Sid Miller to approve new technique for killing feral hogs: poison
http://www.mystatesman.com/news/state--regional-govt--politics/sid-miller-approve-new-technique-for-killing-feral-hogs-poisonThe man who gained fame for successfully allowing hunters to shoot hogs from helicopters is now championing another strategy to hasten what he calls “the feral hog apocalypse”: poison.
Agriculture Commissioner Sid Miller will announce Tuesday that he is approving a pesticide, “Kaput Feral Hog Lure,” for statewide use. He says the product, poisoned bait food, is the first specifically designed to control the feral hog population, now estimated at more than 2.5 million in Texas.
Feral hogs cause at least $50 million in damage annually to Texas agriculture, destroying crops and livestock tanks, as well as causing untold damage in suburban areas, where they dig up homeowners’ yards and dine on cable and internet lines.
“They’re so prolific, you can’t hardly keep them in check,” Miller told the American-Statesman. Sows have been known to produce two litters a year, typically with four to six offspring in each litter. “This is going to be the hog apocalypse, if you like: If you want them gone, this will get them gone.”
As a state senator, Miller authored legislation that allowed for the aerial killing of hogs. Now, on average, 27,500 hogs are killed that way annually.
Feral hogs were introduced to North America by Spanish settlers who set domestic pigs free into the woods so that they could breed freely. Overall, as many as 750,000 are harvested annually, but the problem is a growing one.
Enter Kaput.
The product is basically bait food laced with warfarin, used as a blood thinner for humans but apparently lethal in hogs.
Miller said licensees will be able to set out nontoxic bait food for the hogs in feeders that require the strength of an adult hog to access. Once the hogs grow accustomed to the food, licensees can replace the nontoxic bait with the toxic variety.
Miller, who said he is changing state agricultural rules to allow the product’s use, said Kaput presents a “minimal risk to other animals” because it requires much higher dosages to affect other wildlife populations or livestock.
He said officials at the Texas A&M AgriLife Extension Service support the rule change and the use of warfarin for feral hog population control, but an official at Texas A&M who oversees feral hog operations declined to comment Monday.
The product was developed by Colorado-based Genesis Laboratories and will be sold by its sister company, Scimetrics.
“Hogs are particularly sensitive to warfarin,” Genesis President Richard Poché said.
Poché said the hog bait contains only one-fifth of the concentration found in conventional rat and mouse baits. He said that after 25 years of working with warfarin, numerous studies have found only minimal effects on wildlife, such as ferrets, magpies, alligators and birds of various species, when used at the low concentration in the bait.
Texas Parks and Wildlife Department spokesman Steve Lightfoot said the agency had been consulted....
