USDA Testing Sodium Nitrite as Pig Poison

Ever since the white man made his first footprints on North America he's been bringing little pieces of Europe with him. Some good, others... not so much. Take the case of the feral hog population in the south. It was a pain to keep bringing pigs on their long journeys across the Atlantic when they originally settled here, so they turned them loose to do their best and prosper across the new land so there would be fresh pork for all. But little did they know that by that one particular oversight, they'd be costing America over 1.5 billion dollars a year (800 million of that is direct damage to farms & crops) in losses. (And that's a conservative estimate).  

Some fa(s)t facts about feral pigs:

She shot this hog with a thermal scope from www.x20.org

- a hog will eat 5 times as much as a deer of the same size (an average deer of 150-200lbs)
- a feral pig can weigh up to 250lbs or more
- a female can breed twice a year & have up to 15 piglets per litter
- a sounder (group of 20 or more pigs) can destroy 10 acres of crops in less than a week

That being said, most states don't have any limits on how many baconators you can bag a day, but it varies from state to state, and being that bacon is in high demand now, hog hunting is a no brainer to help control the population. But while hunting and trapping are the best old fashioned way of dealing with the problem, others look towards science. And, oddly enough, a bacon related preservative may make for the demise of the feral hog population. Ironic, no? As I write this, the USDA is testing sodium nitrite as a poison to eradicate the species. It's already being used in Australia and New Zealand, so this looks promising as a solution. Beings they're spending 1.5 million on the study at Ft. Collins, I however feel that bullets are still a cheaper solution.

Plus, you get to stay up past your bedtime, play with thermal scopes and eat bacon for breakfast.. so there's that.

Happy hog hunting!