VIDALIA — Feral hogs in Louisiana have been causing problems for landowners for a number of years, and laws have recently been enacted to help.

A law enacted in June 2010 allows hunting feral hogs, nutria and beaver at night on private property from February to August if you have a small game license.

LSU Ag Center forestry agent Ricky Kilpatrick said the problems with the feral hogs have gotten out of hand.

“There are a lot of landowners having major problems with these hogs,” he said. “They impede on deer and other wildlife populations and they eat everything.”

Kilpatrick also said the hogs do damage to the forest habitat along with giving problems to farmers.

“They eat and root up area fields,” he said. “They are overpopulated and doing damage to the land.”

Kilpatrick said the problem with the hogs has progressively gotten worse over the years.

“Not a lot of people hunt hogs,” he said. “Right now, not enough people are hunting them to keep the population from continuing to grow.”

Kilpatrick said the reason for the overpopulation doesn’t just stem from a lack of hunters.

“They are the most prolific large mammal in North America,” he said. “They have a short gestation period and they have around eight to 10 babies per litter.”

While hunting the hogs may help control the population, Kilpatrick said he is not sure of exactly how much good it will do.

“I am afraid it might take something more,” he said.

“I don’t think hunting them is going to reduce the problem a great amount. They are hard to hunt at night, just like they are during the day.”

Kilpatrick said trapping the hogs is one option to help get rid of them.

LSU Ag Center assistant county agent for Bossier Parish Alex Shook hunts feral hogs and said the best way to trap them is use several different approaches.

“Set traps and snares out,” he said. “When setting them make sure they have adequate stops on them so you don’t catch other wildlife like deer.”

Shook said feral hogs are very smart creatures, and that trapping them is harder than it sounds.

“Older hogs that have been trapped and freed are not going to go into a trap a second time,” he said. “Never set the trap to catch a hog on the first time you leave it because you won’t catch many hogs and the others will not come back to the same trap.”

Shook said typical bait for a hog trap is soured corn.

“They soak the corn in water for a few days,” he said. “This helps keep off-game from getting in the trap.”

Shook said using the biggest trap you can find is the best way to ensure getting rid of the most hogs.

“Store bought ones are usually four by eight,” he said. “You can make your own, but it is recommended to have one without a top on it in case other wildlife gets trapped. They need to have a way out.”