 Trapping feral swine is not difficult, but it does take some effort and most of all, patience. It's important to know that feral swine movements may change daily, seasonally or yearly, depending upon many factors such as available food, hunting pressure, overall numbers of feral swine in the area, availability of travel corridors such as bottomland hardwood forests or waterways. To begin, it's sometimes worth investing the time to look at your property from the 20,000 foot level to identify the relative locations of streams and rivers or other areas that may serve as movement corridors for feral swine, hardwood forests that may provide cover and food, and agriculture fields where feral swine have been a problem. Topographic maps may help identify lowland areas that may hold water during the summer and fall months. Likewise, satellite imagery or aerial photos available from online programs such as Google Earth can be used to determine likely areas where feral swine may be staying or traveling. Careful inspection of these landscape features will often provide a good starting point for on-the-ground scouting. Much like real estate, location is everything when it comes to trapping feral swine. Set up your trap in areas where feral swine are spending most of their time, not necessarily where damage is occurring. Therefore, take some time to scout for feral swine looking for tracks, wallows, and any other sign indicating feral swine are frequently in the area. In many cases, wooded areas close to water sources are favorite areas of feral swine, especially during the hot summer months. In some cases, bait stations monitored using game cameras can be placed in multiple likely areas to determine where feral swine activity is greatest. It is much easier to move bait stations than mistakenly setting up a trap in an area where pigs are not frequenting. While scouting, also look for areas where traps can be set up on level ground to prevent gaps between the corral fence and the ground where animals may escape. Additionally, don't place traps in areas of direct sunlight during the summer months to prevent killing feral swine by heat exhaustion or stroke. If you must place a trap in open areas, check them early in the morning. Finally, select an area that is somewhat easily accessible as trap or feedlot panels are quite heavy. Once you have a trapping location, you can begin the process of trapping feral swine. To help increase success and efficiency, you should follow four basic steps. The first, and likely the most important step, and trapping feral swine is to figure out how many feral swine you are dealing with. Second, once a trap has been set up, it's important to take your time and condition the pigs to freely enter and leave the trap, so that most, if not all members of the sounder, can be captured in one trapping event. Third, once animals are conditioned to the trap, it can be set to capture and remove pigs. And fourth, it's important to continue trapping until all of the pigs identified in step one have been removed. As mentioned previously, game cameras can be used to monitor feral swine activity and to help in determining which areas will be best for setting up a trap. Images collected from game cameras or trap cameras should also be used to help you determine the numbers of feral swine that will need to be trapped, the number of individuals in each sounder, and the number of solitary boars. Use distinguishing characteristics such as color, unique pellage or fur patterns, relative size, and sex of feral swine. Similar to baiting, taking your time to learn how many feral swine you're dealing with will also let you know how long you will need to trap until you have captured all of the feral swine you saw on camera. Baiting is one of the most important aspects of successfully trapping feral swine and requires a great deal of patience. Often, older feral swine may be reluctant to enter traps when first encountering them. In most cases, you should consider pre-baiting a trap for several days after setting it up to condition feral swine to freely enter and exit the trap to obtain food. Using game cameras or the camera on a remotely triggered system is critical for monitoring the behavior of feral swine around the trap and whether the feral swine have been positively conditioned to freely entering the trap. An automatic feeder can be used to dispense bait periodically each day to facilitate this conditioning process, saving you a considerable amount of time and work in having to replace bait in the trap each day. Bait, such as whole kernel corn, is easy to work with and works well. If feral swine are not consuming whole kernel corn, you may want to experiment with other baits or scent attractants. Keep in mind, there is no best bait that should be used. Experiment and see what works best in your area. Also consider using game cameras to scout multiple locations at the same time. Once you observe that feral swine have become accustomed to freely entering the trap and you have a good estimate of the number of feral swine visiting the trap, it is now time to actually set the trap to catch. Remember, the goal is to catch as many feral swine as possible on your first attempt as this will likely be their first exposure to the trap. If you are using remote triggering technology, be patient and wait for all members of the sounder to enter the trap, especially older sals that may be the last ones to enter. Once captured, quickly euthanize the animals and record which feral swine were captured and compare this information to what you observed on camera images during the pre-baiting or conditioning period. For example, if you estimated there were 14 pigs in the sounder and you only caught 10, you know that there are at least 4 more pigs that still need to be captured. Reset the trap and continue trapping. Continue using your game camera or trap camera to monitor feral swine activity at the trap and continue trapping efforts until you have captured all of the individuals that were identified in step one. This will be where your patience is tested. If you notice that feral swine stopped visiting the trap or are not entering the trap, it's time to try something different. Try changing baits, moving the trap to a new location or changing how often you visit the trap. There could be a few reasons why you're having trouble catching individual swine. Feral swine react differently to traps and what works for you today might not work next year. This is also why it's recommended that you do not harass the pigs while trapping or attempt to shoot the pigs that may be lingering outside of the trap unless you are absolutely sure that you will kill them. Pigs that have a negative experience with the trap are always more difficult to catch. While any time is a good time to trap, there are some portions of the year where trapping tends to be better. Keep in mind trapping success or your ability to get feral swine to enter traps will vary throughout the year based on factors such as availability of natural food sources. For example, it's difficult to bring feral swine to a trap when they are focused on consuming abundant acorns or when corn crops begin silking out. However, feral swine are often easier to draw to bait during dry hot summers where they can be found in shaded forested areas close to water. Similarly, during the winter months, feral swine are actively searching for food. Always check traps at least once per day and euthanize feral swine as quickly as possible. During the summer months, it's generally best to check traps in the morning. When approaching a trap, it's recommended that you do not shoot at feral swine that are outside of the trap unless you are absolutely sure you will kill the animal. If it's just one feral swine, it may be worth doing, but if multiple individuals are present, it will be best to let them walk off. Shooting and missing feral swine outside of the trap will only negatively condition the ones you didn't kill to the trap and make them more difficult to catch. They will begin to associate pain and or loud noises with the trap. Feral swine should be quickly and humanely euthanized whenever possible. When euthanizing feral swine in a trap, it's best to slowly approach the trap, keeping noise to a minimum, to minimize stress to the animals and systematically euthanize each animal. It's recommended that you do not stick the barrel of your firearm inside the trap as feral swine are prone to charging and ramming the side of the trap, potentially hitting the barrel of your firearm. Instead, stand in the bed of a truck, or a UTV, and shoot down into the trap. A simple gunshot to the brain will quickly kill the animal. A 22 long rifle or 22 magnum is sufficient. Do not shoot feral swine between the eyes. When viewing feral swine from the front, you should aim at an imaginary intersection between the ear on one side of the head, with the eye on the other. This location will place the bullet into the brain. From a side perspective, shoot the animal at the base of the ear. Once feral swine have been euthanized, they should be removed from the trap and disposed. The best approach is to bury the carcasses. Do not dispose of feral swine by discarding them in any water body, including lakes, streams, or creeks, as the decomposing carcasses will cause a significant health risk for those downstream. As with any wild animals, latex or nitrile gloves should be worn while handling feral swine, especially when coming into contact with fluids such as blood, saliva, or urine, which may harbor one of several diseases that can be transmitted to humans. Feral swine may be consumed, however, please review the USDA and CDC joint publication for butchering and cooking meat from feral swine. Remember, it is illegal to transport live feral swine. Alabama law states that all feral swine caught in traps must be euthanized before being removed from the trap. Likewise, all feral swine bathed by dogs must be euthanized. If you observe a violation, do your part and report the suspected violation to your County Wildlife Law Enforcement Officer. Check all current laws and regulations regarding the legal requirements for hunting or shooting feral swine with the Wildlife and Freshwater Fisheries Division of the Alabama Department of Conservation and Natural Resources. As mentioned earlier, feral swine carcasses should be buried. Don't feel guilty about wasting the meat. Controlling feral swine is damage management, not hunting, with a different set of ethical expectations. Although many landowners will have a great dislike of feral swine, feral swine should still be treated as humanely as possible. Removing feral swine takes time and a bit of effort. Being patient and taking your time for a problem will go a long way towards efficiently removing feral swine. All too often, landowners want to jump right into catching pigs, which is generally not difficult to do. However, catching feral swine in your area may take some time and dedicated effort. Remember, the goal is to remove as many feral swine as you can, as cost and time effectively as you can. Although this training module covered a significant amount of material and management of feral swine, it was not possible to cover everything. So for additional information, refer to the Landowners Guide to Wild Pig Management available for free online by visiting www.aces.edu. Additionally, there are several how-to videos available on the Alabama Cooperative Extension System YouTube channel. You can search online using the words Aces Wild Pig. The Alabama Wildlife and Freshwater Fisheries is another great source for information regarding legal means for removing feral swine.