Deer season has closed, duck season is closing and the spring turkey season doesn't open for two months.

What is a hunter to do?

Wild hogs.

At last check they haven't gone away. Nor is there a season. In other words they are the perfect excuse to stay in the woods until the mosquitoes show up again in a couple months.

Statewide there are an estimated 1.5 to 2 million pigs. Because of the difficulty in counting them, the number could be higher. Much higher. And they have no redeeming value. Texas AgriLife Extension Service estimates they cause more than $50 million in damage to farming and ranching operations. The damage comes from seed being eaten as soon as it is placed in the ground or crops uprooted as they become established. The pigs will tear up pastures rooting for bugs and in East Texas have even attacked sweet potato fields and young pine plantations.

Steve Knight"On Alazan Bayou we planted a bunch of long leaf (pine) seedlings. They took out several rows of our seedlings overnight. Our seedlings were gone. Not just uprooted, but gone," recalled Gary Calkins, Texas Parks and Wildlife Department district wildlife biologist from Jasper.

That isn't all. The pigs' impact on wildlife populations includes a diet overlap for the acorns eaten by deer, turkey and squirrels, as well a depredation of nests and possibly more.

"The worst there is is on wild turkey (nests). There is nothing quantifiable, but I suspect they are hurting the fawn crop in some areas, too. With turkeys there is no doubt, and if you could find a quail in this country it would be the same problem as there is with turkeys," Calkins said.

He added that when the discussions turn to wildlife conflicts with wild pigs the talk invariably shifts to deer and turkey, but he added there are neotropicalbirds that also nest on the ground around the state that could be vulnerable to the pigs.

And then there is the human/wild pig conflict that is most noticeable in highway accidents.

Since wild pigs are not a game species in Texas there is no restriction on how they are hunted. Some hunters stick with a rifle. Others like to bow hunt for them while in some portions of the state, including Southeast Texas, running them with dogs is popular.

I have taken pigs with a rifle when they showed up. I have also taken them with a crossbow while still hunting across an East Texas hunting club.

I remember one particular hunt in which my hunting companion, an avid bow hunter, was convinced we were on a wild hog chase until I slipped up on a herd and made a 20-plus yard killing shot with the crossbow. He was immediately hooked, grabbed the bow and took off across a knee-deep slough for the remaining members of the sounder.

"They are so hard to hunt," Calkins said. "They are not an animal that is going to have a pattern like a deer. They love corn and if don't mind sacrificing your corn, you can leave your feeders going."

Sour grain, flavored with a strawberry or raspberry gelatin, may also help bring the pigs in where acorns still exist.

Calkins said he believes hunters will have a better chance of finding hogs by attempting to slip up on a herd while walking the woods.

"I think this is one place where classic hunting still works the best. Go slow and listen. Work with the wind in your face. Just go out there and look for him," the biologist recommended.

Calkins added he has had his best success hunting just before dark and in a transition area from a clear cut into an older plantation or just a young plantation to an older one.

"Just where there is some kind of an edge is where I find them," he said.

With extended winter weather arriving in East Texas, Calkins said the pigs should be becoming more active.

"They ought to start kicking up their activity. The acorns are starting to play out, it is cold and we are getting some rain and that is starting to flood some of the bottoms so they are starting to move," he noted.

Unlike almost any other hunted species, it is legal to hunt the pigs at night in Texas. However, hunters would be wise to contact local game wardens before doing so.

Hunting is not going to eliminate or even control a wild pig population where it is established. At best hunters may chase a population off their property onto their neighbors. But don't worry, it won't be long and they will find their way back across the property.

Click here to read the Original Article in the Tyler Morning Telegraph