In addition, they tend to collapse the riparian area of any waterway. coli and other diseases are a potential hazard as the pigs root along the banks. The potential damage the hogs cause to waterways has only increased over the years as various herds return to the same areas. Our calls for service seem to slow during summer." Dickey says his traps are now mostly set up in rural parts of the state that have a natural water supply. "I can only suspect the hogs have moved away from the outskirts of Houston and further into the countryside. He says that's been the case with his clients in the Houston area. As the temperature rises the hogs move towards larger water supplies to regulate their body temperature.Įdward Dickey is a trapper with Texas Wild Hog Control. This is often when trappers and called in to remove them from neighborhoods. During the colder months they often invade communities looking for watered lawns to forge for food. Predicting their movement patterns is not an exact science but they have some definite habits: they are drawn to water. There are an estimated 2.6 million feral hogs in Texas. It also doesn't include the cost landowners incur from keeping feral hogs off their property. That estimate doesn't include damage to natural resources and wildlife. The damage is hard to calculate but conservative estimates are $500 million in agriculture losses alone from feral hogs. For us to make an impact on wild pig populations we are going to have to continue to engage landowners and honestly landowners are the ones who are bearing the brunt of these wild pigs." "Texas is a majority privately owned state. His job is to help educate landowners about the feral hog problem while giving them the latest information on eradication efforts. We are also going to see them go nocturnal," said James Long, the project coordinator for the Texas A&M Natural Resources Institute. ![]() "As we get hotter here in Texas, we are going to see more hog activity be centrally located around those water sources. The bad news is they are moving into waterways across the state increasing the chance for contamination. The good news on the feral hog front is that most of the pigs are moving out of communities and neighborhoods as the temperature starts to rise. Edward Dickey Texas Wild Hog Control’s Edward Dickey with a captured wild hog.
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