<p>Farmers across Georgia are struggling to deal with wild hogs that eat up their crops, threaten endangered animals and spread disease.</p><p>From Texas to Florida, the feral pigs are eating anything they can find, from turtle eggs to garbage to the carcasses of other animals. They have even been known to eat each other. And their numbers are growing.</p><p>In Screven County, Bobby Smith Jr. said the hogs used to only come into this fields periodically. Now, he says they are everywhere and that farmers and hunters can't keep their numbers under control.</p><p>"They are just constantly walking and eating and rooting," Smith said.</p><p>Steve Ditchkoff, an associate professor of wildlife at Auburn University, calls wild hogs "one of the greatest ecological threats to the United States ... and right now, we have no way to control them."</p><p>Ditchkoff is organizing the 2006 National Conference on Wild Pigs, to be held in Mobile, Ala., this May. About 200 wildlife biologists and others are expected to come from across the country to talk about the spread of wild hogs.</p><p>In Georgia, the hog population is concentrated on the coast, where they were first brought in by European explorers in the 1500s, and along the streams and swamps of south and central Georgia.</p><p>Retired state wildlife biologist Kent Kammermeyer, who has long studied wild hogs and is now a private consultant, said wild hogs are smart and hide to avoid hunters, often only eating at night. The state should ease hunting regulations on public land, he said.</p><p>"You might see a group of 10 out there in the woods and you might shoot one, but those other nine are educated in what to do next time around, and they can get really, really shy and really difficult to hunt," Kammermeyer said.</p><p>Farmers also worry about the wild hogs spreading diseases to their domestic animals. Both pseudorabies and swine brucellosis have been found in Georgia hogs.</p><p>Because wild hogs are not native to Georgia, rules for hunting them are looser than for other animals.</p><p>Last year, to help control their numbers, the state began offering special permits that allow hog hunters to use spotlights at night, shoot them from the trucks and lure them with bait.</p><p>But only about 300 of the special permits have been issued, some to the same person, according to the state Department of Natural Resources. The majority of the permits went to landowners and hunting clubs in southwest and central west Georgia.</p><p>But even with intense hunting, the animal is unlikely to ever be wiped out.</p><p>"Eradication may never be possible," Ditchkoff said. "Take a look at kudzu."</p><p>Wild pigs tend to look much like domesticated pigs, though they can have more hair, and they are generally leaner. The males have tusks, which they use if cornered.</p><p>"A wild hog is not scared of you," Smith said. "They'll fight."</p><p>Smith said he and his sons could easily kill 70 to 80 in a winter season. They eat a lot of the them, usually making sausage.</p><p>But Smith, a tall and broad man, said he will not get close to a wild hog without a gun or bow and arrow. He said trapping wild hogs is safer than stalking them because the animals will charge.</p><p>His advice to hunters: "Aim for the head, or they will come at you."</p><p>Meanwhile, his advice to other farmers and the state wildlife officials is to kill as many of them as quickly as possible.</p><p>___</p><p>HASH(0x1cde2b4)</p>
