Delivery System For Feral Hog Bait Still Garnering Intense Research At LSU

Dr. Glen Gentry at the Idlewild Research Station is using funding from the Louisiana Soybean, Grain Research and Promotion Board to find ways of controlling feral swine. But he points out a delivery system is still a way off.

The latest research is centered around a machine that connects via cellular signals much like traps work. “When the camera senses movement it sends a picture,” says Gentry. “Usually it’s set up around a corn feeder or wildlife feeder of some sort, some kind of bait source.”

“When you see pigs you can then send a signal to the delivery system via cell phone and it will release bait on the ground,” according to Gentry. “When we ran performance trials the pigs preferred the baits to whole shell corn. They typically will leave the whole shell corn and eat the bait and then return and eat the whole shell corn.”

Researchers are also looking at some other options with the Louisiana Department of Wildlife and Fisheries that may work in the long run “because we know pigs aren’t always where you can get a cell signal. So that makes it a little challenging.”