Feral hogs roam in packs, reproduce a litter of up to 30 piglets a year, are active at night, and tear through all land they come across. So if you’re a farmer, private land owner, or anyone with more than a few acres of land you should be wary of wild hogs plowing through your yard.

There are numerous measures you can take to prevent an invasion, and there are ways to actively drive hogs off your property. Let’s begin with spotting signs to see if you need to start fortifying your land.

What Are the Signs of Wild Boars?

There are many signs you can look out for to know if any feral hogs have trespassed. These signs are:

Rooting

Wild boars will root to find food under the surface. This rooting will tear up the soil and can cause extensive damage. This can ripple and affect other areas like livestock pastures, stream sediment, and eroding the soil.

Rubbing

Boars will rub themselves against trees, posts, boulders, or whatever they can find. They do this to remove external parasites or to simply scratch an itch. These signs can be spotted by hair, dirt, or mud left over. Bark will be broken off, or wooden poles and fences will have an indentation and discoloring.

Wallowing

Feral swine will “wallow” in mud and water to cool off and rid themselves of external parasites. These wallowing efforts leave behind a clear sign of their destructive path. Usually large pits of water in muddy areas or around river beds.

Tracking

Boar tracks are very similar to deer tracks. They are heart-shaped with a bigger gap at the sole. It’s important to know the difference as these game animals can often cross trails. You wouldn’t want to build traps if it’s a herd of deer.

It’s also key to note that feral hogs will trek the shortest, and often lowest, distance from shelter to food and water. So tracks angled up on the side of a mountain (not pointing directly to a source) where a stream runs below are probably not boar prints.

Scat

One tradition and proven method to track and study prey is their scat. Animal feces can tell hunters a lot about it. Like what kind of animal has been in the area, how recently they’ve been in the area, or what the animal has been eating.

Wild Boar scat is similar to canine or larger pieces of deer feces. If you find a large amount clumped together then that’s a good sign of nearby food or shelter.

Nests

Nests can be trickier to spot as the structure is what’s available nearby. So they are camouflaged quite well. Simple boar nests will be a circular pile of straw, grass, and other vegetation padded down. In the winter, they can be more elaborate consisting of cave-like structures where they rest in the cold.

Steps to Prevent Wild Boar Trespassing

If you’ve confirmed that there are enough signs to show boars have been using and destroying your land, now it’s time to take action. There are numerous things you can do to protect your land, livestock, and loved ones.

The principle is to deflect them from access, prevent them from damaging your property, and defend your animals and family (if the unfortunate circumstance were to happen).

Deflect Their Desire to Enter Your Property

The best defense is complete avoidance altogether. So, anything you can do to make it extremely difficult or uninterested at all is highly beneficial. That means having a fence, barbed wire, electric fencing, smell deterrent, or surrounding your property or game trials with cayenne pepper.

Prevent Them From Causing Any Further Damage

If they manage to get on your land, the second line of defense is necessary. This would be methods to stop them from getting close to valuable areas or preventing them from damaging anything or anyone. This means having motion cameras, spotlights, traps, and poison, sounds like air horns or a speaker system, and dogs.

Defend Your Livestock and Loved Ones

If a sounder of boars manages to break through defensive walls and slip past traps and sensors, then you might have to prepare for active defense and possibly even self-defense. This would involve home defense weapons like a rifle, shotgun, or high caliber handgun, or even castling in your home and calling the right wildlife management agency.

For more support, you can check your local law resources for government shooting programs or even lease out part of your land to hunters to help eradicate the infestation.

Another solution, and perhaps my favorite, is to study, track, and hunt these pesky mammals out of your land. You’ll also benefit from some great meals as well!

If you spot wild boar activity on your land, you can contact your local wildlife department. Or, if you’re skilled enough, deal with it yourself.