Feral hogs still a big problem even though the U.S. has spent more than $31.5 million trying to eradicate them

An feral hog trots with her piglets near the Buffalo
National River in Arkansas. (National Park Service)

Phrases like "pig warfare," "swine bomb" and "pig hunter" have become common vernacular in the battle of the U.S. Farmer vs. Feral Hogs. "But despite more than $100 million in federal money, an estimated 6 million to 9 million feral swine still ravage the landscape nationwide. They tear up planted fields, wallowing out huge bare depressions," reports The Associated Press. "They out-eat deer and turkeys — and also eat turkey eggs and even fawns. They carry parasites and disease and pollute streams and rivers with their feces."

The U.S. program to control feral hogs is on its eighth year and in some states, the prolific pigs are winning the battle. AP writes, "Adam McLendon, whose family farms about 8,000 acres of peanuts, corn and cotton in several counties in southwestern Georgia, estimates feral pigs have cost them more than $100,000 a year for the past 15 years. . . . The U.S. Department of Agriculture's National Feral Swine Damage Management Program has received $31.5 million since it began in 2014."

Research is being done to poison wild hogs with substances that will not harm other animals such as birds and squirrels. For now, the primary mitigation is done with aerial shooting, remote traps and some hunting. Not all states allow feral hog hunting, "Derek Chisum, who grows peanuts, cotton and wheat in Hydro, Oklahoma, figures he has killed 120 to 150 a year since Oklahoma did so three years ago."

California, Oklahoma, Texas and Florida have been hit hard by feral hogs. Mike Bodenchuk, state director for United States Department of Agriculture's Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service told AP, "In Texas, the APHI is targeting areas with the worst damage, teaching landowners how to continue the work after Farm Bill projects end in 2023, and leaving resources such as loaner traps -- each $7,000 or more -- to help . . . Even using this approach, we won't have the resources to eradicate pigs in Texas in my lifetime."