Wild Pig Bomb Still Rocking Agriculture

The wild pig bomb has detonated, ripping and rooting billion-dollar scars across U.S. farmland every year. The search for a silver bullet has come up empty, and the past 30 years have seen an established wild pig presence balloon from 19 states in 1985 to 39 states in 2016. High-end estimates of 11 million wild pigs make warnings over impending wild pig invasions mostly moot: The porcine beasts have already set up shop. However, with new trapping techniques in hand, and promising control tools on the horizon, the means to halt wild pig advances may soon arrive. Control efforts require a pace to match prolific breeding, and 50 percent to 75 percent of a pig population must be killed each year to keep population numbers in check – an extremely tough task for any afflicted state. Even if a toxicant arrives by 2020 and an oral contraceptive follows on its heels, Mayer remains uncertain about wild pig population projections.