How to Trap Feral Hogs
Feral hogs, usually found in the southern part of the United States, can be a problem because they spread disease to domestic hogs, other livestock, pets and people. They do damage to pastures and crops. They don't have many natural predators, so feral hogs tend to grow in population fairly quickly if preventive steps aren't taken. You can trap feral hogs using a corral trap.
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Instructions
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Check the laws in your state with your State Wildlife Agency. You may need a license to trap animals and in some states it is illegal to transport wild animals. Make sure you are operating within your state's laws.
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Choose a corral trap to use. The most common are traps with a slide door, spring gate or a lift gate. Set up the trap in an area where you frequently see feral hogs or in places where you see a lot of droppings. Make sure it is in a shady area, as hogs can't take long periods of high heat.
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Place bait inside near the back of the trap. Some good baits to use for feral hogs are whole corn, sour grain or livestock cubes.
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Leave the door wired open for a few days with the bait in the trap and refill the bait daily. The hogs will get used to entering the trap for the food. This will attract many hogs as they begin feeling comfortable and unafraid entering and leaving the trap.
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Set the trip wire, which will trigger the spring door or slide door to shut. If you are using a lift gate corral trap, prop up the lift door with a stick and attach a piece of rope to it. String the rope through the top of the cage and let the rest of it hang down into the cage. Tie the end hanging down to a bucket with the bait inside it.
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Trap the hog or hogs as they trigger the trip wire in the spring or slide door traps. For the lift gate trap, the hog will be trapped when it begins feeding out of the bucket. This will cause the rope to pull the door shut.
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Check your trap daily and approach it with caution.
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Tips & Warnings
Other traps to use include the circular trap, which is easy to assemble, and the portable hog trap, which is good to use if you don't have a lot of feral hogs to remove. The portable trap also helps making the transport of hogs easy because you can pick it up and load it into a truck without removing the animal.
Spring door traps are great because a hog can enter it, but it can't leave. A trapped hog may entice other hogs to enter the trap.
With a lift gate on a coral trap, a feral hog can learn to open up the gate with its snout to escape.
Keep dogs away from the trap. If a hog smells an unfamiliar animal scent near the trap, he may not enter it.
Be very careful when approaching a trapped hog. They are dangerous and can attack you, even through the walls of the trap.
