If you see hogs in the daylight, you will have hog sign on your land within 12 months.

But I believe they do learn where their sounder mates got shot. Haven't seen one on my land in two years.

I certainly haven't had that sort of result, but that is the whole premise behind what I do for landowners. We kill all we can and dissuade the others from coming back. The problems are that they keep probing the land to see if it is safe. So we keep coming back.

We started a new property last year in May and took something like 120 off of it (8 months). I don't think we have gotten 20 off of it this year (6 months).

How aggressively the neighbors go after hogs will also greatly influence whether you have hogs coming back and how frequently.

Table 2. Listing of plants, fungi and animals consumed by wild pigs in the continental United States (Continued).

Serpentes (snakes - general) entire organism GA, MS, NC, SC, TN, TX Hanson and Karstad 1959, Sweeney 1970, Scott and Pelton 1975, Springer 1975, Ackerman et al. 1978, Baron 1979

Crotalus sp. (rattlesnake) entire organism CA Grover 1983

Crotalus viridis (western rattlesnake) entire organism CA Wilcox and Van Vuren 2009

http://wp.auburn.edu/deerlab/wp-content/uploads/2014/05/25Food-Habits-Chapter-Wild-Pig-Book.pdf

This is going well.

Meh...mild entertainment at best.

That was a sign. The Aporkalypse is near.

Pigs eat the hell out of Rattle Snakes.


We had the place in Batesville from 94'-December of last year. Everyone high fenced their places around 96-97'. We always had hogs and never did completely eliminate them until the last 2-3 years we owned it. Our neighbor killed every one he had right after the fence went up. Similar sized places, his was 1400 acres ours was 1200 acres. He would kill 10x's the number of rattle snakes than we would. I can count on 1 hand how many rattle snakes I personally ran across during the entire time we owned the place. We had lots of Blue indigo, rat snakes and Water Moccasins in the lake, but rattlesnakes were rare.

The two ranches were similar in size, shape and terrain. The only common denominator was we had hogs and they did not.

2 types of land owners:
Those who have hogs.
Those who will have hogs.

https://tpwd.texas.gov/education/resources/texas-junior-naturalists/snakes-alive

Do snakes have any enemies?

Snakes and people have the same arch-enemy: people. Humans have always waged war on snakes and there is no way of knowing just how many millions of harmless individuals have been battered, shoveled, run over, gassed, and shot to death through the years. And while it's understandable that people object to the dangerously venomous snakes, it is a shame to kill all the harmless ones too, giving as a rule of thumb - the only good snake is a dead snake. For many of us, any enemy of a snake is a friend of ours, no matter what form it may take. In the natural environment, several animals stand out as enemies of snakes. Badgers are major snake predators so are weasels. Several species of wild cats including mountain lions, bobcats, ocelots and jaguarundis will take snakes. The domestic and feral cat should be included in this group. Domestic cats will often take the smaller snakes, both harmless and venomous. Other snakes and large lizards are known to prey on snakes. The indigo snake and the kingsnake are well-known snake predators. Kingsnakes appear to be highly resistant to the venom of most venomous species and over power their victims by constriction. As a matter of fact, a kingsnake will eat almost any snake they find that is small enough to be eaten whether it is venomous or not. When you think of it, the elongate body of a snake is a very convenient shape for consumption by another snake - no pesky legs or horns to get in the way. Some people in South Texas and Mexico used to keep indigo snakes as pets around the house to keep other snakes away. Some birds are well known snake predators. They may eat them as part of a diet which includes other groups of animals or they may be specialists. In the United States, perhaps the best known avian snake predator is the Greater roadrunner. They probably eat more lizard than snakes but that has not prevented quite an elaborate folklore to grow up about their snake hunting prowess. Some roadrunners were reputed to build a wall of cactus spines around the rattlesnake victim so that it would die of heat prostration. Smart bird, probably fiction. Laughing falcons in Mexico are snake specialists and focus most of their foraging attention on the capture of snakes. Turkeys, many large buteo hawks, eagles, herons and cranes are also known to devour snakes with relish when they are small enough to capture.

As for domestic animals, pigs like to eat snakes and will attack them viciously before devouring them. They also appear to have a high resistance to snakes venom due to the slow transfer through all that fat.

But finally all of the above are no match for man. Through direct actions or indirectly we have completely eradicated snakes in some localities. We have destroyed or modified their habitat and their food supply. We have wiped out great numbers of individuals due to fear, anger, sadism, greed, fun, desire for their hides, or to a lesser extent, for food. Of course, snakes are not our only victims, other animals suffer too. But because of widespread human aversion, snakes have been singled out and targeted as bad animals and have been persecuted beyond all reason.

https://www.depts.ttu.edu/artsandsciences/news/news-DensmoreSnakes2018.php

Snakes on Self-Defense

The problem, Densmore said, comes when a rattlesnake incorrectly interprets the situation: It knows it can't eat a person, so it assumes the person is trying to eat it.
snake from Department of Biology is popular at Arts & Sciences Day 2018, TTU photo by Toni Salama

"Even a rattlesnake has a lot of predators," explained Lee, who helps care for and maintain Texas Tech's collection of venomous snakes.
"Coyotes, eagles, roadrunners, bobcats, raccoons, hogs—a lot of things eat rattlesnakes, even though they're venomous, so they have to be wary. And as far as reacting defensively to people, a lot of people do kill rattlesnakes. But snakes never attack; it's always defense.

I'm not so sure I agree with the good professor on that.

I've had both rattlers and cottonmouths come aggressively toward me when I wasn't even very close to them. More cottonmouths than rattlers. I'd even consider them as aggressive.

This is accurate...

But more specifically, We never had pigs on the place in Oklahoma until about 12 years ago. One year, my Brother in Law saw some pig tracks. The next year, we shot our first pig. The following year, we killed over 40 and couldn't make a dent in their numbers. The neighboring property is massive. Like Hundreds of thousands of acres massive. Every couple of years, they bring in helicopters to control hogs. After the choppers do their thing, the pigs become scarce for about a year, but always make a resurgence.

x2

x3.5

It seems like from the first one to a problem is no more than two years. After researching it seems someone dumped some pigs 30 miles away into a river valley with dense cover about 15 years ago.

I've seen that not be the case.

When I leased a place outside Fair oaks I had two pigs on Camera and 1 pig seen in person. in 3 years thats all the sightings and sign I've had.

sometimes pigs get dug into an area real thick and its hard to get them out....other times they are just passing thru, on to greener pastures

^^^

Yep, if you see them your already screwed. I’d trap as many as possible immediately and then turn the dogs loose ASAP as bad as I hate to say that. Once you have them all you can do is manage from that point forward.

So what is it?

Hogs kill and eat rattlesnakes or not?


I do know that I've seen a tame sow in a pen kill and eat a 5' texas ratsnake before. And it made quick work of it.
I also know that pigs are one of if not the toughest animals there are and if a dog can usually make it through a bite on the face or neck a damn hog probably gets no more for a snakebite on them then we do from a wasp!

I'm covered up in rattlesnakes the past 2 years at home and I can only say we do not have hogs. Only have had 3 different boars come through for a couple days at a time on camera the past 11-12 years.

And as much as I HATE hogs, I'd take a few if I knew it would help kill off some of the damn snakes we've been experiencing.

you answered your own question

Owned land for over 40 years. South of Bowie. We were loaded with snakes of all kinds. Mainly rattlers. Then we got a 4 year drought that hit snakes and other wildlife pretty hard. Wiped out quail. The snakes made a decent recovery. Then the pigs moved in about 15 years ago. Now, virtually no snakes. I saw a black snake of some kind about 6 weeks ago. First snake in many years. About a month ago I saw a rattler. Been a long time. I get excited when I do see one. I tell Grandsons to let the snakes alone. I miss the old days.

BTW, never seen a hog attack a snake.

Never read no books or did no google search, but I can tell you I Saw lots of rattlers at Uncle Fred's. Never near the pigs though. As in never. He had a deal with East Central HS and took away all their discarded food for slop. His pigs were wanting for nothing, but there were no snakes anywhere near those pens. Maybe just a coincidence.

Hey nsmike, what was the topic again ?

Its pretty simple to me, hogs are opportunity eaters, if they are hungry they will eat whatever is in front of them or go to known food sources (Wheat field, deer feeders etc.)!!
Do feral hogs eat poisonous snakes? Yes but I do not think they go out of their way and pass up other food sources just to dine on them when they get hungry.

Lets see Mr. Porky would you like some acorns with some fresh wheat in the field in front of you or would you rather go hunting for Rattles Snakes instead??