I was out trying to call some hogs in last night. Set up the speaker, settled in, turned it on, and sat for a few minutes, only to hear some rustling coming my way through the brush. The noise was directly behind my back, coming towards the hog call, and I turned with my thermal and saw two armadillos sprinting in full speed. They got to within about 10ft of me before I spooked them off and they ran back the way they came.

THEN, I move about 200yds farther west, and set up the call again. Once again, I hear rustling in the brush and (I'm assuming) the same two armadillos come sprinting directly to the call about 10ft in front of me. I guess hog calls work on armadillos? Has anyone else encountered this before?

I wonder if armadillos like following along where hogs have been rooting, probably stirs up a lot of insects and worms for them?

I've hunted hogs for years and years, and I've never heard of a hog call. I guess you learn something new every day.

Fairly new to me as well, borrowed it from a neighbor. They have mouth calls and electronic calls. I'm told mouth calls aren't very effective, but supposedly electronic calls can be highly effective for drawing pigs out of thick cover or even bedding to check out a distressed piglet or an aggressive boar. We'll see! The armadillos were definitely responding to the call specifically. They came running out of tall grass, straight to the call itself.

Look up Glen Guess on YouTube. He does it all the time and even made a caller specifically for it.

I think that makes a lot of sense.

That is funny. You just need to market an " Armadillo " call and make some jingle.

This is so cool. I have yet to see my first armadillo. Daughter who went to Baylor said they had one that hung out near the horse barns -- and barked.

We have been discussing it for years on the forum. It is something that a lot of folks, like me, tended not to believe. It most certainly can work.



The reason why mouth calls for hogs may not be very effective is because blowing on a grunt tube doesn't necessarily translate into hog language (okay, sounds with actual meanings to hogs). Imagine running Russian or Japanese programs on US TV in the native languages. How many non Russian or non Japanese speakers are those channels going to attract. We hear the noise, but have no idea what it is or means. Sounds are important in the hog world, as they are with many social animals (turkeys, whales, coyotes, etc.) and I would be willing to bet that hog communications are a good bit more complex than that of coyotes. Even turkeys have a fairly complex communication system. If you want to know about turkey communication, check out this guy. The documentary he made while raising wild turkeys for a year and living with them is very informative. For example, turkeys have a warning call for snakes, multiple as they apparently make a distinction between venomous snakes and non-venomous snakes, for example.

I would say that the electronic hog call process takes on a mythical status with some, sort of like magic hog attractants, but in my experience, the process is not highly effective. It works, sometimes for people just using hog calls. It works a little better for people with more experience. With that said, I have watched a sounder come from over a half mile away to a call (big field). I have watched hogs charge the caller and challenge it. I have watched whole sounders run away when the caller started.

As a social animal that communicates with its members, calls would logically have to work with the right sounds. Even Glenn Guess doesn't have calls work for him all the time, but he seems to have the most experience of anyone and helps develop calls. I think maybe in a few years or decades after hunters or researchers better decode hog language a little better, then we will be able to contextually have a better idea of what sounds may work in what situations or what combinations of sounds will get a hog to commit to coming in fully. It is kind of odd, but several times in calling hogs, I have seen them stopped by FM roads (would not cross the street) and even barbed wired fences where they stopped at the property line of the property I wasn't hunting, failing to commit and enter the property I was on.

For me, hog calling is something we sometimes do when we have run out of options and have nothing to lose as we know that hog calling can scare off hogs in addition to calling them in to our kill box.

Getting back to the OP, I have watched armadillos around a caller when trying to call hogs, but I don't know if they were just there, or if the caller attracted them. I have also called in curious deer in the process that will come in to watch the excitement. Sometimes, coyotes will show up as well when making hog calls. As Glenn points out, obviously coyotes are eating hogs as they are attracted to the sounds hogs make and come in looking for a score.



If I had one, I could be a hero to one of my landowners. He has a terrible armadillo problem. I could use a skunk call as well for him.

Anecdotal, but we tried the electronic hog call for the first time yesterday. Within a couple minutes we had a sow come barrelling in right at us. Now if only that branch gotten in the way of the arrow....

haven't had armadillos come to a call but did shoot some pigs and a coyote coming to one. I've hunted small properties that hogs appear to be traveling through, if the hogs are there, it seems to be about 50/50 chance of seeing them using a call.

Yeah, to me the call is working best when you know where the pigs are and you need to bring them into the open. Definitely a viable option!

[quote=steventtu]I was out trying to call some hogs in last night. Set up the speaker, settled in, turned it on, and sat for a few minutes, only to hear some rustling coming my way through the brush. The noise was directly behind my back, coming towards the hog call, and I turned with my thermal and saw two armadillos sprinting in full speed. They got to within about 10ft of me before I spooked them off and they ran back the way they came.

THEN, I move about 200yds farther west, and set up the call again. Once again, I hear rustling in the brush and (I'm assuming) the same two armadillos come sprinting directly to the call about 10ft in front of me. I guess hog calls work on armadillos? Has anyone else encountered this before? [/quote]




They are known as 'Hoover HOGS' some places.

I have the caller from glen guess. I dont use it that much but so far no hogs have come to the caller. I did see a sounder of hogs run away from it once and I also had a bore come in but stayed his distance. He wasn't afraid of it but didn't get within 200 yards of it either. I need to keep trying it will work in some settings. I just don't get a lot of opportunities to get after them so I only get one or two chances a year to use it.

Looks like I need to invest in a new coffee mug.

I'd be curious to know if the call works better during a certain time of year.