Hog Control?

Just throwing this out there, Because, really. Greece.

That's right. The country. Got a friend out there. Lives on some island. Can't remember the name now. Probably something ending with 'os.

Anyway, Wild Boar swam over from the mainland. Not that long ago, as far as I know. Of course, a year or two down the line? I mean, I get the impression this place isn't exactly as big as Australia. And, yeah. Hades.

Central govt basically useless. Diana just got back to me. Said she'd suggested to Central;

" How about digging water holes, for the Summer. Then, putting hides around them and shooting the hoages from them? "

Central liked that idea. I remembered all the vid's I'd seen. Of you guys; Helicopters. Machine guns. Tracer.

And, I think to myself; 'Bet they wish they'd thought of water holes and little hides.'

Seriously though. She's barking, isn't she? I mean, these things are switched on, aren't they? Don't stand around, like Bison. Doubt any survivors would go near that water again, would they?

Wasn't sure what to say to her. I believe I've got the impression you lads like these big, round Drop Traps? Cheaper than choppers.

Thoughts?

They get wise to everything from traps to bait sites after a while. I have multiple sites set up when we start getting pics and seeing sign.
Catch or kill off the entire sounder! And then hope the next one that moves in isn’t educated and you can do it again. Unfortunately I don’t think you can eliminate pigs. We will have them for months and then after a lot of killing they’ll disappear for a month or two, but they always come back.
On an island things might be a little easier trying to get rid of them, but I doubt it.

Are these the native Eurasian wild boar or feral domestic stock? Laws may vary for each but I would guess trapping for each would be pretty much the same, maybe some differences in sounder size and behavior/wariness.

Go to youtube and look up jagerpro. That's Rod Pinkston's outfit out of Columbus, GA. He pretty much wrote the book on hog removal programs. He's a former special operator and member of the Army Marksman Unit and set out to apply military operational doctrine to the task. Specifically the scouting and surveillance part of gathering as much Intel as possible to better defeat the enemy as efficiently as possible and to get them all.

And he's not shy about sharing what he's learned so watch his videos. He outlines the entire process of scouting cameras, baiting, identifying each individual pig and sounder, noting individual behaviors and then using that to place traps where they will be most effective and conditioning them to the trap site before he thinks about triggering the trap. The idea is the get the whole sounder inside the trap before triggering. Reason, pigs are as smart if not smarter than dogs and a spooked pig won't enter a trap.

Shooting is never the first option and often the worst option if it scatters sounders or makes them go nocturnal.

I just watched a documentary on the Galápago islands and their feral goat problem left there by sailors years ago , eating the ecosystem to nothing and causing loss for other native wildlife like their famous tortoises.

They tried everything , hunters , machine gunning from choppers even called in the military. Problem was with no preditors even leaving a few behind and they would repopulate very quickly and they needed to get them all.

They came up with a good solution. After knocking the population down they live caught a bunch of goats and fitted them with radio collars and released them. The radio collared goats went and met up with the goats that were hiding giving away their position to the airal gunners who would shoot the non-collared goats.

It worked very well.

And that’s where thermals come into play, lol. Shoot’em day and night.

Yep. That's, certainly, something I picked up along the line.

And, they sneak off, then come back? Oh, this is gonna make her day! Heh! Her husband and her are out there, literally, banging pots and pans together. That is, while they're not trying to rebuild the stone walls, destroyed on a regular basis.

Their govt's First idea was a belter! : Simply leave them alone, so they'd breed and breed, till they all Starved! And this from a country that once spawned some of the greatest Thinkers of all time. I think they've slipped a bit, there.

So, yeah. Basically, they'd may as well just learn to welcome their new, porcine, over lords. Wow. Pretty much what I'd figured, actually.

Thanks.

Blazes! Wanna Be's was the only reply, then! I was about to turn in.

Back, tomorrow, lads.

Thanks, all!

the other option is everyone carries a gun and shoots one every time the see one and some local recipes develop around them.

you should sell that idea and see how fast the jump on eradication

Yup, but ideally it's clean up of the few boars or smart ones that weren't in the sounder when the door dropped.

But as you said, I don't think we'll ever shoot the very last one in any of our lifetimes. There's always more to replace the ones that get taken out.

As far as I'm aware? These are Boar. I was going to say; 'Horrible. Scary things that run very fast.' But, then I've seen plenty of just such things on those videos!

Good point, about the possible behavioural differences.




Fair play to the guy who dreamed That one up! Dunno if pigs would behave the same as goats though?




Yeah. Bit of an 'If Only'. Unfortunately. I really have no idea about the rules and regulations in Greece. I don't even, in all honesty, remember what she's said about it all. The Hunters came out with some reason why Their hands were tied. The Govt? Well, seems like Their responses ... fjb.

Anyway, yeah. I don't think the locals are even allowed to intervene, in honesty. Beyond banging pots.




There's a soul destroying thought, isn't it?! I'd never even clicked that! Oh, lawd! Of course! Just, somehow, manage to miraculously clear the very last one up. Ye little island's rid of them.

Then, the camera pans, wave level, towards ye island. And the Jaws music plays

An island, depending on size, number and effort is the better location to get them all.

Here they were able to clear Ossabow Island but it's a barrier island off the coast and there was huge interest in getting as that population has some unique genetics. Ossabow pigs get diabetes when fed a normal hog diet. It's believed they developed to survive on a meager diet on the island.