SAN ANTONIO – “It’s a busy year this year,” said one professional trapper who told KSAT the company he works for is on track to trap over 6,500 hogs for 2020.
Wyatt Walton, a trapper with Lone Star Trapping, said the team is actively working 365 days a year and that their pens hardly ever sit dormant.
Lone Star Trapping, whose service area covers the entire state of Texas, provides hog removal services and has been trapping in the San Antonio area since 2016.
Walton spoke with KSAT on Monday and said local HOA boards are approving contracts more often than they have in the past. He sent KSAT video of a group of hogs recently captured by Lone Star Trapping in San Antonio for a local HOA.
He said trapping hogs in the area is becoming harder because “weekend warriors” who are out trying to help trap hogs and rid the area of the nuisance end up doing more harm than good.
“It’s like playing chess with hogs. The key is you don’t educate the hogs - they’re the 3rd smartest animal in the world in terms of adaptive nature,” Walton said. “The key is catching them all at the same time.”
He said the “weekend warriors” might catch 5 hogs out of a group of 40 and are thinking they’ve had great success in helping local residents but ultimately “they just taught 35 hogs what to do to not be trapped.”
Walton said all the hogs that are trapped are taken to USDA holding facilities. A report from June 2020 from the USDA states that feral swine have been reported in at least 35 states and estimates that the total population is “over 6 million and is rapidly expanding.”
A bill allowing the hunting of feral hogs without a license with the consent of a landowner passed unanimously in the Texas Senate in April 2019, and the law went into effect on Sept. 1 of last year.
“Feral hogs can be found in 99% of Texas counties and cause an estimated $52 million in damages to Texas agricultural enterprises each year,” according to the Texas A&M Agrilife Extension.