to animal food or to compost. The coyotes you kill, would in turn eat the piglets. If people ate more meat instead of corn, would we have less Diabetes ? I don’t know. Again with proper management , you would have less pigs eating the corn just planted. There are people on this forum far sharper than me, so I do consider others opinions. Your turn!
Wish I could get folks to come pay me to shoot starlings and cats, maybe a pack rat or two, on my 7Acre RANCH!
Hell, I'd even clean 'em and cut 'em up for them to take home.
Maybe a solution, Rat Terrier. Had one. One time I lifted up a sheet of plywood laying on the ground . There were about 5-6 large mice living there. That dog got them all before the could scramble. I’ll never forget it.
Wish I could get folks to come pay me to shoot starlings and cats, maybe a pack rat or two, on my 7Acre RANCH!
Hell, I'd even clean 'em and cut 'em up for them to take home.
Maybe a solution, Rat Terrier. Had one. One time I lifted up a sheet of plywood laying on the ground . There were about 5-6 large mice living there. That dog got them all before the could scramble. I’ll never forget it.
Well Alan, I was being a bit facetious there. We do have some packrats here, they build awesome nests. I shoot the starlings with a pellet gun when I can, and as soon as the lady across the street moves out, if any of the cats are left they'll die too. The rats really aren't that big of a problem, like pigs are on some farms/ranches.
A packrat nest up the hill from our place. Remington 870 Express 20g for scale. Not even the biggest nest I've seen out there.
Thanks for sharing!! Always enjoy your posts. There is some good YouTube videos of Guys that hunt rats and muskrats with trained Minks. Minks are tough!
I’ve made the mistake of dropping down on a big boar and couple of sows, won’t do that again, its a young stupid man’s game !
This spear will go slam through them then its like a marlin on a gaff.
I only eat smalls.
Sure you do.
Originally Posted by JohnnyLoco
Originally Posted by Jim_Conrad
Still having a fit?
Scared that wild pigs won't be available for your Rambo fantasy?
Now that is some funny chit right there because I actually do spear them. From a 7’ ladder stand looking down on a piggy pipe setup.
I actually use this spearhead on a piece of 5’ pipe from Home depot, they bleed out and offgas through the hollow, just don’t put your face by the end of the pipe 🤣🤣🤣😂
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