The hogs are back...at least at the front of the property.
"J" from 2nd Family sent this image to us. She bought a trailcam after seeing our pictures and put it in her yard. This is from her front yard porch looking toward the carport.
She captured images of these feral hogs roaming around in her front yard.
The next day, she found this part of her yard rooted up. There were some large stones that they overturned, looking for grubs and stuff we presume.
A week or so later she moved the camera to the back of the house and captured these in the backyard.
She said nothing was rooted around in the yard this time as the ground is pretty hard (we're drought-ish again) and so there isn't a lot for them to get to.
This part of the back of their house is about 2 acres from our front yard fence so we'll have to keep a close eye on things. Again, it's been 10 days since this photo and they haven't seen them since. Last weekend, we checked around thoroughly and we didn't have any issues either. Hopefully the dry ground is making them move elsewhere.
Here the hogs are never really gone and out of site out of mind does not work. They always come back. Sometimes a few sometimes a bunch. The last I was was in the field across the County Road from us. A male with 3 females and about 20 young. Interesting one female and a bunch of the young were black and white in color which indicates they have maded with domestic pigs along the way. Just be prepared. When you least expect it you will go out one morning and everything will be torn up in your yard. And be careful. The males will attack if they feel you are a threat to the young ones. Watch your pets, especially at night when you are tempted to just let them out to do their business and not check first.
ReplyDeleteYikes, thanks for the heads up. Interesting that they mated with domestic pigs, on one of the videos the camera took (this was at night) it looked like a few were black and white. We've heard they can be dangerous. I'll be careful when I'm mowing.
DeleteThat’s a lot of wild hogs at 2nd Family’s house! It might be time for a pork BBQ.
ReplyDeleteOooooh ... I smell a hog roast!
DeleteLOL, that would be good, but I think they aren't edible are they?
DeleteYes. They are completelyy edible. They need to be handled according to the guidelines. I ate wild boar at a very fancy castle in Reading. It was served with a wild berry sauce.
DeleteThat is a lot of wild hogs. They are dangerous so be careful.
ReplyDeleteThank you, yes we know they can be crazy aggressive. It's so weird that in in all these years, we've never seen one and 2nd Family has been out there more than 20 years and never saw them. Maybe developments are pushing them our direction.
DeleteI would certainly not go out in the dark to do anything.
ReplyDeleteYeah, the last couple of times we spend the night out there were before these showed up and I never gave it a second thought. Then we got hot weather and didn't spend the night out there since they've been showing up. Now it's cold so probably not there either but next year, we'll see how it goes. :-)
DeleteWe found if you shot one the others leave for a while, but they will come back. It is very hard to get rid of them, they multiply so fast. If you know how to cook them the young ones can be very good.
ReplyDeleteThanks, will have to remember that.
DeleteNot Good.
ReplyDeleteThey need to have Feral Hog hunts like they have rattlesnake hunts; butcher the hogs and donate the meat to organizations and the poor.
Good idea, they do that in Mississippi.
DeleteWe're on Nextdoor out there, will have to see if anyone is talking about them.
DeleteIn Alabama there is no season on feral hogs and they can be taken any time of the year. I understand 30 pound (or under) feral hogs are quite tasty, but have no personal experience with it.
ReplyDeleteIf it was edible, we'd be definitely want to keep some and/or share. thanks for the info!
DeleteThey will be back. The sows seem to first attempt to herd the young to safety, but not much matches momma sow for being dangerous when her young ones are squealing for help. I think I'd put them on the same level as momma moose or bears.
ReplyDeleteDomesticated sows are bad enough, wild ones...fierce.
I vaguely remember my Dad talking about some cousins in Texas that had started a wild hog hunting (or was it trapping?) business and selling the meat. I've lost contact so have no idea if they still do that.
Wow, that's scary, but thanks for the heads up too. There was, sadly, a woman killed by feral hogs (the other side of Houston) last year as I recall. One of the rare deaths but they mentioned that attacks happen more and more often.
DeleteThere is open season here in Florida year-round. You can shoot them and just let them in the field. The big ones can be very dangerous. The sows can have 3 litters a year of 12 to 14 piglets and the pigs start having babies at 4 months.
ReplyDeleteNo wonder they can multiply so fast. That's like rabbits, ha. We're doing some research on groups that can take care of them.
DeleteThere's a problem of parasites in the meat
ReplyDeletePeople catch little ones here and raise them to BBQ size and roast them. A lot of people eat them here in different ways with no problems. In Miss. they are killed and donated to the poor and usually have a waiting list of people that need meat. Different areas may have parasites, we have no problem here.
DeleteDidn't know about that but will research it. And I've heard that in Louisiana they do that as well but you're right, maybe different areas have different issues. Or maybe as EllieK said, the small ones are safe. We'll see what we can find out. Thanks for the info!
DeleteMy daughter cooks the ham in the oven, but she first makes small slits all over it and stuffs garlic cloves in each one, cover it with foil and makes sure the internal temp. gets up to 165 or 70. I eat it and have used the ground sausage from them. When my granddaughter was 14, she brought down a nice size sow with a cross bow. The family have hunting land in Georgia and spend a lot of weekends there in hunting season.
DeleteYum!!! Thanks for this. Hope y'all are doing better in FL. The company 2nd Man works for gathered up supplies for relief and we donated lots of bottled water, canned goods and some clothing from when we cleaned out some closets. So many people helped Houston after Harvey, it was nice to pay it forward.
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