By: Mark Tyson, M.S.
It seems
intuitive that the best place to trap hogs is right where they are causing
damage. While it makes sense, this type of logic will not get you the results
you want. When you attempt to trap at this type of location, your bait will be
competing with the local food resource that the hogs are currently utilizing. To gain a better understanding of how feral
hogs select food resources read Feral
Hogs: Adaptable, Efficient, and Effective. By selecting the right trapping
site, you will greatly increase your efficiency along with saving yourself a
great deal of time and heartache.
When
undisturbed in a particular location, feral hogs can become creatures of habit
use this to your advantage. Any successful effort often begins with planning
and gathering information. One of your primary objectives should be to
determine where the hogs are coming from when they damage a particular area. If
it is not obvious where the hogs are coming from, use a game camera to help
determine feral hog movements in the area. The article High
Tech Hog Trapping explains how to use game cameras to monitor feral hog
movements. Once this area is identified,
further investigation is needed to find out where the hogs are bedding during
the day. This will usually be an area of thick cover, however during the summer
months surface water will often be found near bedding sites.
A game
camera will help to determine feral hog movements.
Once you
have identified a probable daytime bedding area, work your way back towards the
area the hogs are damaging. Along the way look for a site that would be
suitable for placing a trap. This site will need to have relatively level
ground and a small amount of cover, primarily in the form of trees.
Alternatively, you can locate a trap site at to the edge of a field where it
will intercept the hogs before they get to the current damage site.
An ideal
location for a corral trap situated along a feral hog trail
Curious
where to go from here? Check out these articles to take you the rest of the way
through the trapping process: Pre-baiting
and Conditioning Feral Hogs for Trapping and Using
a Corral Trap to Capture Feral Hogs. If you are not a fan of corral traps,
you can increase the effectiveness of your box trap by modifying it. Watch the
video below to learn how.
The hyper-linked resource document below will provide you with quick access to many of our online feral hog resources including publications, fact sheets and videos.