How to Snare Wild Pigs

Josh Helcel: Wild pigs are an invasive species that threaten
agricultural production, water quality, nativespecies, and habitat. In Texas, legal methods
for controlling expanding wild pig populationsinclude the use of snares, and these relatively
simple devices can be used effectively incertain situations to capture wild pigs. Tracks
in a trail or path, muddy rub marks on trees,hair caught in a fence where wild pigs crawl
under, and wallows near watering holes areexamples of locations for setting snares.
A snare consists of a wire loop with a lockingdevice that tightens around the animal’s
body as it passes through the loop, and thereare two general uses for snares: foot snares
and neck snares. Common methods for settingneck snares for wild pigs include trail sets,
fence sets, and drag sets. Adam Henry: Today we’re out here on a ranch that’s
got some hog problems, and we’re settinga trail snare, or a variant of a trail snare.
We had a nice trail right here in front ofus; it’s coming through the cedar trees
– and looked like a good place to hang atrail snare. We started out with putting in
a support rod, so that we could have a placeto hang our snare. You got to have a good
foundation to hang a snare, and so we drovea rod in, added some support wire, clipped
it onto our snare right behind the lock sothat the lock could move freely and close
on the animal. The next thing we did is weadded some blocking material. We added a piece
of cedar, blocked down our trail, hada nice narrow spot right here – we added
a nice cedar stake and then some more blockingright here as well to funnel that animal into
this hole as they’re walking down the trailand not give them an option to take a different
path. We’ve tied off our extension, right over
here to one of these trees so that when theanimal is caught, he can pull on out and wrap
up underneath the tree and he doesn’t stayright on this trail. Other animals can come
up and down this trail as needed, and we cancontinue to rebuild this location and catch
as many hogs that want to come down . Obviously we are using a standard 1/8th inch
snare cable with a washer lock that does verygood for us and a very easy piece of
equipment to set. We’re going to set itabout like that, and hope the animal comes
in, gets his head in here and gets caught. Josh Helcel: The potential to capture non-target species
is one of the downsides of snaring, but unintendedcaptures can be minimized by a small amount
of prior research and knowledge of animalbehaviors. To reduce the chances of capturing
non-target species, a trail camera shouldbe used to monitor proposed snaring sites
prior to snaring. If you notice a high amountof non-target species using the area it is
recommended to find another location. It isalso recommended that you purchase a hunting
license, which is required for snaring furbearing animals.
Adam Henry: got a nice slide coming underneaththe fence, and we’re going to hang a snare.
We’ve already attached our swivel to thebottom wire, and we’ve wrapped a double
layer of 14 gauge tie wire around it and tightenedit down. We’re going to go ahead and hang
our snare using our snare clips, which arethese little clips right here we’ve made,
and we’re going to put oneright here by the swivel to support it. We’re
going to come out here behind the lock andput another one, and pinch the ends down tight,
and then right out here about half way out,in front of the lock, we’re going to put
the other clip and pinch it down. Now this clip out here allows the snare to
have tension on it – it keeps it up, letsthe animal come though and really get that
snare down around their neck before it pullsoff and comes down with the animal. Once he
pulls that snare , he’s got a lot of forcein it right here so that helps close the snare
and get a good secure catch on the animal,and then he’ll be caught right here when
you get back. Josh Helcel: Snares are inexpensive, and can be purchased
for between $2 and $4 dollars each. They requireminimum equipment for installation, and need
little maintenance. Snares are designed tocapture one wild pig at a time, but are a
one-time use item, and should be discardedafter capturing a wild pig. Unused snares
should be removed from the locations wherethey are no longer needed.
Adam Henry: In front of me is a log, we’re going touse it for a drag, and we have two ways to
hook it to our tab end here, and we can usea little bit longer extension – and basically
we’re just going to run that extension arounditself and get a slip knot on our log, and
then, we’re going to take our snare andput it through the loop end on there on our
extension and pull each other tight. Once we’ve got it on the log we can also
take a piece of tie wire and run it aroundthe log, and come through the open loop end
of our extension – and just give it a coupletwists so that in the event they get to pulling
real hard this end doesn’t open up and tearloose. It stays right in place. It’s not
going to hurt anything like that. You cancut the excess off if you want, you don’t
have to. In the middleallows the drag to pull perpendicular to the
direction of travel of the animal and hangup better in the brush. If we put it on one
end its liable to lay out straight parallelwith the direction of travel and it may not
hang up in the brush as the animal is running. If we’re going to use a, again, if we’re
going to use a drag we need to make sure thatwe’ve got at least 6 foot of cable, because
we want that drag to be flopping in the brushas the animal is running – we don’t want
it to track right along their body. If weused just this short tab end of the snare,
hooked on here, this drag may not actuallyhook up on anything. Josh Helcel: It is important to understand the laws concerningthe use of snares, and to keep a keep a detailed
record of snare locations so they can allbe checked daily. If the goal is to remove
an entire sounder of wild pigs, snares maybest be used when combined with other control
techniques including trapping, shooting, aerialgunning, and the use of trained dogs.
This has been an overview of the snaring process,including demonstrations of three common types
of neck snares for wild pigs. You can findmore information about wild pigs, their impacts,
and how to effectively reduce populationsat http://feralhogs. tamu. edu