Wild Hogs -- eating your PALMS?

[DoomsDave]

Howdyall:

The Wall Street Journal had an article in it about how hogs have run wild all over Texas, inspiring guys to go hunting them for hire and profit.  (Wild hawg steak, anyone?)

How about it, Texans?  Any hawg trouble?

Here in Cali, the only hawgs I've seen are the Harley kind, and me at the buffet table . . . .

dave

[Creekside]

I don't know about Texas, but here in Florida they are a big problem.  I haven't heard whether they'll eat small palms, but I do know they dig & rip up irrigation lines.  I'm about to build a big hoop house in an area of our property where the hogs have rooted the ground up like crazy.  I'm not taking chances - I've lost hundreds of little palms just to seemingly benign little squirrels - and will be hog-wiring the whole area to keep them out.  Oh, and one electrified line along the bottom, which I hear is very helpful.

[Tad]

wild hogs are not an issue in most palm growing areas of the state, it is a rural problem, and not near as glamourous as the article would make it seem.

we trap hogs all the time, here is one from last season, I have not ventured out yet this year.

the cost of trapping and hunting them is nowhere near profitable when you factor in fuel,time,corn for bait,materials for traps,etc.... its a labor of love.

they taste ok, but for less than 20.00 you can get a really nice boston butt thats ready to go, you dont have to shoot it, load it,gut it,skin it,qaurter it up and process it....wild hogs especially larger males have a STANK to them thats far from romantic!!

[Tad]

here is my wifes grandpaw with a hog he shot on our hunting lease last year. total last years hunting season I trapped and shot 25 to 30 hogs. kept 3 made them into sausage and gave the rest away whole to other hunters,and my workers.

[oppalm]

ever had hogs head sausage?   my grandmother worked at a meat locker in a small town, basically they processed meat, and they made this unbelievable hogs head sausage.  dam that brings back good ole memories.

[Tad]

no but i like tamales (hogs head meat)

[Ken Johnson]

Dang, this palm talk makes me hungry.

Head cheese is my thing.

Them critters do not come into my rural area but if they did....

[Xavierdlc61887]

(palmotrafficante @ Nov. 20 2007,17:03)

QUOTE

here is my wifes grandpaw with a hog he shot on our hunting lease last year. total last years hunting season I trapped and shot 25 to 30 hogs. kept 3 made them into sausage and gave the rest away whole to other hunters,and my workers.

YOU KNOW HOW TO KEEP EM HAPPY I SEE IT NOW.....I USED TO GET BUCKS AND DOE DURING THE CHRISTMAS HOLIDAYS EVERY YEAR WHEN I WORK WITH D. WILSON CONSTRUCTION TAD. THEY ALWAYS HAD ME HAPPY UNTIL THEY DIDNT WANNA GIVE ME A 50 CENT RAISE FROM 5.15....AHAHAHA WOW WHAT CHEAPSKATES(THINK IT SPELLED WRONG) BUT WHATEVER HAHAA  AND ITS TRUE HOW THE MALES SMELL HOOOO WEEEEE GOTTA CASTRATE THEM WHILE THEY ARE YOUNG

[bgl]

We have plenty of feral pigs in the forest right next to us. For the first 10 years here, we never had a problem, but all of a sudden, last summer (2006) they started coming onto our property and digging up stuff all over the place. I don't think I ever lost a palm because of this, but they created a real mess in some areas. So we ended up fencing our entire property (5 acres). That was completed in Aug 2006, and we havn't had any problems since.

Now, next to us, in the forest, that's where I've put up a shadehouse for my nursery business. I've had plenty of palms in pots outside the shadehouse (down to 1G size), but fortunately the pigs seem to have no interest in the palms. Sometimes, a pot or two will be tipped over, but I'm sure the pigs just happen to kick them when they're passing by since there's no damage to the palm and the soil is (relatively) intact. I've seen pigs on numerous occasions back there, from tiny little piglets (saw 4 at the same time earlier this year, walking in a row after their momma), and some of the ones I've seen have been at least the size of the one in Tad's Post #3 above. I'm also planting palms back there, where the pigs could easily get to them, but I don't plant anything smaller than a 5G size plant, and so far, so good!

[Tad]

hyophorbe= greek, for food of the pigs, in reference to seed I belive.

the bad thing about sus scrofa is mommy will have a litter of 8 and 14 will survive.

and while I am not encouraging anybody to go out and try to man handle a wild hog, they are not as fierce and dangerous as they are portrayed, they really just want to put as much difference between you and them as possible!!

Dave i would guess you never see them in cali because your not out in the brush at the crack of dawn, or dark thirty and late night.

[palmsrgreat]

mmmm, hogs head cheese, crackers and yellow mustard...mmmmm

[DoomsDave]

(palmotrafficante @ Nov. 20 2007,23:08)

QUOTE

Dave i would guess you never see them in cali because your not out in the brush at the crack of dawn, or dark thirty and late night.

You might be surprised!

(I might be, too . . . .   )

[_Keith]

While you are eating that hog head cheese, don't forget the hog cracklin and boudin.  Got to use up all of that thing you know.  Even I have to draw the line with the salted pig knuckles, but do confess to trying them.  I lived.  

There is an old saying here that "when a cajun is hungry no animal in the woods is safe."  My only response is "believe em"    

[Chuck B]

We don't have problems with them here on the main island,but they do cause damage to endangered plants ,and the Rhinocerus Iguana nesting grounds on the island of Mona.Puerto Rico is big on pork meat,especially this time of year.Maybe that's why you don't see 'em here on the big island.

[palmmermaid]

We certainly have them here in south Florida, in fact, all over Florida.  I think they are a problem everywhere we have colonized.

[Tad]

wild hog distribution map from 04, they cant take a whole lot of cold, so that kinda limits the range thye have

[Ken Johnson]

I ate some roasted ears the other day. Tasted like palm hearts.

[DoomsDave]

(palmotrafficante @ Nov. 21 2007,08:02)

QUOTE

wild hog distribution map from 04, they cant take a whole lot of cold, so that kinda limits the range thye have

Well, dang!

Looks like Texas, Californee and Hawaii are hawg heaven . . .

[Gaston in Argentina]

Nice shots!

The same wild pigs live as wild here as introduced from Europe, and theres ones natives that are smaller.- Both use to live in the Trithrinax campestris forest and seems never be a trouble for the palms to develope neither for seedlings, just i know they like the palms fruits.-

[DoomsDave]

(Gaston in Argentina @ Nov. 21 2007,15:57)

QUOTE

Nice shots!

The same wild pigs live as wild here as introduced from Europe, and theres ones natives that are smaller.- Both use to live in the Trithrinax campestris forest and seems never be a trouble for the palms to develope neither for seedlings, just i know they like the palms fruits.-

I'll bet the palms are doing better than ever.

Those hogs, in that grand tradition, "pig out" on the seeds, and poop out (as we say) all over the place, to sprout in abundance.

UNless the hogs crush the seed, which I doubt.

I've heard they use Syagrus seed for hog feed in Brazil . . . .

How about Argentina?

dave

[GREENHAND]

Hog hunting is fun, we hunt them at my friends deer camp near Athens Tx, we use AK"S really puts the hurt on em.

[Ken Johnson]

I hear that they use Roystonia in Cuba as a final feed before slaughter as it make 'em taste good.

[Caribbean Palms]

At a farm I visited in Cuba they also use Copernicia fallaensis seed as feed for their hogs. OUCH!

[Wai`anae Steve]

Lots of wild pigs here on O`ahu also.  Lots of hunters too, but not enough to make a dent in the population.  Also many land owners would rather have their land torn up by rooting pigs than let hunters in.  Just makes matters worse.

They often come into yards in the hills behind Honolulu and make a big mess.  I see their tracks and diggings every time I go out hiking.

I use to hunt for about 25 years, but gave up about 20 years ago as the area's to get into got fewer and harder and the number of hunters concentrated in the few areas left and made it just a pain in the a_ _.

Wai`anae Steve

[Gaston in Argentina]

(Dave from So-Cal @ Nov. 21 2007,21:48)

QUOTE

(Gaston in Argentina @ Nov. 21 2007,15:57)

QUOTE

Nice shots!

The same wild pigs live as wild here as introduced from Europe, and theres ones natives that are smaller.- Both use to live in the Trithrinax campestris forest and seems never be a trouble for the palms to develope neither for seedlings, just i know they like the palms fruits.-

I'll bet the palms are doing better than ever.

Those hogs, in that grand tradition, "pig out" on the seeds, and poop out (as we say) all over the place, to sprout in abundance.

UNless the hogs crush the seed, which I doubt.

I've heard they use Syagrus seed for hog feed in Brazil . . . .

How about Argentina?

dave

Dave.

The smaller wild pigs we call them "pecarì de collar or chancho del monte" are somewhat abundant living in grous of 20 or more,

Its funny to hunt them and tasty to eat them as bbk.-

In north Argentina and Brazil theres the "pecarì labiudo (of big lips)"

Both eat roots and love the palms fruits and the result is a sure germination of the seeds under that natural germination method...

Cheers. Gaston

[steve 9atx]

Tad

It's not just rural Texas anymore.  On my last fishing trip down your way, my client who I took fishin' invited me to his lease near Lake Houston (in the city limits BTW) for a pig hunt.  He said they have 120 acres, which, of course is solid pine forest.  I think they had a biologist estimate the hog population at something approaching 200 (including offspring)!  Their technique is to dump deer corn on the road for 30 yards or so and then wait until dark. Scores and scores of them come out to the road for a meal.  At that point, they turn on the Q-beams and start shootin'.  I didn't ask him if discharging a firearm in the city limits was a problem (usually a problem unless you're shootin' a burglar).  They shoot everything from .32 caliber pistols to black powder rifles just for the hell of it.  He said he's kept a few pigs over the years; but, they're so nasty they leave most of them to rot.  Not the best idea in my opinion because it just provides more and better quality food for the rest too dumb to find the deer corn.

Steve

[DoomsDave]

Hmm.

Dead hawgs are great fert, I'll bet like dead dawgs . . .

dave

[aussiearoids]

More pigs than people up here , and they are tottaly trashing lots of the rainforest and many farms also . Mates who hiked up an isolated mountain saw many native palms ripped out , 'walking stick palms' and severe erosion on steep slopes .

[EuroPalm]

Corsica island is full of these animals.

In winter I have everynight a tenth in my garden.

They plough it very efficiently.

Good meat if you take care of not hunting the older ones which are full of parasites (cysts).

Some people make saussages and ham with their meat but it is less tasty than with pork because hogs are less fat : they run all the day long.

Phil

[Tad]

ours here move mainly at night, right at or just after dark, and thye usually lay up in the eraly morning, I rarely see them during the day.