To keep wild pigs away, you can also use repellents, such as light or noise sensors, or water sprinklers, that will scare them away. Consider all rodenticides sufficiently toxic to cause death to pigs. What are wild hogs afraid of? They eat almost any plant material and are especially fond of tomatoes. Another option would be to use food they dont like to make a homemade wild boar repellent. Vinegar 4. Erect fences that are at least 3 feet tall to prevent pigs from jumping over them. Believe it or not, skunks and raccoons typically use abandoned groundhog burrows for themselves and rarely dig their own burrows. Wild hogs eyesight is often misunderstood and misstated in hunting blogs and articles. These products are great if you dont have the time or patience to make your own homemade repellent. For example, black pepper can simply be sprinkled around your garden to deter groundhogs. Avoid growing crops that pigs enjoy, such as strawberries and other sweet fruit. However, since then, the truffle hunting job has been given to dogs due to the pigs natural instinct to root up the land looking for food. Keep your yard clear of litter and debris that may attract Wild Hogs. Heres HowContinue, Your email address will not be published. These domesticated hogs would often become feral and were hunted or trapped for meat. However, if youre into homebrews or want to save a little money, you can easily make your own putrescent egg spray at home. Luckily for me, Vito isnt the biggest pest in my life. Check for burrows around your garden to determine if groundhogs are to blame or some other critter like rabbits or raccoons. That causes all sorts of agricultural,. Hogs do not only use their strong sense of smell to smell whats in front of them but below them as well. As for myself, there are certain practices I do before a hunt that I believe hides my scent from the hogs: I will say this about masking your scent though. Commercial Wildlife Repellents. The smell is what keeps it off the list of groundhogs' favorite foods, although they do occasionally eat them. However, feral hog populations remained and are spreading throughout the state. Pet food left outside attracts the attention of pigs as well as other opportunistic critters. Using game cameras and some stealthy pre-hunt reconnaissance can help identify the hog trails. If you see one, it does not indicate there is a whole colony around. The store will not work correctly in the case when cookies are disabled. Keep the scent usage at striking distance. Pigs have a remarkable 1113 active genes related to smell. If you dont prepare properly and remove your scent as best as possible, your hunt could already be over before it starts. Anecdotal evidence points to one of the strangest frightening devices. Considering many hog populations that are becoming hard to control are in the south (Texas, Alabama, etc. By using scents, you can set yourself up in the best position possible to put that trophy buck down for the count! Thanks to their acute memory, every time they smell that food they will associate it with its bad taste. Groundhogs will steer clear of anything treated with talcum powder because they hate the smell, so it is effective with preventing groundhogs from eating your garden, but it may not be strong enough to deter them from burrowing and creating tunnels in your yard. A scent such asCode Blue Sow In Heat Urineis essential for any hog hunt. When it is extremely hot, hogs will tend to stay along water if available or near the thickest cover possible. Also, keep Fido's food in the house. To make a homemade scent spray, follow these steps: If you dont have all four ingredients, its okay to skip out on one or two, just as long as you have at leastONEscent deterrent in there. Wild pigs can cause serious damage to the lawns and gardens of those living in areas where feral pig populations have increased considerably. Baking Soda Detergent. Feral/wild hogs hearing is keen enough to detect a fairly loud whisper @ around 100 yards, human voice above a whisper and they are GONE. Hot Sauce And Cayenne Pepper: Why They Work To Repel Rats, 11 Things That Attract Ticks (And How To Repel Them), 9 Different Ways That Spiders Get Into Your Home, How Long Pigeons Nest For (And If They Reuse The Same One), Garlic: Can You Use It to Repel Squirrels? The hot sauce and garlic will reinforce the message to STAY AWAY. Be sure to reapply the spray at least once a week, and especially after heavy rainfall. 4. PB1624 Managing Nuisance Animals and Associated Damage around the Home. You'll have to decide if the knowledge gained from these preliminary trips into the woods outweighs the chances of disturbing the hogs' routine. Four good reasons to indulge in cryptocurrency! . Make sure to bury it a foot beneath the soil and bend the last three inches out into an L shape for maximum effectiveness. In reality, wind tends to swirl and constantly change direction in which it blows. There are many special traits about a hogs sense of smell that should be learned in order to better hunt it. A black truck pulls into the shop. Before we get into the scents and smells that repel groundhogs, lets make sure youre actually dealing with a groundhog. Which breed of dog is the smallest used in hunting? Keep this in mind when you are preparing or traversing to and from your hunting area or stand. You can mix it all together in a container or put everything into the spray bottle if its big enough. In National Wildlife Research Center Repellents Conference 1995 (p. 4). The good news is,groundhogs and woodchucks are actually the same animals, so theres no need to confuse the two! Pouring scent around bait, or at any location, can put hogs at ease. If you are 100 yards away, a . Simple enough, right? At one time, domesticated hogs were managed as free ranging livestock in parts of the state. However, now that you know where they will reside during the warm months, they might be easier to locate. Chemical repelents; active substances such as Anthraquinone, Butanethiol, and Methyl Anthranilate can be used to keep wild animals away from crops. Using physical deterrents is more effective than scent deterrents, but its also more costly. Hang dry your clothes. Figure 1. (3) rooting - rhizomes, tubers, bulbs, corms, invertebrate larvae, small fossorial vertebrates, etc. If you are hunting in an area where hunters hunt all the time, the hogs become slightly desensitized to the human scent. Then, address the cause. Are wild boars . What is the best way to hunt in RDR2 online? Ultrasound equipment to scare away wild pigs is also available in some markets, if you prefer. In 2014, one church outside Houston was so worried about its annual pumpkin sale that it enlisted armed guards to stand watch over the patch at night. Mechanical traps are ideal for catching hedgehogs, as they can be used repetitively. Pigs have a remarkable 1113 active genes related to smell. These adorable animals are part of the squirrel family, called ground squirrels, and, Read More 9 Natural Predators That Eat ChipmunksContinue, Squirrels can be cute little rodents prancing around at parks and along city sidewalks, sitting on their generous rumps and munching acorns. What can farmers do to protect their crops? While the eggs might smell bad, the more important feature is that rotten eggs often mimic the smell of decaying animals. Few other animals have as well evolved and refined a sense of smell as do swine. You can also catch wild hogs laying in the mud, or moving late at night when they temperatures begin to drop. The smell sends a message to the groundhog that big predators might be nearby and sends them scurrying away. Rosell, Carme, Fernndez-Llario, Pedro and Herrero, Y. Smoke Wrap Up What Smells Keep Woodchucks Away - 9 Natural Ways So, let's read it out what woodchucks hate to smell, and then we can fix your woodchuck issue without any glitch! Hunting feral hogs is no exception, understanding and thinking like a hog you'll greatly improve your chance of taking that elusive wild boar. They DO NOT deter wildlife. We wrote an in-depth piece on if awoodchuck can actually chuck wood here. A hogs sense of smell is so powerful because it can pick up scents from a long distance away. Cayenne Pepper Skunk Repeller. This site is owned and operated by Pest Pointers LLC | pestpointers.com is a participant in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program, an affiliate advertising program designed to provide a means for sites to earn advertising fees by advertising and linking to Amazon.com. In severe cases, pigs may collapse and die. There are usually many solutions to hiding your scent. But more specifically, its made with rotten eggs. And once this product dries, you will not be able to smell the rotten egg scent. Feeding raw meat to pigs can transfer diseases such as foot and mouth disease. Their sense of smell is so good, pigs can discriminate between mint, spearmint, and peppermint with 100 percent accuracy during academic testing. Read on to find out what scents you can use to deter groundhogs and how to use these natural scents to keep groundhogs away for good! They usually dont cause too much damage or fuss but have the potential to create problems when they burrow or when they find your prized garden. The boars are usually loners and are more prone to run away at first indication a human is near. In field tests I have intentionally made noises to alert the hogs at a feeder, they typically acknowledge but tolerate the common noises (movements, rustling of brush, shuffling of rocks etc.) Corn will "sour" once soaked for several days, creating a smell that will attract hogs but keep other animals, such as deer, away. It has been proven that areas with sufficient available food, such as acorns and other forest fruits, have a positive effect on wild boar reproduction. Primarily herbivores, they will occasionally eat smaller rodents and insects. As we stated above, they have a great sense of smell, and they are large, aggressive animals that can come charging at high speeds which means that if you are planning on hunting or trapping these wild hogs, you must be careful with the techniques that you are aiming to use. Youll use the urine to create a barrier around your garden, spraying the scent liberally around the perimeter. Fill clear jars with clear water and place them periodically around your garden. Safer Brand Spray powerful groundhog repellent that contains 3 great-for-repelling-groundhogs ingredients capsaicin, piperine, and black pepper oil. The let their guards down just a tad because even though they smell humans constantly, they know humans arent always necessarily around. For those of you who plan on stalking hogs in their nests, this is a question you may be asking yourselves. If you dont want groundhogs coming into your space, see to it that you make it less attractive to these burrowing pests. Of the five primary senses, feral hogs tend to use four of these (that is, smell, sight, hearing and touch) in their daily existence. Protecting the boar during battles . What smell attracts wild hogs? Groundhogs always create at leasttwoentrances to their burrow, the second entrance being an emergency entrance or exit. Wild hogs do not have very good vision, although they do have a good sense of smell. Keep that in mind when you're thinking about applying scent to a drag rag. Groundhogs are sometimes confused with beavers, prairie dogs, marmots, and badgers. Hopefully this will be enough to deter them from your property. However, they are also opportunistic and may consume certain types of invertebrates (e.g., insects and crayfish) and some types of vertebrates (e.g., amphibians and small mammals). Keeping dogs and allowing them to urinate in the surroundings could therefore scare these animals away. What you need to do is remove access to the food by building a fence. Groundhogs can cause real problems for home vegetable and flower gardeners. For nearly a century, scientists have investigated chemicals that can fell big, vertebrate pestsparticularly feral swine. With a hogs sense of smell being its strongest weapon, the hog is unable to use it properly due to the wind providing constant uncertainty of the smells around it. The smell alone of certain herbs and aromatic flowers will repel even the most determined groundhog. Wild pigs may seem an unusual species to thrive in Canada's cold climate, but the feral swine descendants of European wild boars brought to the nation for game farms and as food are . One may be deterred more by garlic than they are by predator urine, and another groundhog is the complete opposite. This may be a bit time-consuming and use a lot of pepper, but the effects should be pretty instantaneous. Fact 6: Many Wild Hogs Are Becoming Nocturnal. Another option is to pound small stakes into the ground and spray the stakes. As always, the best way to deter any pest is tocombine several different deterrents. They wont hesitate to burrow under a fence. Their burrows are typically ten to twelve inches in diameter, so it would be hard to confuse them with a mouse, rabbit, or other small, burrowing mammal. Overall, these animals are smart. Strong perfumes. Practice good sanitation in your orchard, keeping dropped fruit out of . Can you hunt deer with a pistol in lower Michigan? Take advantage of a hog's highly developed sense of smell. Controlling your odor is an even bigger issue during the hot summer months when plenty of folks are hog hunting. In turn, Americans kill pigs at an astonishingly vicious pace. Along with the wild hogs' sense of smell comes acute hearing, as well as eyesight that proves a hog can detect a human figure over 100 yards away. Frightening devices are less effective on groundhogs than other critters, but they do still work and are great to pair with other deterrents. Dating as far back as the times of the Roman Empire, domesticated pigs, related to todays wild hogs, were used to hunt for truffles underground. Cayenne and Chili pepper. Try combining scent deterrents with physical or auditory deterrents. Traps for Hedgehogs control: Traps are used to monitor or reduce the population of insects or other pests. If you havent read my article on hunting hogs in the rain, I think you should do so. With the wild boar, the facts become even more difficult. Sweet corn is a staple in hog baits, because hogs can easily recognize the smell. Wild hogs have nocturnal behavior. Although landowners can use the shooting to reduce the groundhog population or to maintain a low population of groundhogs where necessary, shooting is not the best way to eradicate groundhogs. Eliminate/minimize shadowing when night hunting and exercise awareness re: sound generation. Hogs have a keen sense of smell that may be greater than even that of a whitetail. In a 1913 photo, two feral hogs on St. Vincent Island, Florida, trigger a camera by pulling on a baited string. The corn will soak up most of the beer, and be ready for spreading. document.getElementById( "ak_js_1" ).setAttribute( "value", ( new Date() ).getTime() ); I'm Zack DeAngelis, the creator of Pest Pointers. Things like garlic, black pepper, onion, mustard, and hot sauce can be used to deter groundhogs from your yard and garden. They have also been known to jump over fences that are less than 3 feet high, and researchers have sighted wild hogs making their way out of traps that were 5 to 6 feet high. Therefore, uprooted soil is one of the most recognizable signs of a wild hog's presence and is going to help you harvest a nice pig. The wild hogs sense of smell is among one of the strongest in the animal kingdom, making them a very tough game to hunt. I have collected a lot of useful and interesting information for you in my blog. Groundhogs tend to hate the taste of Epsom salt. ), knowing this fact will help you better plan your hunts, and hunt the weather to the best of your ability by getting into the mindset of a wild hog. This wild hog repellent can also be spread around crops so that the wild pigs will not think of the food as something appetizing. What is the best place to shoot a wild hog? The smell of smoke is a good scent masker. Repels wild hogs and alters their digestive system in 2-ways: Food tastes bad and their digestive system is disturbed and surrounding soil become bad smelling. Homemade repellents with unpleasant smells can be made to discourage feral pigs. Keep wild hogs away by identifying why they are there in the first place. Like peppers, garlic and onions contain compounds that can upset a pigs stomach. Wind is a hogs worst enemy. Uprooted soil from a wild pig feeding, bedding, etc. Coyotes can be persistent little buggers, so here goes: Do feral hogs kill snakes? I have tried so many scent killing products myself. It is like kryptonite to Super Man. 4. Broadside-Shoulder Shots are Best. Hogs forage in several ways: (1) browsing and grazing - leaves, fronds, stems, etc. White pepper and . Wild/feral hogs are extremely intelligent animals, like most animals they can also become creatures of habit therefore over time they can be "patterned" as to their movement preferences, feed times, travel patterns etc. Hogs are used to encountering the scent of other hogs. Spread these in areas popular with wild hogs or use it in an outline around your property's perimeter. Spray around areas you are trying to protect against groundhogs. Take care to keep baits out of the reach of domestic animals or non-target wildlife; place baits where only rodents can access them. Hogs are creatures of habit. The Wild Boar is an extremely adaptable animal as it is found in a variety of different habitats, eats almost anything that will fit in its mouth and not only runs fast, but also swims well too. Now, we know what youre probably thinking Why would I care if hogs have sweat glands or not? Be observant of what you do before a hunt and make sure you limit yourself around scents that can stick to you. Groundhogs come to a yard or garden because they think its a good place to find food and it provides a safe haven. Simply whisk the eggs together until they are well combined. Sounds or alarms that could scare away feral hogs include: As they are very sensitive to sound, all these recordings could frighten them and scare them away. Here are some of the known groundhog attractants: We use cookies to ensure that we give you the best experience on our website. That's my buddy, Vito. The numbers of them are rapidly growing throughout the United States, causing them to be easily accessible to many hunters. This appeals to a groundhogs sense of danger.