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Drives me nuts that the state is full of people who would happily shoot hogs to help out ranchers who don't want them (and even pay the rancher to let them), but, instead, the state is going to poison them.

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Introducing warfarin as the first pesticide available to control the feral hog population is significant because it gives agriculture producers and landowners in Texas a new weapon in the fight against feral hogs with minimal risk to other animals. According to experts familiar with the issue, warfarin is a logical choice for hog toxicant, because it is effective in swine but requires much higher dosage levels to potentially affect other wildlife populations or livestock. The Texas A&M Agrilife Extension Service is supportive of the rule change and the use of warfarin for feral hog population control.

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Isn't it ironic (or maybe moronic) that a state will turn to poison while still requiring paid licensing to dispatch these hogs in a traditional manner such as sport hunting? Wouldn't an open, no charge season on hogs be the logical first step in stemming the tide as well as the benefit to sportsmen and food banks which could use the meat?

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Originally posted by Gatogordo:

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Isn't it ironic (or maybe moronic) that a state will turn to poison while still requiring paid licensing to dispatch these hogs in a traditional manner such as sport hunting? Wouldn't an open, no charge season on hogs be the logical first step in stemming the tide as well as the benefit to sportsmen and food banks which could use the meat?

As stated above, hunting does not control hog populations. Anyone who thinks it does, doesn't know what he is talking about and/or simply has no experience with hunting hogs.

Compared to almost any other states, hunting hogs for non-residents in Texas is dirt cheap (5 day license, including exotics and hogs, $48), indeed it can be done for free IF the hunter is doing depredation control for the landowner and does not take or possess any part of hog. Also, Tx Parks and Wildlife is not a free service, somebody has to pay for it, and that somebody is, mostly, people who hunt in Texas, whatever the objective. There already is an "open, no charge season" 24/7/365 on hogs in Texas for landowners and depredation hunters that obviously hasn't, doesn't, and won't work. Hogs are incredibly smart, extremely prolific, and nearly impossible to control by any normal means.

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The pesticide, as I understand it, would contain Nitrate. It makes the pigs blood unable to carry oxygen. No oxygen no pig!

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A farmer whose hands were intermittently wetted with a 0.5% solution of warfarin over a period of 24 days developed gross hematuria two days after the last contact with the solution; the following day, spontaneous hematomas appeared on the arms and legs. Within four days, there were also epistaxis, punctate hemorrhages of the palate and mouth, and bleeding from the lower lip. The bleeding time was over 30 minutes; the clotting time was 11 minutes and 30 seconds; the prothrombin index was 17; and the prothrombin percentage (thrombotest) was 5. Four days later, after treatment for two days with phytonadione, the values were in the normal range (11).

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If Texas would outlaw the release and feeding, including feeder "bait", of feral pigs then half the battle would be won

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If Texas would outlaw the release and feeding, including feeder "bait", of feral pigs then half the battle would be won. Yes, these animals can forage and will eat crops. But a large percentage are allowed to thrive on the feed they are being supplied and the current numbers would not be sustainable without human supplied feed.

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Originally posted by butchloc:
i hate poisoning - the birth control idea is great - we could air drop condoms

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Originally posted by Macs B:
This needs to be an aerial effort and not dependent on private property borders. If a land owner resists feral hog poisoning efforts a stiff fine should be imposed to offset the cost of hogs migrating to a safe zone only to damage outside of the zone.

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This needs to be an aerial effort and not dependent on private property borders. If a land owner resists feral hog poisoning efforts a stiff fine should be imposed to offset the cost of hogs migrating to a safe zone only to damage outside of the zone.

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On Tuesday, the Texas Agriculture Commissioner’s Office emailed CBS11 this statement:

We did not make this rule change to list warfarin as a state-limited-use pesticide without fully reviewing the data and research available on this product. Kaput Feral Hog Bait has been researched extensively and field-tested in Texas over the past decade in partnerships with various state agencies including TDA. Hogs are susceptible to warfarin toxicity, whereas humans and other animals require much higher levels of exposure to achieve toxic effects.

EPA approved Kaput Feral Hog Bait’s pesticide labeling with the signal word “Caution,” which is the lowest category of toxicity to humans requiring a signal word. Although the EPA did not list this product as a federal restricted-use product, we made the decision to list warfarin as a state-limited-use pesticide in Texas so that purchase and application is made only by educated, licensed pesticide applicators who have been trained specifically on the use of this product. The product may be only bought and used by licensed pesticide applicators when dispensed in specially-designed hog feeders that have weighted lids that only open from the bottom, making it difficult for other animals to be exposed to the bait.

Warfarin has been studied extensively in animals and is practically non-toxic to birds. Due to the insolubility of warfarin in water, there should be no impact to aquatic life. Non-target wildlife, livestock and domestic pets would have to ingest extremely large quantities over the course of several days to reach a toxic level of warfarin in the bloodstream. In the event of unintended exposure, the antidote, Vitamin K, can be administered by a veterinarian. In general, secondary exposure to other animals is low because the levels of warfarin in target animals are generally too low to be toxic to either a predator or scavenger.

Warfarin at 0.005 percent as a feral hog toxicant has been shown to have a low level of residue in hog meat, especially in muscle tissue, which is what humans typically consume. One person would have to eat 2.2 lbs of hog liver–where the warfarin is most concentrated in the body–to achieve the same exposure as a human would receive in one therapeutic dose of warfarin (current therapeutic levels range from 2 to 10 mg daily). Warfarin metabolizes and exits the body fairly quickly, so a hog that was trapped and fed for several days prior to processing would most likely not have any warfarin present at the time of slaughter.

In addition, hogs who have consumed the warfarin bait will have blue dye present in the fatty tissues as soon as 24 hours after ingestion. The dye builds up in the fatty tissue, so the more bait the hog has consumed, the brighter blue the tissues will be, signaling hunters that this hog has ingested the bait. Blue dye is present in the fat directly underneath the skin as well as in the fat deposits surrounding organs and in the aforementioned liver. All will take on the characteristic blue tint of the dye, which serves as a visual indicator of bait ingestion.

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Originally posted by Gatogordo:

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If Texas would outlaw the release and feeding, including feeder "bait", of feral pigs then half the battle would be won

You really don't know what you're talking about.

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Several reasons converged to create the “perfect storm” resulting in the boom. 1) Indiscriminant stocking to new habitats by landowners and hunters facilitated rapid increase—pigs cannot fly but they can be trailered and released. This was done regularly (–DESPITE BEING ILLEGAL) in the 1970’s thru the 1990’s—and the stockings were very successful at re-establishing wild pig populations across the state. 2) Supplementing non-migratory wildlife (deer, turkeys quail etc.) is legal in the state of Texas. For example, an estimated 300 million pounds of shelled corn are fed to deer annually in Texas, along with at least 120,000 million pounds of “protein pellets”. However, non-target species (e.g., wild pigs, raccoons) get their fair share of these supplements. As a result, the sows that are on this higher nutritional plane because of their access to the unintended supplement allows sows to undergo “flushing” : produce more eggs, have larger litters and have more pigs in their litters survive.

http://feralhogs.tamu.edu/freq...questions-wild-pigs/

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And yet wild hogs were barely more than a curiosity in the Lone Star State until the 1980s. It’s only since then that the population has exploded, and not entirely because of the animals’ intelligence, adaptability and fertility. Hunters found them challenging prey, so wild hog populations were nurtured on ranches that sold hunting leases; some captured hogs were released in other parts of the state. Game ranchers set out feed to attract deer, but wild hogs pilfered it, growing more fecund.

http://www.smithsonianmag.com/...xas-73769069/?page=2

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Shelled corn put out as supplemental feed for wildlife attracts feral hogs and can be a major part of their diet.

http://icwdm.org/publications/...0pig/txferalhogs.pdf

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Gato-Thanks for the info, but you should take that with a grain of salt considering the source. This is what was hand-fed to state officials from testing that was conducted and directed by the manufacturer. Considering that millions of dollars stand to be made from Kaput, you do think there is any green-colored bias present?

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And keeping cattle away for at least 90 days AFTER the poison has been removed may be the biggest red flag yet.

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The acute oral LD50 for warfarin in cattle was 200 mg/kg/day for 5 days