Texas Parks and Wildlife says East Texas has some of the most dense wild hog populations in the state, and they tear up yards and ruin crops every year.  Controlling the feral hog population is about to get real.  Real messy.  See what population control method Texas approved this week.

This week, Texas Agriculture Secretary Sid Miller approved the use of a pesticide to aggressively kill feral hogs. It's poison called Kaput Feral Hog Lure and it's used as bait food, but it's laced with warfarin, which is the same chemical in rat poison.

Some hunters would rather have a crack at the wild hogs themselves, rather than watch them die from the poison.  There's a petition circulating now that asks the state to turn hunters loose on the feral population and it's got thousands of signatures.

 

About 2.5 million feral hogs are roaming around in Texas, costing farmers and property owners 50-million dollars in damage each year. Seen 'em?  If they're tearing up your stuff, you probably want something to be done, like right now.  Is poison the right answer?

Texas Parks and Wildlife says feral hogs love the piney forests in East Texas and much of the state's wild pig population lives here.

What do they eat anyway?  Things like grasses, acorns, fruits, bulbs and mushrooms. They'll also eat insects, snails, earthworms, some frogs, and dead animals, and maybe a bird or two.  Oh, and they'll snack on watermelon, rice, wheat, soybeans, peanuts, potatoes, watermelons and cantaloupe.  In other words, they can sniff out your next backyard barbecue.

By poisoning the hogs, some are worried that it will upset the whole ecosystem, because all of the dead hogs will create massive amounts of waste for buzzards.  And what if other animals get ahold of the poison?

Texas loves its bacon, but not the feral hogs so much.  So let's hope something solves the problem.

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