Texas farmers and ranchers are losing ground to wild pigs. A new measure recently approved by Texas Agriculture Commissioner Sid Miller looks to change that.
Miller announced this week a rule change in the Texas Administrative Code (TAC) that classifies a warfarin-based hog lure as a state limited-use pesticide.
The pesticide, “Kaput Feral Hog Lure,” is the first toxicant to be listed specifically for management of wild pig populations.
“Texas Farm Bureau is still considering this change and will monitor any impacts that it might have, but Texas farmers and ranchers desperately need another tool to help in the battle against the destructive wild pig population,” Gene Richardson, Commodity and Regulatory Activities director, said. “The damage to farmers’ and ranchers’ crops, livestock and equipment has continued to grow at an alarming rate.”
The regulatory status under the rule change will ensure safe handling and application of this product.
Richardson suggests farmers and ranchers check with TDA for a complete understanding of the requirements to use warfarin.
“A restricted use pesticide license is required and you may have to complete a training course with your county agent,” he said.
Under the labeled use, landowners will be required to use an approved bait feeder. Bait food will be laced with warfarin, which is the same toxicant used to control rat populations.
There are currently an estimated 2 million wild pigs in the Lone Star State, causing about $52 million in damage to Texas land and agricultural enterprises, according to the Texas A&M AgriLife Extension Service.
Wild pigs continue to be a nuisance for landowners in both rural and urban settings. They are known for uprooting crops and pastures, along with entire city parks and landscapes. Their continued movement calls for high precautions when traveling on highways or county roads.
They have also contributed to loss of wetland habitation, water source contamination and soil erosion due to extensive rooting behavior around water sources.
What about the collateral damage of other animals who eat the poison or eat the dead hog carcass?
I have no idea who many police officers we have in Texas, but they all do target practice at some time or another. We have a lot of veterans in Texas as well. Most of them could sure use some ham, pork chops and bacon!! Win, win for everyone!
What about every other animal that may possibly ingest some of the poison? Lots of animals are eating the same things pigs eat. Why can’t the pigs be harvested in other ways and the hides and meat utilized in ways that are more productive than poisoning them and wondering if dogs,bobcats,birds raccoons and other animals will be harmed by the poisoned carcasses. Our history of poisoning things, in my opinion, leaves a lot to be desired.On my way to work this am Dallas radio station 98.7 FM had a DJ extolling the virtues of getting rid of, and the pigs because “you can’t eat them , they taste like juniper or cedar or whatever else they are eating”. I eat wild pig and have never been disappointed in the taste. In my area, trappers have done a fine job in dairy cow country in Rains, Hopkins, and Hunt county. I hope voters will recognize who is responsible for this incredibly irresponsible decision to poison a creature that provides excellent table fare as well as other by-products that could be used and not wasted. ie…entrails, hide, hooves and more.
Hooray.
There is NO feral hog problem in Texas. I have offered many times to remove wild hog populations from areas, only to have the land owner want to charge me hundreds of dollars to shoot one hog. Until the landowners are paying people to eradicate the hogs vs. charging people to hunt them, there is no feral hog problem in Texas.
You do not have a clue.
dude,,, waiting for a thick wallet buyer,
to pay you almost farmers market
prices to shoot an animal you ‘claim’
to wish wasn’t there….
sounds totally crazy to me.
As usual the solution is a scatter shot approach which endangers all wildlife and not just the population regarded as the pest. There needs to be an outlet which hunters and trappers of wild pigs can take these animals once captured or killed to be processed. If there was a viable economic use for these animals there would be more of an effort by hunters or trappers to engage in wild hogs. Poisons which are indiscriminate usually have a disastrous effect on unintended animal population.
Don’t charge hunters or trapper to access
Your land to kill hogs. I won’t pay 75$ a day
The pigs don’t hurt me. The farmer/rancher
Who needs help.
Let’s see — 2 million wild pigs, 52 million dollars in damage — about $25 bucks in damage per pig. I wonder what the per pig cost is for eradication using warfarin plus the cost of collateral damage? I suspect the only winners here are going to be the makers of “Kaput” and whoever in the Ag Department is getting wined and dined by them.
Kudos to Mr. Breef. Hey Farm Bureau, can you get Mr. Breef’s reply to the commissioner?
As for warfarin being hazardous to raccoons BS. We can’t keep our rat bait stations full of poison. The coon we have around here has even got hold of a bait tub and pulled the top off and ate all the poison. He even took one tub of poison and left with it.
We do not need to introduce another pesticide into TX. This is a knee jerk reaction to a problem that is not a problem. If they want to reduce the population, then introduce a bounty. $10 per set of ears and you will get a lot of ears being turned in.
As long as landowners are charging people to hunt them, there is not a problem.
Poisen is far to dangerous. Sid Miller is not the sharpest knife in the drawer.
I have news for some people that must not be in the know. First of all wild hogs are sold and processed and sold again for food. A lot of the meat is sent over seas and some is used here in a America. As for the poison I was at a meeting yesterday and this subject was discussed. There is a lot to be determined has to the exact rules this will intel. Only licensed chemical applicators will be able to buy the poison and detailed records are required , the feeders that hold the feed with the poison on it has to have a lid that the hog has to raise to eat and it must weight between 7 and 10 lbs. The dead hog must be destroyed either by burying or burning. If a person traps them for food like I do when you cut into them if the fat is a blue color you know that you need to dispose of the hog either by burying or burning it. Now on the flip side the question was asked how long does it take for the poison to take effect and we was told up to 5 days, now anyone that knows about hogs knows they can travel a great distance in that amount of time. Also we was told that it takes a lot more of the poison to kill other wildlife compared to what it takes a hog. There was a lot of questions that could not be answered because the Texas Dept. of Agriculture has not determined. But has for me I do have some mixed feeling about it. But I also know that anyone that thinks there is not a wild hog problem in Texas and most of the rest of the United States is closing a blind eye.
Do Not Like POISONING. DO NOT. Too many animals we are trying and working to protect to have poison spread around. Hunters should be able to specifically hunt these hogs without paying a landowner….IF… the hogs are a problem. All ..and.. everyone should know when this hunting is taking place. Food for many folks could be the result of proper hunting.
Do Not Like POISONING. DO NOT. Many of the animals we are trying and working to protect may fall victim to this poison. Hunters could …would…should…and will hunt these hogs that are causing problems. Landowners should not expect pay from someone who is helping them rid their property of these pests. Many folks would be happy to have this food supply available to them. Let’s use ‘common sense’ and not use poison.
I don’t see a one of you out here protecting the 2000 acres of corn I am fixing to plant! Until you have a monetary dog in the hunt maybe you need to reevaluate your ” threatened hobby”!!
We’ve had numerous volunteers over the years who would like to help dispatch some hogs. Farmers have in fact spent enormous sums hiring professionals for this. Let’s put aside for a moment the staggering liability issues of inviting people with guns that you don’t know onto your property for free. Hogs, wild or otherwise, have litters, conservative average of four pigs, let’s say. The gestation cycle of a sow is 114 days – about 3 months. Three to four litters a year. That’s a lot of pigs and a species with few natural enemies. There is no way to hobby shoot enough of them to make much of a difference. Professional hunting is expensive with crop and livestock prices low. A low cost and effective solution is needed. We’ll see where this proposal goes.
So who and how many are responsible for enforcement of “limited use” ? This appears to be a recipe for disaster. On our place we allow people we know who are responsible hunters shoot them for the meat. Free to us and to the hunter. Has worked very well.
We have only 39 acres in North East Texas near Davy Crockett National Forest. We have captured 16 different wild hogs on camera in the past 2 months. That’s just the ones we have seen on camera. I was walking during the day near the highway and came upon a sounder of wild hogs. Talk about frightened! I thought they only came to feed at night. Perhaps those who do not think there is a problem live in areas where there isn’t a problem, yet. What will you do when you go to the playground near a camp ground one day and come upon a momma hog with 6 of her babies? Warfarin is a blood thinner for those who do not know. It is prescribed for people to prevent blood clots. Yes, it is very dangerous in the wrong doses. How is it “applied”? How will the landowner be ensured that only hogs will ingest it? Are there secure ways to do that? There are probably more answers to this question than anyone has thought about. I do not know yet but I do feel that trapping is still the way I would like to go. Hogs are smart and they learn to avoid certain situations. I ran across a website that explains how to trap the entire sounder (the herd as some may call it) and not just one or two hogs at a time. It takes time, patience, and some money & effort but I believe it will be worth it in the end. Perhaps each county could have a Town Meeting and get the community together to get the population under better control. Public education is important too. Those landowners who charge to hunt hogs could be some of the ones who are purposely increasing the hog population without realizing the damage that is being caused.
Those who do not feel there is a problem and have nothing to do with wild hogs do not have to be forced to do anything but those of us who want to get something done on their properties could get educated and act on that quickly. I think we can take care of this if we put forth enough effort. I am willing to try.
As the daughter of an avid hog trapper as well as one my self I have to say that poisoning them does not help anyone. We provide meat for so many families here in our area. The meat goes to a good place. What I propose Mr. Miller do instead is give the funds, going towards poisoning these animals and educating Texans on what to do with poisoned meat, towards giving a higher rate for hogs that are trapped live and sold to go into the meat market. Give trappers more incentive to keep going. Make it illegal for land owners to charge these trappers to do their job. I for one know that so much of the time you basically make enough for gas and corn and not much more. Food pantries and families in need can always use the meat. Texas ships out an enormous amount of ferrel hogs each year to other states for meat. You cant tell me there is not a better way to go about this problem. The only issue is it would give money to hard working Americans and not so much in politicians and corporate businesses pockets.
Mary, glad you were okay. I myself have been walking on our South Tx lease and faced an aggressive though small group of 4 hogs. Carrying a 9mm pistol saved me from injury, I believe. One was wounded and others “discouraged.” This is a very aggressive species. They have attacked people before.
Unrelated, they’ve also caused a few serious traffic accidents.They breed like rabbits, literally and a small group of them can do more damage than a bulldozer.
I suspect that this bait, like the Kaput gopher bait I’ve used, is a multiple feeding toxin. In other words, the hog would have to eat it multiple times to have a cumulative lethal effect. This would make the carcass much less likely to contain enough of the toxin to fatally harm any wildlife (or pets) feeding on the carcass. I seriously doubt anyone likes to poison animals, but sometimes it becomes necessary. It’s open warfare on hogs in many areas since they are so destructive and because relatively few people, unfortunately, are actually trying hard to control them.
Let’s see — 2 million pigs, $52M in damage … about $25 per pig.
I wonder what will be the cost per pig killed in this misguided program, including of course the collateral damage.
I suspect the only winners here are the makers of the “Kaput” product and perhaps AT Commission staff wined and dined by the company.
I’m against the poison option and have the same concerns as others on here. I do own property that has hogs on it and know how destructive they can be. I also hunt and trap them and have kept them under control on my land. Questions I have that I haven’t seen answers to is how fast the fat turns blue after ingesting the poison. That hog can eat the poison my neighbor has put out and I trap it the same night, and process it the next morning, Is the fat going to be blue by then? Another question I have is what if my neighbor has nothing but open farm land and uses the poison and the hogs are laying up in the brush on my property and die there who is going to be responsible for disposal of a large number of dead hogs if I’m not using the poison? Can I call the state to come pick up 30-100 dead poisoned hogs? I think its funny when they say the hogs are getting only a small dose. Is Warfarin accumulative, because the hog won’t eat just the dose you want it to. I have talked to people with degree’s in chemistry who are very concerned about using warfarin. Has there been an independent lab that has confirmed the research done by the manufacture? By the information I have seen it states that this is going to be pretty safe, not safe but pretty safe.
Anyone who says wild hogs are not a problem does not know what they are talking about. I am about to plant 2,900 acres of corn spread across a 20 mile area. Hogs will undoubtedly come and dig up and eat the chemically treated seed which we have planted in various places. Just the seed costs $75 per acre. It could take up to 2 weeks or more for the corn to emerge from the ground during which it will be vulnerable to the hogs digging it up. It takes hours to drive back to every field and to every part of it to monitor for damage. I have shot at and run hogs out of a field only to have them come back before morning and do more damage. It may rain and become impossible to access the field or parts of it. Later when the corn starts to make ears the hogs will return and destroy it knocking down stalks and taking only a bite or two out of each ear. It is vulnerable to this damage for 6 weeks or more. It is impossible to daily monitor all parts of every field. The corn is tall at this point making it difficult to see. Every acre could be worth $350 to $500. Here is one example from last year. I planted corn on a 30 acre field. I paid a skilled trapper $25/ hog to trap in and around this are in the preceding months to planting. He caught about 25 hogs. After planting I made rounds to this and other fields between 12:00 and 2:30am after working in the field all day. After 5 days of doing that it came a big rain. The hogs can and dug up every seed in one or two nights. There were traps baited at the edge of the field. I replanted it later and even though I tried to monitor it the came and ate about half of it. I replanted again and because it was so late the corn did not yield well. From that field alone the hogs robbed $10,000 out of my families income. The field was right next to our town and the high school football field. I have been dealing with this for 26 years and it is getting worse every year. I rent most of my land. Landowners are worried about the liability of having people they don’t know out there shooting at things in the dark. So we can’t just say y’all come kill them.
We live in Burleson County, Texas and YES we have a wild hog problem. I agree with Jessica, there are other ways, more beneficial ways that would help people and other wildlife, to try before poisoning.. Use the funding to help landowners trap them. Educating farmers and ranchers and the general public, offer a bounty, or provide financial incentives to the hog processors and purchasers. We have trapped and sold about 25 hogs since October, which is not very many. Last week, we sold a 175 lb hog for $43. That doesn’t cover the cost of gasoline and corn for trapping, but at least he will be processed and someone will have a meal. Another idea would be to offer Texas hunters that have hunting licenses “off season” hog hunting cycles on state lands, or to sponsor hog trapping contests. We also eat the wild hogs occasionally, but we catch way more than we eat. I AM AGAINST POISONING, just too many things can happen using poison.
Did you know that one sow can have 3 litters of pigs a year and don’t know what the average is but they can have 10-12 pigs at a time I know. That means that that one sow put out 36 pigs in one year and a female pig can get bread at about 6 months of age. So if you count her female pigs having that many pigs that one sow actually put out approximately 50 pigs or more a year. Now with those kinds of numbers you can’t tell me we don’t have a wild hog problem.
More uninformed or simply not knowledgeable of the feral hog situation in our state and many other states, as well as Australia, and numerous European countries. And, from the comments this announcement is getting, it seems many are not the folks being affected by feral hogs in our state. Personally, for the last fifteen (15) years I have allowed gun hunters to hunt feral hogs on my property FREE OF CHARGE, they shoot one occasionally and think they have done a big service. And, I have allowed hunters with hog dogs to hunt on my property FREE OF CHARGE, even though there are issues of liability for me (I have just taken the chance). And, for those uninformed folks, feral hogs are mostly nocturnal, meaning they are out at night most of the time and I have found few hunters willing to stay out all night looking for hogs, especially after a night or two of seeing nothing. I have trapped more feral hogs on my property in the last fifteen years, than most of you can even imagine in your wildest dreams and I have paid professional trappers to trap on my property. However, all my neighbors within a twelve to fifteen mile radius of me and I have more feral hogs today than ever. Every single year it has got worse. The gun hunters, the trappings and the hog dog hunters have not ever been able to keep up with the feral hog population explosion. Albeit, the hog hunters with good trained dogs have done the best over the years. They catch some, however, the majority of the hogs the dogs chase simply move out of the area for a while and root up someone’s property, BUT they do come back or another pounder moves in. I am a small cow-calf farmer; every single year the hogs root up my grazing pastures and hay pastures. I spend man-days and sometimes man-weeks repairing the pastures and I lose grass for grazing and hay production. We are talking about anywhere from a couple of acres to fifteen plus acres and this happens several times per year (not just once or twice), then I have to go out hay and have even had to reduce the number of cattle I had to accommodate the lack of grass. Now, for all you folks that think we could feed all the hungry people pork, well if, it is such a profitable business (or just for the sake of charity) why is it not happening? If, it were such a profitable business, then we would have more professional hunters/trappers knocking on our doors. Truthfully, I fully believe unless you are being directly affected (your personal livelihood), then you just do not understand (out of sight, out of mind) and more simply do not care.
Finally, someone that understands and cares is here, Thank you Sid Miller.
Do not endanger other wild life. I agr
my name John Garrett I run a trapping service called Garrett Hog Service .We use a Jager Pro Hog trap system It take time to catch the whole sounder of wild hogs .if I can help let me know.