There’s two types of landowners in Oklahoma,
those that have feral hogs and those that will.
If you don't know if you have a feral hogs,
some easy ways to determine if you do have feral hogs
are look for some of their signs such as rooting,
rubbing of trees or posts,
wallowing,
tracks,
or feces.
So feral hogs tend to root in more introduced pastureland systems
such as bermudagrass and Johnsongrass.
Here is an example a small area where wild pigs or feral hogs have rooted.
This is in bermudagrass pasture,
which many landowners rely upon for forage for livestock
or as a hay meadow, again, for forage for livestock during winter.
You can see how the wild pigs or feral hogs have come in
and rooted up this spot.
We don't know for certain,
but what we feel like what wild pigs or feral hogs are after in areas like this
that they root in bermudagrass pastures
or monocultures of bermudagrass or Johnsongrass
are the bermudagrass plant itself.
You see where they've they've kind of lifted up the soil here
and disturbed this bermudagrass pasture, creating this opening.
And we think they’re after
the bermudagrass plant parts such as this between my hands.
This is a bermudagrass rhizome
and we think that's what the wild pigs are trying to eat.
Here’s an example of a bermudagrass rhizome that's been snipped off.
And you can see, compared to where they stopped rooting here
with all the soil still intact at the roots,
they’ve knocked a lot of the soil off
and have eaten a lot of the rhizomes off this portion of the bermudagrass plant.
‘Course, no doubt they’re also after grubs and other insects that occur in the soil
associated with these bermudagrass meadows.
But you can see, too, this is pretty deep.
The soil surface is probably about right here,
so it's about six- or eight-inch depression here that the wild pigs have rooted up.
You get these scattered – these divots – these big giant divots scattered all over your property
it makes it extremely rough to run hay equipment over the meadow.
Plus, just to drive over to check livestock or whatever else,
whatever other chores that landowners may need to be doing
as they’re driving across their pasture.
So, that's a big problem.
And these ...
This one, like I said, is about a six-inch depth.
But, depending on the soil type and the severity of the rooting,
they can easily reach depths of three feet.
This is a good example of wild pig rubbing.
As you can see on this tree,
they rubbed up against it to remove some of their external parasites.
If this is a tree of high economic value, such as a pecan tree,
there could be a lot of damage.
Wallowing is a big issue with feral hogs.
They don’t have any sweat glands,
so they have to get in the mud and the water to cool themselves down.
They also wallow to remove external parasites.
This is a good example of an area where pigs have wallowed.
It was originally a livestock feeding station.
But feral hogs began rooting in the area and then rainfall collected.
Once the area was muddy, the pigs started to use it as a wallow.
After wallowing, the hogs go to the pole to rub off external parasites.
You can see the indention on the pole where the pigs have rubbed.
This area also has a potential to transmit diseases left behind by pigs.
So this probably isn't a good spot to fill up your canteen.
It’s sometimes difficult to tell the difference between a track of a wild pig
and the track of a whitetail deer. They're very similar.
This track is of a whitetail deer.
You see kind of size scale here with the pocketknife I’ve layed down.
The whitetail deer track, overall, is kind of heart-shaped,
where each hoof contacts the soil there and leaves a heart-shaped kind of a print.
That’s one of the keys that you look for …
is the overall shape of the track compared to a wild pig track.
A wild pig track is more square in appearance, which we’ll see in just a minute.
As compared to a whitetail deer track,
you can see by this feral hog track or wild pig track that it’s more square in shape.
Roughly about the same length as the whitetail deer track was,
but the toes are more rounded and the track is overall square shaped,
as opposed to the heart-shaped and pointed toes of a whitetail deer.
Another way to tell you have feral hogs on your property is by their scat or the feces.
The scat looks a lot like dog feces.
Feral hog scat typically is pretty tubular.
However, depending on what they've been eating,
it can be more flat or different colors,
because a lot of the plant material, and animal material,
passes through the hog into the scat.
So, for instance,
you can tell if they've been eating your bait pile at the trap site.
The first step to solving your feral hog problem
is to recognize the signs that they're on the property
In future videos, we’ll discuss trapping and other control techniques
for removing feral hog populations on your land.