WAFB
Researchers with LSU have developed a bait to battle wild pigs before they can cause too much damage to farmers’ crops.
The university said the pigs cause more than $90 million in damage to Louisiana farms every year and pose a growing threat to the environment. There are more invasive pigs than there are people living in Baton Rouge, New Orleans, and Shreveport combined, LSU said.
The patent-pending bait is chewy, golf-ball-sized, and something that pigs love to eat, researchers said. They added the bait makes the animals fall asleep.
“As a chemist, I’m quite proud that we’re able to simplify and solve a problem using general chemistry to help the citizens of the state,” said John Pojman, a chemistry professor at LSU. “A great advantage of being a land-grant university is that we have both an agriculture college and a chemistry department with complementary expertise to tackle real and pressing problems.”