Hog Poisoning On The Horizon?
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The use of warfarin, a type of poison commonly used to kill rats was brought up in 2017 for feral hog population control with the introduction and eventual demise of the “Kaput Feral Hog Lure”.
A firestorm of controversy over the use of poisons on the Texas landscape along with other reported issues caused its quick dismissal.
An article written by Zach David, an agriculture and natural resources extension agent with Texas A&M AgriLife Extension in the Denton Record-Chronicle suggests there is a move to bring back some kind of toxic hog control method. In it he quotes Texas Farm Bureau Associate Legislative Director Harold Stone.
“A budget rider was proposed in the bill patterns for the Texas Department of Agriculture (TDA) and the Texas A&M AgriLife Extension Service that prohibits the use of warfarin-based feral hog toxicants that can be used to control the population growth of feral hogs. But we hope the budget rider will be deleted from the bill patterns of the appropriation bill for these agencies, and that will allow them to spend appropriation money to research and certify these products that can be used for feral hog control by landowners.”
At the time of this writing we could find no specific bill regarding warfarin or hog control but are reaching out to several legislators to find out more about this budgetary issue and how it could impact hog poisoning based research.
Field trials of another poison, sodium nitrite, have been conducted in Texas since warfarin was originally shot down.These were conducted by the USDA’s Wildlife Services (WS).
As part of the trials, WS places placebo bait into specially crafted bait stations designed to prevent access by non-target wildlife. Once confirmed with motion-activated cameras that feral swine are using the bait stations, WS replaces placebo baits with sodium nitrite toxic bait.
“Results from the first field trial in Texas showed the sodium nitrite bait was lethal to 70 percent of the feral swine in the vicinity of the bait stations and that no non-target species accessed the bait from the bait stations,” states Dr. Kurt VerCauteren, a WS Supervisory Research Wildlife Biologist. “The bait and the bait stations performed well, however we also observed that if feral swine dropped bait crumbs outside of the bait stations other species could eat the crumbs, causing a risk to non-target species. We documented in our environmental assessment that this could be a concern, and we know we can modify the bait form and consistency to lessen these risks.”
WS confirmed by trail cameras that no non-target species accessed the bait directly from bait stations. Only non-target animals (171 birds and 8 raccoons) that accessed crumbled, spilled bait dropped by feral swine were found dead near 14 bait sites. The primary bird species impacted included white-crowned sparrows and red-winged blackbirds.
What are your thoughts on hog poisoning? Post comments below.
TF&G Staff Reports
17 Comments
Feral hogs are a huge problem but I do not think that poisoning them, if other animals can get to the bait, is the best answer to the problem.
This is a mistake. I have answered the TP&W survey with suggestions on how to control the issue. I thought we squashed this bad idea.
Poisoning is NOT the answer and will be the root of many negative downstream effects within ecosystems. I sincerely hope whoever keeps clinging to this idea of using poisons will verse themselves in community ecology.
Absolutely the most horrible idea ever! I cannot believe that TPWD would even consider this. There is absolutely no way to keep other species from consuming the poison. Forget about it!!!
Hogs are not a problem when people are being charged hundreds of dollars to hunt them. If they were that much of a problem, land owners would be paying hunters to kill hogs.
Most people would love to have fresh hog meat, but can’t afford to get a lease because of horn hunters. Horn hunters don’t want to shoot pigs because it will scare the trophy deer away. Let people hunt for meat like god intended and we won’t have a hog problem!
If the poison kills other animals besides hogs. What would happen if a human kill a hog that had been poisoned and ate the meat. It would poison Hunters. They just need to put a bounty on hogs to decrease there population.
Sodium Nitrite is used to preserve the Bacon that we consume….. LSU did a massive multi year study on the use of Sodium Nitrite to reduce the Feral Hog problem….. it is worth the read….
That LSU study also showed that NO predators or scavengers or raptors or cattle or goats or deer were affected by the consumption of the sodium nitrite or the carcass of the dead hog and that the meat is SAFE for Human consumption … unlike Warfarin
Poison control is a terrible idea. I honestly can’t even believe this is on the table. Poison MIGHT work fine is areas where there’s an abundance of wildlife (as losing a few desirable animals to rid yourself of hundreds of hogs would be worth it), but it could destroy wildlife in areas where wild game populations are more scarce.
Hogs are everywhere, but Whitetail, Axis, & Turkey numbers vary greatly across the state. Not worth the risk!
A massive multi-year LSU study showed that NO predators or scavengers or raptors or cattle or goats or deer were affected by the consumption of the sodium nitrite or the carcass of the dead hog and that the meat is SAFE for Human consumption … unlike Warfarin
What could possibly go wrong, like anything that eats the Dead animals that have been poisoned are also killed.
Not according to the LSU study on sodium nitrite as a hog poison ….. it is a good read.
That LSU study also showed that NO predators or scavengers or raptors or cattle or goats or deer were affected by the consumption of the sodium nitrite or the carcass of the dead hog and that the meat is SAFE for Human consumption … unlike Warfarin
Sodium nitrite is used in preserving the very Bacon that WE eat
Hogs are a serious problem causing millions of dollars of property loss, tearing up equipment and land destruction every year. They have surpassed the numbers where they can be controlled by trapping or hunting and need to be poisoned to reduce the population.
Hard to believe educated wildlife managers would consider such a ridiculous idea. Give me a break this is the best the good folks at TAMU can come up with? What a disgrace. Maybe someone should reach out to UT. All kidding aside it is a crime to except collateral damage when targeting a specific species. Where are your morals..
TAMU is not proposing using poison, they are advocating against it.
You must not be aware of the damage the feral hogs can do…. Back in 2007 , I killed a feral hog that went over 500 lbs , it took 4 shots from my 270 ….. and he was but 1 of 20+ hogs in that herd. On another place I witnessed 1 herd of 40+ wild hogs on 1 side of the place and counted 60+ in another herd on the other side of the place…… you can NOT throw enough lead at them to make a difference…. and this place had 17 hunters on it.
I attended an AG CEU meeting early in 2020 and one of the Biologists said that a farm up near Waco had called him for help on what to do with his hog problem….. in 1 night the hogs had Destroyed over 40 acres of planted corn….
LSU has a huge study on the use of sodium nitrite on feral hogs and it is worth the read…. the LSU study showed that hogs lacked the enzyme to process the sodium nitrite in their blood system which keeps their blood from absorbing oxygen …. with no oxygen in their blood system, the hogs get sleepy and go to sleep and never wake up ….. the LSU study also showed that NO predators or scavengers or raptors or cattle or goats were affected by the consumption of the sodium nitrite or the carcass of the dead hog and that the meat is SAFE for Human consumption …
Sodium nitrite is used in preserving the very Bacon that WE eat
Hunting them is fine if you want to spend countless nights hunting them when they come out after dusk and before dawn…. and I have done it…… but you can not throw enough lead at them when they are coming out in herds of 20-30+ animals at a time….
Feral hogs are an invasive species, much like the python now inhabiting much of south Florida. Sodium nitrite is a humane and effective means of controlling them. Anyone that would object to this type of control mechanism just simply does not understand the magnitude of the feral swine problem in the southern United States.