Deer Hunters Face Unwanted Competition

[RobSky]

http://www.foxnews.com/us/2016/03/3...ition-as-feral-hog-explosion-thins-herds.html

Hope they don't make it to MD.

 

[outrider58]

If Md was wise(yeah, right) she would have laws already in place to deal directly and immediately with feral pigs.

 

[Doctor_M]

Not saying that the feral hog explosion is a good thing (it isn't)... but...

Venison = good
Pork = VERY GOOD.

 

[Uncle Duke]

Only a matter of time for Maryland.

Wasn't that long ago that coyotes were unheard of in Maryland also.

 

[pbharvey]

I had read somewhere that occasionally a feral hog is spotted in far western maryland.

 

[44man]

I like pork better than venison so let them come. I am sure they will issue crop damage permits for them also.

 

[Mickey the Dragon]

I like pork better than venison so let them come. I am sure they will issue crop damage permits for them also.

The difference is in the level of crop damage that feral hogs will do versus deer. Deer will graze on the crops, but feral hogs will destroy an entire field. Add to that the fact that hogs breed much faster and are much more adaptable to different environments and you get a nuisance species that no one should want to introduce, no matter how much we love bacon.

 

[44man]

The difference is in the level of crop damage that feral hogs will do versus deer. Deer will graze on the crops, but feral hogs will destroy an entire field. Add to that the fact that hogs breed much faster and are much more adaptable to different environments and you get a nuisance species that no one should want to introduce, no matter how much we love bacon.

I have had deer eat entire fields. I have had 50-60 deer in fields grazing at one time. I shoot those effing cockroaches every chance I get. I have lost tens of thousands of dollars to deer, so like I said, let them come, I could care less. I am sure they are tasty.

 

[Alea Jacta Est]

The worst thing a deer can do to most of us is be hit by our car or eat our hostas or azaleas. (44man et al farmers not included)

A hog or a bunch of them will not only root up fields of crops, they will flat tear you or your animals up if and when they decide you're in their way. Make no mistake, those cutters will open up a person or a dog just like a sharp knife. That and they just won't stop. They are crazy once they get going.

Great to shoot. Great to eat (if not hopped up on testosterone). Awful to have in your AOR.

Not to be looked forward to. You want this one to be a road/away game...

 

[Mr. Ed]

Free range BACON!

 

[44man]

The worst thing a deer can do to most of us is be hit by our car or eat our hostas or azaleas. (44man et al farmers not included)

A hog or a bunch of them will not only root up fields of crops, they will flat tear you or your animals up if and when they decide you're in their way. Make no mistake, those cutters will open up a person or a dog just like a sharp knife. That and they just won't stop. They are crazy once they get going.

Great to shoot. Great to eat (if not hopped up on testosterone). Awful to have in your AOR.

Not to be looked forward to. You want this one to be a road/away game...

I am not looking forward to them but I cant worry about them any more than I do about deer. hell deer cause me to lose sleep on a regular basis.

I can remember being VERY young and my grand dad and his brothers would tell stories about wild boars here in southern Maryland. apparently they killed dogs and people alike. but they got eaten up.

 

[Alea Jacta Est]

I am not looking forward to them but I cant worry about them any more than I do about deer. hell deer cause me to lose sleep on a regular basis.

I can remember being VERY young and my grand dad and his brothers would tell stories about wild boars here in southern Maryland. apparently they killed dogs and people alike. but they got eaten up.

Yeah man. Them hogs were not a first world problem... They still ain't.

Call them feral. Call them primal. In the chain of predators, they're occupying a spot where they get my respect.

When you go to them, it's a sport. When they've come to you (in numbers), it borders on survival.

 

[BigSteve57]

I have had deer eat entire fields. I have had 50-60 deer in fields grazing at one time. I shoot those effing cockroaches every chance I get. I have lost tens of thousands of dollars to deer, so like I said, let them come, I could care less. I am sure they are tasty.

My wife's family were dairy farmers and between the deer, raccoons & groundhogs it was a wonder they had anything left. Even with stamps from PA Game Commission for deer damage it never seemed like enough to make a dent.

Re the bold: Need some help?

 

[Mickey the Dragon]

I have had deer eat entire fields. I have had 50-60 deer in fields grazing at one time. I shoot those effing cockroaches every chance I get. I have lost tens of thousands of dollars to deer, so like I said, let them come, I could care less. I am sure they are tasty.

The good news is that they will compete directly with the local deer population for resources, so your deer problem will likely be reduced.

http://www.smithsonianmag.com/science-nature/a-plague-of-pigs-in-texas-73769069/?all

 

[JOESTEELER]

This truly is a small farmers nightmare!

 

[BigSteve57]

Yeah man. Them hogs were not a first world problem... They still ain't.

Call them feral. Call them primal. In the chain of predators, they're occupying a spot where they get my respect.

When you go to them, it's a sport. When they've come to you (in numbers), it borders on survival.

It's going to take someone's kid or some hiker getting gored or killed for anyone to notice. Listen to farmers or landowners? Nah. All they're good for in MD is taxes.

 

[44man]

Yeah man. Them hogs were not a first world problem... They still ain't.

Call them feral. Call them primal. In the chain of predators, they're occupying a spot where they get my respect.

When you go to them, it's a sport. When they've come to you (in numbers), it borders on survival.

I remember a story my grand dad told me about his brother. the hogs got after him in a corn field by the orchard and got him on the ground and cut his leg all to pieces. he got away just long enough to climb a bigger apple tree and was treed like a coon all night. he used his belt as a turnaqit to keep from bleeding to death and they found him mid morning the next day. they said it took him months to recover. when that old man would get drunk he would drop his pants and show you the scars. but such are old stories.

 

[Mickey the Dragon]

It's going to take someone's kid or some hiker getting gored or killed for anyone to notice. Listen to farmers or landowners? Nah. All they're good for in MD is taxes.

It probably won't take anything that extreme. While whitetail deer are a nuisance for farmers and landowners, their still a native species and capable of coexisting peacefully within the ecosystem. Feral hogs are a complete menace to native flora and fauna, and as such they earn the hatred of anyone managing state or federal natural areas and parks. It might take more than one or two sightings to get people fired up, but a species threatening Greenridge, the Antietam Battlefield, and all of your state parks will definitely get the attention of lawmakers and the DNR. Heck, even in Ohio (where the feral hog population isn't that bad) they've created a state-wide open season against feral hogs, with no limitations on things like night vision, lights, and permitted firearms. And every naturalist in affected areas has already enacted systems for baiting and trapping to help control the spread of the population.

 

[Alea Jacta Est]

I remember a story my grand dad told me about his brother. the hogs got after him in a corn field by the orchard and got him on the ground and cut his leg all to pieces. he got away just long enough to climb a bigger apple tree and was treed like a coon all night. he used his belt as a turnaqit to keep from bleeding to death and they found him mid morning the next day. they said it took him months to recover. when that old man would get drunk he would drop his pants and show you the scars. but such are old stories.

Yeah man.

My GrandPa had a farm in Suffolk that I grew up hunting and fishing on. His stories were pretty good. No hogs but stories of scraping by and cheating hunger and death from time to time.

Before he died, he said... "You know what's the matter with kids today? They don't even know what to be afraid of." That was 1976, shortly before his death.

I can't imagine him looking around at society today.

Folks were tougher in the old days. They also had their survival instincts better tuned.

The only way I look forward to hog at my house is on a spit ir in the ground. Turns out, they're literally just over the big ridge maybe four miles away...

I'd prefer them to the denizens of downtown though. While them hogs are similarly lethal and without moral or ethical bounds, I can kill them without worrying about an article in the paper or arrest or lawsuit or marches on downtown. They're a recognized danger. They can be dealt with appropriately and without consequence. The other animals, not so much.

 

[fscwi]

Bait and trap, put a bounty on them.