FERAL HOG POISON IN TEXAS: Texas has one of the biggest wild-hog problems in the U.S. as an estimated 2.6-million feral hogs cause more than $50-million dollars in damage to Texas ranches and farms every year. Michael Bodenchuk, state director for the USDA’s Wildlife Services Division, explains about testing a new type of poison aimed at reducing the wild pigs. “Sodium nitrite when metabolized inside the pig causes the hemoglobin, the red blood cells, to become met-hemoglobin, and met-hemoglobin does not carry oxygen, so the pig becomes drowsy, becomes a little wobbly and then lays down and goes to sleep and doesn’t wake up”
Unlike other poisons considered by the state’s agriculture department, Bodenchuk says the compound being tested by federal regulators does not pose a risk to other wildlife. “We’ve conducted some trials on scavengers that might eat a dead pig and there are no consequences to those scavengers. The chemical has be metabolized in order for it to work on the pig.” Testing of the feral hog poison begins in February on an undisclosed ranch in West Texas.
