Released October 29, 2008
COLLEGE STATION -- Ah, fall weather, harvest season, the heralding of cooler nights, evening showers and – feral hogs in the city!
Feral hogs continue to root up pastures and crops, according to Texas AgriLife Extension Service reports from around the state. Moreover, reports of hogs making sorties into small and large towns are becoming more common.
Billy Higginbotham, AgriLife Extension fisheries and wildlife specialist based in Overton, has received reports of feral hogs digging up cemeteries, stripping fruit trees, plowing up golf courses, destroying suburban home lawns and devastating open hospital grounds.
A feral-hog population explosion and suburban expansion are most likely reasons for the increased incidences of hogs in the city, he said.
"They're not just in the country anymore," Higginbotham said.
For example, in Nacogdoches County, AgriLife Extension agent Chad Gulley said calls to his office about feral hogs have been increasing during the last year.
"I've been getting the usual calls from producers about hogs rooting up pastures, but of late I've been getting more calls from people in the city (Nacogdoches) about hogs."
Gulley said the calls were not limited to homeowners on the outskirts of the city, but close to downtown as well.
"In rural areas, we have more options for control," Gulley said. "But ordinances prohibit discharging firearms inside the city limits."
In Anderson County the city of Palestine has become the "poster child for urban feral hog damage," said Mark Price, AgriLife Extension agent.
As in Nacogdoches, hogs are making inroads to within a couple of blocks of the courthouse, he said. "They use drainage ditches or railroad tracks to travel. They also have been struck (by cars) crossing the loop," he said.
Control has become a political issue because of the expense and liability issues.
Meanwhile, Price said, local doctors are turning up the heat after the animals started tearing up hospital grounds. Hospital administrators complain about expensive damage to the landscapes and worry about patients or staff encountering hogs in the parking lot late at night. "It's amazing how much damage these animals can do overnight," Price said.
--30--
http://agnews.tamu.edu/showstory.php?id=806
Contact: Robert Burns, 903-834-6191,rd-burns@tamu.edu
