Feral hogs are tearing up Mesquite yards, costing homeowners thousands. The city is partnering with the state as experts warn the population is hard to control.<\/p>\n
MESQUITE, Texas \u2014 What neighbors describe as a quiet, peaceful neighborhood in Mesquite has turned into a nightly battleground for some residents, as feral hogs tear through yards and leave behind costly damage.<\/p>\n
Ted Faulkner has lived in the Falcon Lair neighborhood for 17 years. Recently, he says, the destruction has become impossible to ignore.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s as though they are working for an excavation company,\u201d Faulkner said.<\/p>\n
Home surveillance video shows the animals roaming through yards at night \u2014 some fully grown, others just piglets \u2014 moving in groups and leaving behind deep hoof prints and torn-up grass.<\/p>\n
Neighbors say the hogs appear to enter from a nearby wooded area, using it as a shelter before spreading into surrounding properties.<\/p>\n
Grady Chandler, who lives by the wooded area, says his entire front yard has been destroyed.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cThousands of dollars of grass,\u201d Chandler said. \u201cAnd yes, it\u2019s going to be expensive.\u201d<\/p>\n
The damage isn\u2019t limited to private property. City officials say the hogs have also impacted public land, including an area designated as a park pavilion.<\/p>\n
Maria Martinez, Neighborhood Service Director with the City of Mesquite, says the city does not have the resources to manage the feral hog population. Instead, it is working with Texas Parks and Wildlife to remove the animals.\u00a0<\/p>\n
“They gave us a wildlife biologist,” Martinez said. “It’s not an easy process. These are pretty smart animals.”<\/p>\n
In the meantime, Martinez is urging residents to take preventative steps, including treating lawns for grub worms \u2014 a major food source that attracts feral hogs.<\/p>\n
According to Texas Parks and Wildlife, the problem is difficult to control. The feral hog population can grow by about 20 percent each year. In Texas, it’s estimated that nearly 70% of the population would need to be removed annually just to keep numbers from increasing, but current efforts only reach about 30%.<\/p>\n
As development continues across North Texas, natural habitats are shrinking, pushing hogs into residential areas in search of food.<\/p>\n
\u201cI feel bad that they have nowhere to go,\u201d Faulkner said.<\/p>\n
Still, he and his neighbors are concerned about safety.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt can be very dangerous if those hogs feel threatened,\u201d he said. \u201cWe don\u2019t need to wait until a fatality occurs.\u201d<\/p>\n
For now, residents are left weighing the cost of repairs against the uncertainty of when \u2014 or if \u2014 the problem will be resolved.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Feral hogs are tearing up Mesquite yards, costing homeowners thousands. The city is partnering with the state as…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":578918,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[51],"tags":[79,201],"class_list":["post-578917","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-wildlife","tag-science","tag-wildlife"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/578917","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=578917"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/578917\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/578918"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=578917"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=578917"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=578917"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}