Oh my zackey, I'm glad the momma hog didn't charge you! If they think their babies are in danger, they will charge in a heartbeat. I had 5 of them just chillin' under the shade trees and hanging out in my front yard 2 years back. I was afraid to go out the house and walk down my long driveway to get my mail. Yep, I'm a chicken. LOL This post was edited by GeorgiaStreak on Mon, Apr 7, 14 at 4:25

scott123456, Yeah, I hate losing 'maters to critters, but like I said before, get a roll of 6" remesh, and bend a column of the desired diameter, and cover it with chicken wire. It comes in 5'X150' rolls, and for a 42" diameter column, it takes a piece 11' long. The rolls are 150' long, so you'll have plenty. As far as cross bows go, they will do the job on squirrels, and feral hogs...or anything else. My compound bow will shoot completely through a hog or a deer, but when miss, you destroy an arrow or put a hole in something you don't want to. X-bows generally have speeds over 350 FPS. The biggest problem I have is the damn squirrels chewing holes in my drip lines during the summer. Now, I just put'em inside PVC or route the 1/2" inside the cages. Live and learn, live and let live...

There are traps that work quite well with feral hogs. If your are in the city limits you cannot shoot them, so traps are your only choice for do it yourself options. The city may have a destructive pest control program, so I would give them a call first. If they come around often, poison is an option, although you run the risk of killing other animals. But in all truth, feral hogs are on the rise and are only going to get worse. It is a losing battle in the end. They have been trying to eradicate the feral hog in Israel for thousands of years and they are still there. Pigs are one of the smartest and most versatile animals in the world. But hey, they taste good. So if the economy crashes, you have food in your front yard! Might not be such a bad thing.

We have had hogs at the Quitman Arboretum for years, but this year they came in around Labor day, settled in, and destroyed almost every bed we've built over the past 10 years. From footage on the game camera, we saw there were 3 boars that came in from one direction, then a sounder of about 25 sows and babies that came in from another direction. The Arboretum is in city limits so no guns allowed. One of the firemen shot a boar with a bow, but neither the hunting nor the trap was having much impact. After months of fund-raising, we're putting a fence up across the back of the garden areas (not the whole 23 acres - we didn't raise that much) and will start with new paths and beds this year. I do think the hogs know where a good area is, and return - or the conditions that attracted them remain and attract them again. Our woods have a lot of food (tons of hickory) and our irrigation provides much-needed moisture in our dry summers.