Baiting and Trapping Most Effective Method for Capturing Wild Pigs

Farmscape for May 24, 2023

The Coordinator of Squeal on Pigs Manitoba says baiting and trapping appears to be the most effective way of capturing and eliminating wild pigs from the landscape. In January of last year Manitoba Pork and the Governments of Canada and Manitoba, launched the Squeal on Pigs campaign to inform the public about the damage caused by wild pigs and to provide a mechanism to report sightings. Squeal on Pigs Manitoba Coordinator Dr. Wayne Lees says in 2022 there were 127 reports of wild pig sightings in Manitoba which resulted in the removal of 122 animals.

Clip-Dr. Wayne Lees-Squeal on Pigs Manitoba:Wild pigs tend to be fairly nocturnal and fairly elusive. The signs that most people would see would be crop damage. These wild pigs really like to get into corn crops and they’ll do a lot of damage by knocking down corn and half eating corn, that sort of thing. They can also do damage to stored crops, especially if it's not in damage proof containers. The other thing that people may notice is, in pastures quite often it will look like a rototiller went through the pasture and this normally occurs at the edge of the pasture where the pasture meets bush and that sort of thing. So, there are a number of different signs that people can see.

We’ve adopted a number of different strategies in order to, first of all find out where the pigs are and then, once we find out where the pigs are, then we go through a process of trying to set up cell cameras, a baiting station and then finally a trap.The trapping strategy seems to be the most effective for us. It seems like, if we set up the trap in the area where the pigs are and can attract them with bait, that sems to work the best.

The best way to report a sighting or get more information is through the Squeal on Pigs website at squealonpigsmb.org but sightings can also be reported through the toll-free phone line at 1-833-SPOT-PIG.

For more visit Farmscape.Ca. Bruce Cochrane.

*Farmscape is produced on behalf of North America's pork producers