Trapping

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Before You Begin Feral Swine Trapping

Scout the area

Scouting is important to determine sounder travel trails and wallowing patterns. When scouting any tract of land, look for areas with a large amounts of feral swine activity. This includes recent rooting, wallows, mud-rubs on trees, heavily used trails, and lots of tracks.  The first places that should be checked are along river and creek bottoms as well as in swamps and marshes; especially during the summer months.  

pre-bait

Pre-baiting is important for corral style trapping as well as day and nighttime shooting control techniques. Pre-baiting creates a central location for pigs to gather for trapping or shooting. Once an area with abundant feral swine activity has been located, start prebaiting the site. There is a variety of things that can be used as food items, including pelletized pig feed, rotted produce, and soured corn.

Regardless of the type of trap or other control method used there must be a pre-baiting period. 

 Some general guidelines include:

  • Select an area where feral swine activity is obvious.

  • Place your bait of choice in an area feasible to build a trap and where pigs will feel comfortable, such as a wooded area— a game camera will be very useful to determine the number of feral swine in the sounder.

  • Check the bait daily and replenish as needed. You may wear rubber boots to reduce the human scent.

  • Soured grains generally reduce the risk of catching non-target species, such as deer and turkey. Feral swine have a keen sense of smell and may be attracted to this bait more readily. Soured corn must be poured on the ground rather than in a feeder.

  • The trap area needs to be pre-baited for a sufficient time prior to construction of a trap. This will allow the sounder to become accustomed to feeding in this area, thus reducing apprehension and fear.

  • Dry corn works well and can be released on a time interval. This controls the amount of bait and the time it is dispensed each day. This will assist in the feral swine establishing a pattern of feeding.

  • Slowly build or introducing a trap during the pre-bating period will prevent the sounder from being frightened off.

Pre-baiting may need to continue for several days, up to 2 weeks, prior to establishing the trap to produce the greatest success.  This gives feral swine plenty of time to adjust to their new surroundings. Allow the feral swine to determine the pre-baiting and trap building schedule.  The objective is to keep them coming to the area and allow them to become comfortable with the surroundings while the trap is being constructed – especially when using a corral trap. Pre-baiting (and trap construction) speed is dictated by the feral swine.  The goal is to attract a sounder of feral swine and keep them returning to the trap site while the trap is slowly constructed.   

A sounder is a group of feral swine that travel together.  Typically, boars (males) are solitary.  Therefore, a sounder generally consists of one or more adult sows (females) and offspring.  Sounders vary in number from just a few pigs to 25 or more.