“I think people expect this to be a rural problem,” Texas Agriculture Commissioner Todd Staples said Thursday in Irving, where the city has captured nearly 250 feral hogs since October when they first were discovered roaming around. “This shows that in rural and urban Texas … the lines that divide us are fewer and fewer.”

For years wild hogs have been a menace in rural areas by shredding crop fields, eating calves and damaging fruit trees – even breaking through barbed-wire fences, said Texas Farm Bureau spokesman Gene Hall. They also wreck ecosystems by wallowing in riverbeds and streams. “They can do more damage than a bulldozer,” Hall said.

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According to Texas AgriLife Extension, the Texas Legislature provided $1 million for feral hog abatement to the Texas Department of Agriculture for the 2008-09 Biennium. That money was provided through a grant to Texas AgriLife Extension Services-Wildlife Services program to conduct statewide abatement projects for a 2-year period, from March 1, 2008 through Feb. 28, 2010.

The AgriLife Website states, “The overall damage from feral hogs has been variously estimated anywhere from $50 to $500 per hog per year.”

It also states that during the first year of the grant, Texas AgriLife Extension Services-Wildlife Services removed 24,350 feral hogs. During the second year of the project, they removed 23,057 feral hogs for a total of 47,407 feral hogs during the grant period. The average cost per hog removal during the 2-year project was $19.69 per hog.

According to Texas AgriLife Extension Publication L-1925 “Managing Feral Hog Damage,” control methods used to manage a feral hog problem include using snares, live traps, hunting with dogs and shooting them are all effective methods used to control hogs. It states that through various research demonstrations, live traps have shown to be one of the most effective ways to capture wild hogs. Residents are encouraged to consult with an experienced professional or County Extension Agent for the most practical trap designs when necessary. Additional information is available at the Grimes County Extension Office.

“This is an ongoing problem throughout the State. We’re so close to the Navasota River, we just want people to know they (wild hogs) are dangerous, and to call the police department or animal control (if a wild boar is spotted),” said Stribling who is leaving the trap at the pantry for a few extra weeks as a precaution.

Every year, wild hogs do tens of thousands of dollars to area golf courses. They emerge at night to search for water and food in the soft soil the courses provide. In the morning, course superintendents are charged with repairing the damage they leave behind.

“I’ll send four people out and they may spend six hours just repairing hog damage,” said Dean Gleason, superintendent of Briggs Ranch Golf Course. “If you include labor costs and materials, if we have to go and buy sod … you’re looking at anywhere over $10,000 to $15,000 extra a year.”

The Briggs Ranch Course goes to great lengths to try to control the population. They have set traps around the course, and they have a hunter who hunts the grounds year-round and takes as many hogs as he can off the property.

“We’ve even gone to the extremes of getting a guy with a helicopter and shooting them out of a helicopter, ” Gleason said.

Despite the efforts of the staff at Briggs Ranch, the course is under constant attack from the hogs.

“There are times when we had 11 … in one trap, ” Gleason said.

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